Medieval Copy Protection 226
An anonymous reader writes "In medieval times a 'book curse' was often included on the inside cover or on the last leaf of a manuscripts, warning away anyone who might do the book some harm. Here's a particularly pretty one from Yale's Beinecke MS 214: 'In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen. In the one thousand two hundred twenty-ninth year from the incarnation of our Lord, Peter, of all monks the least significant, gave this book to the [Benedictine monastery of the] most blessed martyr, St. Quentin. If anyone should steal it, let him know that on the Day of Judgment the most sainted martyr himself will be the accuser against him before the face of our Lord Jesus Christ.'"
That's not copy protection (Score:5, Insightful)
That's theft protection. Copyright infringement != theft, remember?
Re:That's not copy protection (Score:5, Funny)
Slashdot: where we don't bother reading the summary, let alone the article, when writing the headline.
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is this supposed to be your first step? If so, posting on slashdot doesn't count on abandoning it.
Re:That's not copy protection (Score:5, Insightful)
Precisely.
The need to curse thieves of expensive hand-written Bibles disappeared when the printing press appeared, and Bibles became as plentiful as leaves to wipe your arse. Then nobody cared if you took it from the church (it was easily replaced). Some even started giving bibles away, in order to educate the masses. And of course the bible is not and never has been copy-protected.
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Even with St. Quentin as the Plaintiff and Jesus Christ as the Judge - I think if I had a better lawyer I could still win.
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I thought there were no lawyers allowed in heaven by definition?
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There are no lawyers in heaven, but there are some actors who have played lawyers on TV.
As if the curse did any good (Score:2)
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I suspect the literacy rate among people who would be inclined to steal books was pretty high.
Because all of our modern-day jewel thieves go around adorned like Mr. T? You steal something, not because it is valuable to you, but because it is valuable to someone.
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However I've once heard about some valuable illustrated bible in medieval Ireland, of which a monk from another monastery (or maybe it were several, quite probably, I'd say) made (by hand, of course) an exact copy (as exact as copies could be made that way). The monastery who owned the original version didn't like that and wanted the copy to be destroyed. They asked the pope, and the pope indeed ordered that the copy was to be destroyed.
Unfortunately I can't verify that story or give further details (I tri
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And of course the bible is not and never has been copy-protected.
is that because you cannot copyright a fact?
*ducks*
(hopefully the above comment will be seen for the humor intended)
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This is basic Church history learn it love it then leave it.
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Human steak, mmm :)
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Legally, there is crown copyright to some bible texts in the U.K. at least. There, you can't freely copy King James bible IIRC. I know, it's ridiculous.
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Yes: Red letter bibles and door-to-door salesmen
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Well, you *could* - Thomas Jefferson had his own version with a lot removed (1), and others have added to it (2) - but there is a warning toward the end of Revelation (the last book in the Bible) which applies at the very least to that book itself: "I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tre
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A careful reading of the language shows that it is a caution against changing specifically the words of the book of prop
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Can you fork it? Can you modify it? Can you sell it?
Nope, you can walk into any bookstore and get the original untranslated version, and only that, for free. There aren't any other versions allowed and nobody ever sells it.
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I always thought that a good form of copy protection for pdf ebooks would be to have an automated system take your credit card number, verify it, and embed it on every page of the pdf. Then I don't have to worry about you spreading the file. You get to do the policing for me, because you sure as hell don't want that number getting out into the wild. If I find a copy on P2P, then I'll know exactly who to look up in my database. See, simple.
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So, obviously, modifying the pdf file to remove the watermark is impossible. You win, truly.
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Thats because it wasn't considered theft until this technology came about.
I imagine if you approached Shakespeare and told him that his plays could be shown across the entire planet without any extra effort on his part - he would be thrilled.
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
FBI warning (Score:5, Funny)
Re:FBI warning (Score:4, Funny)
They should use warning from The IT Crowd.
