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points by awakeasleep 2 days ago | 0 comments
That professor saying that the use of work he already produced amounts to "slave labor"... copyright infringement is substantially different than slavery.
[–] GuB-42 2 days ago
Not talking about that professor in particulier, but it seems like there is a significant amount of "slave labor" happening in academia, by professors, that goes further than simple copyright infringement.

I am talking about professors taking the work of their students as their own, unpaid of course, and the students can't say much because their future depends on it. So before calling simple copyright infringement "slave labor", they should look at their own community. At least the professors whose work is illegally copied are not forced to do it by the ones taking it.

[–] thephyber 2 days ago
"Slave labor" doesn't always refer to chattel slavery.

> any coerced or poorly remunerated work. [1]

[1] https://www.dictionary.com/browse/slave-labor

[–] legitster 2 days ago
This is a classic "motte and bailey" argument.

Someone who makes this statement this really want us to equate it with racist chattel slavery - the most heinous form of worker exploitation in modern memory. "Oh, I just meant: {the most common type of work in human history}" as a retreat is not very compelling.

[–] zeroonetwothree 2 days ago
I don’t think that’s true, words just tend to diminish in strength over time towards a muddy middle. Look at how basically anything gets labeled “fascist” these days.

For an older example consider “awesome” (literally: inspiring awe)

[–] legitster 2 days ago
Sometimes. It is just as likely to work backwards where common words becomes divisive or even slurs.

In the linked example, I don't think the author in question meant to make light of slavery when comparing it to their victimhood.

[–] viklove 2 days ago
> the most common type of work in human history

Surprised to see someone casually admit that the most common type of human labor is slave labor.

[–] sdsd 2 days ago
It was Carlyle who, in his seminal Occasional Discourse on the Negro Question, argued that slavery is a fundamental human relationship, and as such you can't ban slavery, but can only ban the word.
[–] legitster 2 days ago
I mean, it's a patent reality.

Whether it was through serfdom, indentured servitute, state labor obligations, patriarchal labor obligations, or outright slavery - coerced human labor was a constant norm.

In Britain, quitting a job was criminal until 1875!

The idea that work is done almost exclusively through voluntary labor is a modern (post-WW2) reality, and even then mostly exclusive to Western, capitalist nations. Even in modern, non-capitalist society (Soviet Union, Maoist China) work was largely obligatory and assigned to you.

Of course, Marx would point out that all labor is obligatory if you need to work to eat. But I think he would even take for granted the ability for everyone to accept or reject what specific work they wanted to do.

[–] rpdillon 2 days ago
Well, given that copyright infringement doesn't require any labor on the part of the person who created the work, it seems to be an inappropriate use of the phrase in this case.

One of the interesting things about copyright infringement is that if you weren't told it was happening, you'd never know.

[–] DocTomoe 2 days ago
That dictionary.com entry clearly describes a hyperbolic use of the term, especially when it comes to 'poorly remunerated'
[–] andai 2 days ago
Actually it's even worse than that. If you have to work for money, instead of money working for you, then you're money's slave.

Buying back your freedom has a specific price tag, in our economy. (Most people don't do the math though, because it is unpleasant. I would recommend doing the math.)

[–] matkoniecz 2 days ago
That is an insane use of that term for cases like this one, even if present in wild.
[–] xhevahir 2 days ago
FWIW he's primarily known as a writer of fiction and memoir, not as a professor. Interestingly, half of the other professors named are fiction writers.
[–] j45 2 days ago
Uneducated and privileged take by the professor.