Hello, for what it's worth, you may plagiarize from here:

        IMHO, computer-related issues that involve an ethical dilemma are
   worthy of discussion among laymen and computer specialists alike.
   Particularly such discussions among computer-related specialists should
   be
   pursued because computer applications are almost ubiquitous in our
   urban
   lives (and will continue to pervade our environment, even as part of
   our
   clothes, and our very bodies.) So yeah ethics should be important for
   computer specialists, students and teachers.

        Another field that has dropped its interest in the ethical
   questions
   arising from its practice, ie, the mass media, has reached untold lows
   in
   its complete disregard for any responsible behavior towards its end
   users.

   We don't want to see this happen in the field of computer science and
   its
   applications. At worst, these ethical discussions can't hurt.

        Now regarding the question of downloads, I've missed the thread,
   but I
   wish to express that the intellectual property issue is mostly a hoax,
   and a
   falacious concept that serves only to maximize the profits of the
   entertainment industries.

        Many aesthetes and philosophers (Popper, Foucault, Barthes, Jung,
   Althussere &c.) have pointed out that ideas (which translate into
   popular
   culture) arise from clichés, archetypes and memes that are shared
   throughout
   our culture, and have been circulating and roaming around our
   collective
   cultural consciousness for centuries. These ideas are simply the
   recycled
   riffs, proverbs, motifs, themes, folk tales and poetry, melodies, hopes
   and
   fear, and indeed the entirety of human experience since the beginning
   of
   history.

        Moreover, I also would like to note that once you issue a song or
   a
   poem, it is no longer yours. It is released into popular consciousness.

        The notion of royalties is laughable really.

        As to the ethics of intellectual property, well it is again my
   personal
   opinion that popular artists are overrated, their wages are overrated
   (especially now that art and culture have been on the decline in
   quality for
   over two decades,) and the videos, books, dvds, and cds are overpriced
   by
   the entertainment industry.

        I believe that true artists do wish that their art be shared by
   all,
   and for free. A musician's living would be more rightfully earned from
   live
   gigs, session work wages, contracts with distributors etc. But this
   concept
   of royalties is a cheat at best.

        Having said all this, I encourage others to use Napster (while it
   is
   still free,) and to use Gnutella when Napster caves in to corporate
   lustre.

   ----- Original Message -----

   From: [1]Carskadden, Rush

   To: [2]cypherpunks@toad.com

   Sent: Monday, December 04, 2000 6:44 PM

   Subject: RE: persuasive speeches

     How about a business case for relaxing intellectual property
     regulations? If you could put together a good persuasive speech on
     that one, I would like to see it. Or you could do a persuasive
     speech on the economic advantages of more lenient cryptographic
     export restrictions.

     Or you could do what I did when I had that project in school (and
     this is my personal recommendation) - blow off class to go hang out
     in the gallery of the House, get there and remember it's tourist
     season and they are rotating people through in five minute
     intervals, and decide to go downtown and get drunk. I then had to
     deliver a persuasive speech the next day on why it was more
     important to skip class and get drunk than to do assignments, which
     didn't impress anyone and earned me a failure on the assignment.

     Or you could subscribe to the speech writing mailing list (I'm sure
     there is one) and ask them.

     -----Original Message-----
     From: Lockinator21@aol.com [[3]mailto:Lockinator21@aol.com]
     Sent: Monday, December 04, 2000 4:51 PM
     To: cypherpunks@toad.com
     Cc: pitbull32@excite.com
     Subject: persuasive speeches

     I can't think of a persuasive speech topic; can you think of one?

References

   1. mailto:carskar@netsolve.net
   2. mailto:cypherpunks@toad.com
   3. mailto:Lockinator21@aol.com