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Heck, those throughout the world, downloading the stuff, apparently also often have the opportunity of sitting through that warning...
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Well, in Germany I don't (with pressed DVDs). I've once selected English language directly when starting a several-language DVD, so I know the spot this is about. But it's easy to avoid even if I want to see the DVD in English, by simply selecting German initially and then switching to English as soon as the main menu appears. I've then tried other languages on that DVD as well, but IIRC the German version was the only one without the spot (one language, I don't remember which, did use a different spot, how
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You can actually stand the dubbing? ;p
Re:FBI warning (Score:5, Funny)
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That damned FBI warning, plus all the "nope, you can't skip these ads" crap, is half of the reason why I rip almost all my DVD's, stick them on the file/mediaserver, and then play them through my PS/3's media client functionality. Obviously, I _don't_ rip anything but the main movie track, no more having to sit through 8 freaking ads just so my kid can watch her Thomas movie.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d82Lq2rVB_4 [youtube.com]
Possible political dig at the end...a US FBI agent assasinating a movie downloader on foreign soil?
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I don't mind the official FBI warning, but the one they slap on after words to make it seem legit pisses me off.
Actually waht pisses me off is not being able to skip them; which is stupid beyond recognition.
Equally Effective (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Equally Effective (Score:4, Insightful)
It has actually grown less effective, seeing as how so many people know how to write nowadays.
If it were up to the copyright lobby, owning a pen would be punishable by fines. :P
Re:Equally Effective (Score:4, Insightful)
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Truly evil I tell you. The whole thing was shot down by the press and the people.
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I see that the effectiveness of DRM hasn't changed in 800 years.
Medieval books were often chained in place.
I can't imagine it would have been patricularly healthy to cross the fuedal lord who commisioned a uniquely bound and decorated Book of Hours.
Anti-theft device, not copy protection (Score:4, Funny)
I think it would be pretty kick-ass to have some Saint materialize and lay on some whup-ass to would be thieves.
*gasp* THE BISHOP!
actually (Score:2)
there was a medieval book called "SaintRoulette" that had this feature but it didn't work out too well. The Saint materialized, but all he did was hold up a sign that said "tits or gtfo"
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*gasp* THE BISHOP!
[enter Michael Palin]
Thank you, thank you everybody. You're too kind. <cheesy smile>
What do you call a nun who walks in her sleep? <cheesy smile> A Roamin' Catholic. Ha ha ha, wasn't that just grand? <cheesy smile>
And now, on with the show! <cheesy smile>
Today we have three contestants. <cheesy smile> Tim, Edward, and Susan. <cheesy smile>
Tim is an accountant by day, but at night he illegally bittorents films and sells them to his friends. <cheesy smile>
Edward is in
No wonder (Score:5, Funny)
No wonder my crops failed and there was a rain of toads on the farm after I downloaded "Superman III".
Re:No wonder (Score:4, Insightful)
That was because God withdrew his protection from you for the abomination of wanting to watch Superman III. Everyone knows that only the first two Christopher Reeve films were any good.
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That was because God withdrew his protection from you for the abomination of wanting to watch Superman III. Everyone knows that only the first two Christopher Reeve films were any good.
That also depends on your definition of "good." They are entertaining, but during the first movie I can't get past the fact that Superman isn't fast enough to catch the two missiles while in the very same movie he starts flying so fast he goes back in time. In the second movie, the "wtf" moment is the entire final scene against the other Kryptonians at the fortress of solitude. What the hell was up with the throwing of the uniform insignia?
That said, they had good, quotable parts. The first movie had, "
Re:No wonder (Score:4, Insightful)
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And it had a much smaller plot hole the Citizen Kane.
He died alone, no one could have heard him say rosebud.
Famously.... (Score:5, Interesting)
The Book of Revelation ends like this:
Not copy-protection, but an "invariant section" definition as in the GFDL [debian.org]. The translation is medieval, but the original and therefore clearly the practice is much older. Since there was no government-provided copyright law with which to enforce this, threatening eternal damnation is pretty much the only resort available. (Right?)
