[d@DCC] Creativity and cultural policy (Was: Re: [CPI-UA] Cross

[Kristofer Coward]

On Thu, Apr 08, 2004 at 04:45:35PM -0400, mskala at ansuz.sooke.bc.ca wrote:
> I see a difference here in that I'm talking about the definition of the
> word in common language rather than in law.  The law is full of unexpected
> definitions of terms whose meanings we think we know.  For instance, the
> UN Space Treaty defines the Moon in such a way as to include the entire
> universe except for the Earth; and the Canadian child pornography law
> defines a lot of material that most of us would consider perfectly
> innocuous, to be "child pornography, but legal to possess" - instead of
> defining it to be "not child pornography at all".

Heh.. that reminds me that I have viewed child pornography, and even
had sex with the subject of the child pornigraphy that I viewed. Of
course, I was 15 at the time, and she was 16, so it was one of them
allowable cases. I'll have to remember to include that on my list of
fnords that I've been and done (or that I am and do).

> However, those kinds of weird definitions can usually be limited to the
> technical context where everyone knows what they mean.  What's happening
> to "download" is more like what happened to "hacker" - a term that had a
> specific meaning within the technical culture, is having its meaning
> changed as it becomes widely used outside the technical culture.  Now when
> I want to use the words "download" or "hacker" in their technical senses,
> I have to carefully gauge my audience, and insert a definition if it seems
> likely I might be misunderstood.  The change in meaning is especially a
> problem because we don't have good, easy alternative words for the
> original meanings of those words; and the new meanings come with built-in
> value judgments that make their use in a rational discussion difficult.

The idea that "download" is getting damaged the same way as "hacker" is
upsetting. Reversing this trend does seem rather difficult.

-- 
Kristofer Coward				http://unripe.melon.org/
GPG Fingerprint: 2BF3 957D 310A FEEC 4733  830E 21A4 05C7 1FEB 12B3
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