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December 22, 2005

Mixing the metaphors

Kevin points out just how wildly wrong are Susan Cheevers' metaphors when she describes how "intellectual property" works on the Internet. Kevin substitutes his own far more accurate metaphorical description.

Our moral reasoning always (?) moves by metaphors, but metaphors are never perfectly accurate (or, if they are, they're uninteresting), so our moral reasoning never is utterly persuasive. Still, metaphors are all we have, and Kevin's are MUCH better than Cheevers'.

[Tags: DigitalRights copyright KevinMarks SusanCheever]

Posted by D. Weinberger at December 22, 2005 01:50 AM

Comments

I don't know how "wildly wrong" she might be, but Kevin's re-write isn't exactly spot on the mark either.

I don't know how to reconcile Kevin's use of the term "share" and the appearance on e-Bay, which is not a "sharing" website.

If someone is seeking to profit from someone else's words, (or chairs) that's not, to my way of thinking, "sharing," though it isn't strictly theft either. I'm pretty certain it's unfair, and not to be praised.

Posted by: dave rogers | December 21, 2005 11:15 PM

No Dave Rogers, Kevin's isn't spot on. So try mine :-)

Posted by: roseg | December 22, 2005 01:24 AM

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