(Sidenote: of course, this was written before that book was commonly bound into a single-volume manuscript, but that doesn't stop people from assuming that they were meant to apply to the entire bible in its current form.)
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threatening eternal damnation is pretty much the only resort available. (Right?)
When I was in high school (very traditional high school — we learned Latin) in 19humtpyhum, smart-ass kids would write curses into their schoolbooks Illicitly: the books belonged to the school, not them). One in wide use was:
Hic liber est meus
Testis est Deus
Si quis furetur
Per collum pendetur
(This book is mine / As God is my witness / If anyone steals it / Let him be hanged by the neck.) I later saw it printed in a book about education, so doubtless it was, umm, "borrowed" without the author's knowledg
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I went to a similar school.
I drew obscene flip cartoons on the edges of my Latin texts. (which I bought)
They refused to buy them back, so I burnt them with great ceremony and some incorrect Latin curses on any who try to teach me Latin.
Sophomore Latin is where I was first identified as the 'Anti-Christ'.
A Jesuit would know if anybody would.
Imagine that. (Score:2, Flamebait)
Re:Imagine that. (Score:4, Interesting)
Say it ain't so! :(
Actually, most good books [sic] in the middle ages were chained to the library shelves, curse or no. It wasn't until the invention of the printing press that books became "unchained" and eventually so ubiquitous that hardcovers became "special" and paperbacks were the order of the day. Personally, just like the music and films I give away to my friends and family, I like to lend out books to interested peoples. Even printed information wants to be free. Bringth me your 100GB+ drive, good sir, and I'll shall layeth upon thine disk drive with mighty hands and bequeath to thee an generous sum of iPod movies and MP3s!!1! Go forth, verily and spread thy good datas, friend! Purchase some, share more.
Holy Cow (Score:4, Funny)
That is the longest password I've ever seen.
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Password not excepted, please use numbers.
'in The.. screw it: Password1
WRONG (Score:3, Insightful)
How many times do we have to explain that copying something is different than stealing something?
It is incredibly *dangerous* to our culture to have the vernacular polluted in a way that equates a criminal deed to a legally mandated civil disregard.
The title of this article should be changed.
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Sure, but who would click on an article entitled 'Medieval Anti-Theft Psych-Out Technique'?
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Again, WRONG.
Theft is depriving someone of their property, preventing its use. Copying does not deprive the original owner of their property or its use.
Theft is naturally unethical (e.g. stealing another animal's food - possibly depriving it of life). Copying is naturally ethical (e.g. most of nature copies copiously, and thrives off of it - ever heard of DNA?).
Modern humans just happened to decide to provide an *artificial* monopoly of law (an unnatural construct) that allows someone to specify who can cop
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Except there is no "taking".
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Your argument boils down to "I'm right and you're a doo-doo-head". Were you captain of the debate club?
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Tell me again what ethics is, outside of being just another set of memes bred to allow the hosts to survive better in groups?
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And It Was probably (Score:2)
immediately burn all copies of this book (Score:2)
I believe that all copies of this book must be immediately destroyed because this was the wish of the original authors.
Copy protection? (Score:2)
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Reads more like a theft deterrent than copy protection.
Exactly. Back then there was no such concept. Copyright emerged as a way of motivating and rewarding authors whose work was, as it had always been, destined for the public domain. It's a limited monopoly, and once that emerges, so does the issue of protecting that monopoly.
