Terms of Use
License and Agreement
![[Image: © Photo taken by author of a sunset at a lake. Intended for mood and backdrop only.]](../images/lake_sunset.jpg)
All materials—information, drawings, photographs, texts, etc., created and possessed by me and presented at this web site, are my property. I reserve all rights about how the physical tangible form of that material might be used by visitors—you.
The ideas and opinions expressed at this web site are freely distributable—the physical tangible arrangement that constitutes a writing, essay, photograph, or drawing is not freely distributable. The writings, essays, photographs, and drawings at this web site are available by license only. What does that mean?
Unless specifically declared otherwise:
- You enjoy the material provided by me at this web site much in the same manner as you would enter a personal library. You are invited to enter; allowed to look, read, and remember; and discuss with other people the ideas offered at this web site, but you cannot take, copy, or reproduce any material in any form without my explicit permission.
- Many items at this web site, including photographs, are marked explicitly with a copyright symbol (©). Except as explicitly defined otherwise, permission is hereby granted to copy and circulate such material only as long as (1) the reproduction is presented in its entirety, (2) all formatting is maintained, (3) the author is credited as the originator, (4) the reproduction is not used for profit, (5) the reproduction is not used by any legal fiction commonly known as a corporation or any other legal fiction such as a limited liability company, and (6) the author is notified of when and where the reproduction is used.
- Copyrighted photographs and drawings used at this web site may not be copied, reproduced, cached, stored, or linked.
Additionally:
- I reserve the right to revise or withdraw my material without notice.
- You do not require my permission to view any material I have posted at this web site.
- You may choose to view none of the material I have posted at this web site.
- If you find any of the material offensive, you are under no obligation to continue viewing or remain at this web site. Your presence at this web site is by your sole choice only, nobody is forcing or coercing you to stay and read what I wrote.
- You can laugh, cuss, cry, ridicule or snort at what I wrote. That’s part of being a self-determining individual.
- You can write your own commentary about why you laughed, cussed, cried, ridiculed or snorted. That’s part of being a self-determining individual.
- If you believe anything I wrote at this web site threatens you personally then contact me so we can reconcile your belief.
Good Faith Notice
I have no desire to impose restrictions upon using the ideas I have published here, but I want to protect the results of my labor and how you use my web site.
In a world of free association and voluntary exchange, contracts, agreements, licenses, and notices play a critical role in sustaining sanity and order in human interaction. This good faith notice represents my effort to promote such a world. Remember that you too participate in numerous exchanges of products derived from your labor and you want to be treated justly. I am asking you to help build a better world.
This good faith notice is not a contract and is not enforceable as a contract. You certainly can pretend to claim you never saw this notice, and I have no idea who you are. This notice is just a notice. I am attempting to deal with you in good faith. I am notifying you of the terms and limitations for how you can use my property.
I make no claim or appeal to any statist statutory concept of copyright. Instead I claim author’s rights to my material as expressed in this notice. Statutory copyrights are political privileges, whereas author’s rights are a component of free association and voluntary exchange. Some people will argue that the U.S. federal constitution and statutes have preempted common law copyrights. This would hold true only if one seeks protections under that political umbrella. That is, a person must consent to those protections to render them valid. The common law right to contract and negotiate will always precede any politically granted privileges.
This web site is not public or common property and I reserve the right to restrict or limit how you use my property. You are free to distribute and discuss the ideas I have presented here, but you are not free to distribute or duplicate the form in which they are presented except as explicitly defined.
Most of the material posted at this web site was created and derived from my personal labor. Some ideas contained in that material might be considered original, but ultimately all ideas are merely synthesized from the ideas of other people. When appropriate I credit other authors as a source for helping me derive my own ideas. Visitors are encouraged to develop their own ideas and improve upon the ideas presented at this web site.
Authors, artists, and inventors can claim originality for the results of their labor and ideas they create. Yet, because ideas exist solely between our ears, attempting to “own” an idea is nothing more than an attempt to own and control other individuals. Ideas and words are intangible—existing only in the conditional metaphysical world of our minds. Not being tangible and existing only in our mind means the originator of an idea solely possesses that idea until shared with others. Thereafter ideas are “owned” by everyone, but to be “owned” by everyone is to declare “owned” by nobody. Once shared no one individual can own an idea—regardless of how legalists try to twistify the concept.
Not so with physical, tangible objects. Regardless of form or substance—whether traditional hard copy or electronic soft copy—books and other writings are tangible objects existing in the unconditional physical world of matter and energy. Rearranging the physical atomic particles and reducing duplication and distribution costs to almost zero does not change the definition or concept of a book or essay.
Please help build a better world.
Caveats
Yes, this notice is an experiment. By posting my essays to the Internet I admit I have no ability to stop you from stealing the products of my labor. Some of you who visit this web site also might argue that by merely posting my essays to the Internet I have declared those products “fair game” to anyone who happens to stop by. Some of you might argue that if I did not want my essays “stolen” I should not post them to the Internet. Such an argument sounds peculiarly statist to me—a desire to operate under the color of law. Consider that if I invite you into my home that invitation does not provide you standing to steal personal items belonging to me.
Currently, there is a widespread rejection of long-practiced intellectual property concepts because those privileges largely are statist and fiat in nature. The basic arguments are that ideas cannot be owned, that information “seeks to be free,” and the cost of duplication and distribution are now almost zero. With a cost of duplication and distribution at almost zero, there is no economic scarcity. However, always remember the labor and time invested by authors and artists to create their products. Because the element of time is involved, the cost of production never can be zero.
Thus, the real issue at stake here is philosophical. I am asking merely that you ask to hyperlink or otherwise use the products of my labor. Is such a request so difficult to understand or comply with? Does such a request encourage or discourage a better world? Do you instead choose to live with the illusion of security promised and never delivered by the statists and politicians?
As a believer in free association and voluntary exchange, I have no intentions of using the machinations of statism to pursue you if you infringe upon the terms provided here. Although I claim and retain all rights to my personally created material published at this site, I do not expect to chase violators. If I find my material at your web site or in print and without being used under the terms of this notice, I might contact you, cough politely, and ask you to abide by the terms of this notice. I might.
I also might treat your immature act as water on a duck’s back.
However, if you intentionally violate the terms of this notice, I might circulate your name as a thief. Such a response by me is called blacklisting, and in a statist-free world, blacklisting will be a popular mechanism for discouraging and socially ostracizing and outlawing people who choose to reject reciprocating beneficial relationships. If you steal my material—well, you are a thief, what can I say?
If you refuse now to honor such boundaries, then probably you will experience a rough life in a world of liberty. Some people will treat such encroachments as water on a duck’s back, but some people likely will hire a few henchmen to enforce their boundaries. In a world of liberty shunning, ostracism, and outlawry likely will be popular methods of encouraging social and legal principles. Be forewarned. Learn now to create a better world without the suffocating philosophy of statism. Learn today to participate in reciprocating and mutually beneficial relationships and statism can disappear.
Note: to read more about the concept of copyrights, please read the following:
Finis.