From: mss1@cornell.edu (Michael S. Shappe)
>That's OK...I'm having a hard time understanding YOUR point of view. Why
>should I let a stranger make money off of MY work? That simple. My work, my
>profit, or choice to NOT profit from it.
Okay, I'll try to explain where I'm coming from. But first, I'd like
to point out that you have evaded my question; all you did was restate
it with a negative thrown in, and then you said "my work, my profit,
or choice to NOT profit from it". This says nothing about the
stranger's profits, but nevertheless you do care about the stranger's
profits. Why?
I care about my own well-being, and to a lesser extent, the well-being
of strangers, such as this spaghetti publishers and their potential
customers. I suppose the spaghetti publishers intend to typeset your
FAQ and those of others, put a binder on it, and sell it in
bookstores. If I put myself in your situation, I see two choices:
a) I permit this. Then I get nothing, the spaghetti publishers get
some money, and some customers get my FAQ in a book. I break even,
the spaghetti publishers win, and the customers win (assuming they
made an intelligent choice when buying the book).
b) I don't permit this. Then I get nothing, the spaghetti publishers
get less money, and some customers get a book not containing my FAQ.
I break even, the spaghetti publishers lose compared to option a, and
the customers lose compared to option a.
Because I care a little bit about the well-being of the publishers and
their customers, I prefer a to b. If I were a pure egoist, I would be
indifferent to the choice between a and b; since you strongly prefer
b, egoism does not explain your position. (Is this painfully obvious?)
Here's what has happened so far in the conversation: I asked a
question, you evaded by replying with a question, and I answered your
question. Are you going to try to answer my question now? If you
won't, then I will resign from the conversation. My question is at
the beginning of this message.
Tim
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