scientology copyrights their religious scripture (Score:3, Insightful)
naive impressionable fools shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars and years of their lives... to find out the next exciting chapter in the riveting saga of xenu and the thetans
if these people knew up front that they were sacrificing all of their money and years of their lives for bad science fiction, they wouldn't join the stupid cult
whenever someone leaks their nonsense, they try to sue the leaker into oblivion and insist on erasing the treasured revelations from any appearance outside the cult
including yours truly here, slashdot:
http://slashdot.org/yro/01/03/16/1256226.shtml [slashdot.org]
the tactics of scientology, and medieval monks, are a cautionary tale. they actually represent the end game of intellectual property: i control all the information, so i control you, you are my slave. corporations don't call it a religion, but they do the same tactics, with the same end game, whether they realize it or not. relentlessly, they buy off our legislators, and convince them to pass yet stricter and stricter controls on the flow of information
for the sake of all of the noble principles that have arisen out of the enlightenment and so many of us cherish so dearly, and have been codified into such things as the constitution and the declaration of independence, you must do your best in your life to sabotage and destroy the effectiveness of intellectual property. intellectual property is a flawed philosophical premise, but its enforcement works because it creates flows of money, that create power bases, that can be invested in further toll booths on the flow of information, until the whole thing is jammed up, strangled, and controlled. the only antidote is enough of us realizing the threat, and sabotaging it. the idea of fighting intellectual property is actually the fight for the continues enjoyment of our freedoms, ultimately, this is the crux of the clash
and we can do that, with the internet
intellectual property is the ultimate enemy of the freedoms you enjoy and cherish. the internet is the greatest thing since the printing press to challenge the notion. it's a long, ongoing struggle, pitting the highest principles of mankind, versus the lowest, basest forms of control over your life, for the sake of cash. but if you don't wish you or your children to be slaves to corporations, you will do your best to make intellectual property law unenforceable on the internet. it won't be easy, it won't be done in a day, but its one of the most important struggles of our lives, involving the highest principles you believe in
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Up your Colophon (Score:4, Interesting)
Medieval scribes wrote book curses in the "colophon" at the end of the book; here are two favorites:
Whoever steals this book let him die the death; let him be frizzled in a pan; may the falling sickness rage within him; may he be broken on the wheel and be hanged.
For him that stealeth, or borroweth and returneth not, ... let it change into a serpent in his hand and rend him. Let him be struck with palsy, and all his members blasted. Let him languish in pain crying out for mercy, & let there be no surcease until he sing in dissolution. Let bookworms gnaw his entrails. ... Let the flames of Hell consume him forever.
— San Pedro monastery, Barcelona
... and one a bit older (from Asurbanipal's library in Assyria 650 BCE):
Clay tablet of Ashurbanipal, King of the World, King of Assyria, who trusts in Ashur and Ninlil. Your lordship is without equal, Ashur, King of the Gods! Whoever removes [this tablet], writes his name in place of my name, may Ashur and Ninlil, angered and grim, cast him down, erase his name, his seed, in the land.
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Re:::facepalm:: (Score:4, Interesting)
Not steal. It doesn't forbid copying the bible into your own personal notebook. "If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself. But the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it.
"Its peculiar character, too, is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it. He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine...
"That ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature. Inventions then cannot, in nature, be a subject of property." - Thomas Jefferson
Therefore:
While I can claim ownership of this bible, and label you a "thief" if you steal it (because I have been deprived of use of the computer), I have NO natural right to claim ownership of the ideas contained within. Your copying of text deprives me of nothing. I still possess knowledge.
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Yet someone stole that and wrote it down in a little book called the Bible. Perhaps he should have included some DRM on his tablets...
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The first version was written on papyrus, but someone walked off with it.
Are you sure...? (Score:2)
Here's the relevant chapter [biblegateway.com].
Can you point us to the line where it says "Thou shalt not steal"....?
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About 14 verses back.
*point* [biblegateway.com]
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Chapters I mean, derr.
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I don't see where it says those are the Ten Commandments.
The only place in the Bible where it says "the Ten Commandments" is Exodus 24:38.
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...should of course say "Exodus 34:28".
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When I read that though - it doesn't clearly state that those are the ten commandments either, in fact the link you posted starts
"The LORD said to Moses, "Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke"
which is to say, the original 10 commandments.
