Xanthippa's Chamberpot

Each and every law, by-law and rule WILL eventually be stretched way beyond its intended purpose – so much so, its intended purpose may be completely obscured or even lost.  (I like to call that Xanthippa’s first law of human dynamics.)

And, it is to be expected – this is part of human nature.

As long as we are trying to just sort of get along, we talk and argue, win some and loose some, but, usually, over the long time, things usually even out.  Not all people are nice and fair – but, the vast majority of humans are at least somewhat empathetic and when they are ‘getting along’ with each other, one-on-one, most of the time, most people will be mostly fair.

That is how communities are built. And if there is one thing we, humans, do, it is building communities!

This all changes once we get ‘rules’ and ‘laws’ written down.

Why?

Because now, it is no longer about ‘getting along with other people’.  Now it is about ‘maximizing advantages’.

Being survivors,  we humans are excellent at ‘maximizing advantages’!

It’s one of our survivor skills – it’s one of the traits which makes us, humans, such a successful species.

Just as we are likely to be ‘fair’ when dealing with other individuals, we are certainly going to try our best to ‘maximize our advantage’ when dealing with ‘external circumstances’.

And make no mistakes about it:  once something is codified into a rule or a law, it becomes an abstract thing.  It is no longer about ‘getting along with another person’ – it becomes an external limiting factor to be defeated.  Deep within our psyches, these are very different concepts and it is not surprising that we do not treat them similarly.

(Just consider the changes in the ‘driving culture’ as towns in Europe are removing all traffic signs and signals – rule-based behaviour was replaced by social behaviour, leading to fewer accidents.)

This is why it is essential that before we make a rule or pass a law or by-law, we examine all possible ways it could be abused in – it is certain that, eventually,  it will be.

This includes  copyright laws.

Like traffic laws, copyright laws affect just about everyone – so it is important to get it right.

At ‘The Propagandist’, Walker Morrow points out how these poorly thought-out copyright laws are being abused by a predatory company, stifling the flow of information – all for a monetary gain.

If that weren’t enough, here is a piece by Thunderf00t about a Viacom, ordering its employees to go down to Kinkos to upload Viacom copyrighted videos onto YouTube – then suing YouTube for copyright violation…

Perhaps we need a to re-think our whole approach to copyright laws, like those towns in Europe changed their approach to traffic management!