Abe Lincoln: 'Net entrepreneur

A few days ago, Disney honcho Michael Eisner said if Abe Lincoln were alive today, he'd support the sort of strict copyright laws Eisner wants, you know, the ones that would require computer makers to redesign their products to keep you from making any copies of anything, ever, without paying somebody a fee first.

One of the problems with quoting dead people in favor of causes they could never have imagined is that your opponents can do the same thing. For example, Cory Doctorow quotes from a Lincoln speech:

Shall we expect some Transatlantic giant to step across the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Africa and Asia combined could not by force make a track on the Blue Ridge nor take a drink from the Ohio River, not in a trial of a thousand years. If destruction be our lot, then we ourselves must be its author, and its finisher. It cannot come from abroad. As a nation of free men, we must live forever -- or die by suicide.

Contact Online Executive Editor Adam Gaffin

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