And either way, when I read the rest of the passage, I don't see how the rest of what is said is part of the 10 commandments, it sounds like it is an entirely seperate covenant.
B
Re:::facepalm:: (Score:4, Funny)
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Some scholars believe that God's ultimate intention for that was to establish the need for a large, majestic container to store them in, and thus prepare the way for the eventual creation of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
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Oh, come now. Next thing you're going to say is that all religious rights, texts, and associated constructs... even the religions themselves are simply creations of man! What kind of crazy-talk is that?
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Certainly they couldn't be self-replicating memes, more interested in their own survival than that of their human hosts, sorta like money, countries, various -isms, and some really good cake recipes.
Re:Two actually (Score:4, Funny)
"Coveting your neighbor's goods is what keeps the economy going! Your neighbor gets a vibrator that plays 'O Come All Ye Faithful,' so you want to get one too." -George Carlin
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Yeah...because god, the creator and lord of all things, is going to enforce human laws.
Actually, yes, according to the Bible, breaking human laws is wrong, unless it contradicts God's law.
Romans 13:1
Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.
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To me, that passage says human law is a waste of time and an illusion, since only god's laws are the ones that truly matter...this part is what makes me interpret it that way:
"For there is no power but of God."
To me, that says human laws are inconsequential and mean nothing.
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I think what at least one interpretation is, is that it says that only Gods rules matter, but if someone is in the position to impose human laws then he must have the backing of god and therefore they are gods rules as well.
"the powers that be are ordained of God"
But then it is obviously not obvious what "the powers that be" are.
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And your stupid.
See Hebrews 11:13-16 - We are "strangers and pilgrims" in whatever land we happen to live. We must be obedient to the law of the land insofar as these laws do not contradict God's law.
I'm an Atheist, and I find believers ignorance regarding there own theology very funny..and sad because you alway spread your ignorance of your theology s if it's the truth and then try to force others to comply.
regardless to your belief, ignoring man's laws leads to anarchy.
I know I wont change your mind beca
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And your stupid.
Too easy of a target. I also love how you say I'm stupid because of my opinion. Thanks.
See Hebrews 11:13-16 - We are "strangers and pilgrims" in whatever land we happen to live. We must be obedient to the law of the land insofar as these laws do not contradict God's law.
True...if you follow those books as being "the word".
I'm an Atheist, and I find believers ignorance regarding there own theology very funny
I'd like to once again point out that you called me stupid...although I do agree with your statement about believers own ignorance regarding their religion.
.and sad because you alway spread your ignorance of your theology s if it's the truth and then try to force others to comply.
::pause button::
My theology? First of all, you don't know me, so you don't know what that theology is. Secondly, if you're an atheist, who the fuck are you to tell someone else what their religion says or means?
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I remember seeing a facsimile of a sign (probably to be displayed in libraries) that stated that if someone did steal a book from it, he would be excommunicated (as expulsed of the Church) and would not be allowed back until the book was restored. Quite a penalty in old days, but makes sense if you think of hand-copied books or even books from the first prints.
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You can tell it's a Sony Bible if opening it puts a rootkit in your soul.
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I thought that was a common functionality of all bibles?
Re:Slashdot's categories are broken. (Score:5, Informative)
I don't think I'd mind nearly as much if Idle's comments page wasn't so broken....
Agreed. Fortunately, there is a workaround: change the "idle" part of the hostname to some other word. Any story can be served from any subdomain; only the page layout changes. It doesn't even have to be a normal /. host; for example, here's this story in the asdf [slashdot.org] subdomain.
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You forget that it's also protection against the destruction of works. And it took ages for a copy of a book to be made, one page at a time. Especially since paper was almost worth it's weight in salt, and sometimes in shortage double it's weight in pepper.
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Actually, pepper was quite expensive back in the day. It was actually worth more than its weight in gold. That's why Cooke, Magellan, Drake, Columbus, et al were so keen to get to india. They could buy a hold-full of pepper for a few steel knives and some glass beads, and sell it for gold.