An anonymous reader writes "(Via Glyn Moody) James Boyle has a blog post comparing the recording industry's arguments in 1909 to those of 2009. http://www.thepublicdomain.org/2009/07/17/were-we-smarter-100-years-ago/ with some lovely Google book links to the originals.
Favorite quote: "Many and numerous classes of public benefactors continue ceaselessly to pour forth their flood of useful ideas, adding to the common stock of knowledge. No one regards it as immoral or unethical to use these ideas and their authors do not suffer themselves to be paraded by sordid interests before legislative committees uttering bombastic speeches about their rights and representing themselves as the objects of "theft" and "piracy." Industry flaks were more impressive 100 years ago. Also check out the cameo appearance by John Philip Sousa, comparing sounds recordings to slavery. [Ironically, among the subjects mentioned as *clearly* not the subject of property rights are business methods and seed varieties.]" Link to Original Source
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