[Avodah] ethics outside of Torah

[Micha Berger]

On Tue, Jun 29, 2010 at 07:52:02PM -0400, David Riceman wrote:
>> This is the Shoel uMeishiv's position (see 1:44). He holds that (1)
>> there is ownership of ideas because of common morality, and (2) that
>> barring a qinyan, that ownership is eternal, as halakhah recognizes
>> eternal baalus...

> I'm puzzled by this (perhaps some lawyer on the list will correct me if  
> I'm wrong).  AIUI copyright applies not to ideas, but to their  
> expression...

If his argument were more about the law itself, you would need a lawyer
with an expertise in early to mid 19th cent CE Galician or Polish law.
But I don't think that's his point. More that the law shows a general
moral tendency to respect the desires of the author. This is why it's
not just a case of DDD -- it's about a moral right identified by general
society that is reflected in the law, not the law itself.

Which is how I thought of the SuM in the context of the original topic
of this thread, as per the subject line, about the relationship between
halakhah and our natural built-in sense of morality.

Actually, the thrust of the teshuvah is about a time- (or country-)
limited reservation of rights, which the SuM takes to mean the willing
relinquishment of a right after the stated time that the author would
otherwise hold into perpetuity. And then when can we assume that the
author would have wanted the republishing of his book once it is out
of print. The text is available at
<http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=1422&st=&pgnum=35>.

-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Zion will be redeemed through justice,
micha at aishdas.org        and her returnees, through righteousness.
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