5 ms·
Piracy is not theft.
by henning 16y ago
Piracy is not theft.
- pmccool 16y agoMore to the point, illicit downloading is not piracy. Equating downloading with armed robbery(or worse) at sea is silly.
- spudlyo 16y agoIt's the kind non-nuanced thinking I've come to expect from Biden.
- aaronbrethorst 16y agoYeah, Palin would've offered much more nuanced commentary.
- jokermatt999 16y agoJust because Palin would be worse doesn't mean that we can't acknowledge the fact that Biden could be much better than he is now.
- JesseAldridge 16y agoMany words in the English language have multiple meanings. "Piracy" is one of them. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/piracy http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/piracy
- swombat 16y agoPirates are cool. I say, let's keep calling it piracy.
- davidmurphy 16y agoI respectfully disagree. Users used to pirate the software my first startup made, and that was not fun.
- harpastum 16y agoTheft: the act of taking something from someone unlawfully. There are a lot of things that aren't fun, and I certainly agree that people pirating your software can be a problem, but there is a distinct difference between theft and illicit downloading.
- nailer 16y agoI agree with your definition, which doesn't seem to strike much difference between stealing something physical and stealing something digital.
- pmccool 16y agoYeah, the analogy with theft, particularly physical theft, is unconvincing. Counterfeiting is nearer the mark, but there are obvious differences there as well. My big complaint with these analogies, though, isn't with their accuracy or lack therof. It's that they shed absolutely no light on whether copyright laws are good, bad or indifferent. They imply a moral imperative for copyright laws. This is, to put it mildly, controversial. The theft analogy has no bearing on the question of whether the bad effects of copyright laws outweigh the good. I'd rather see the copyright lobby concentrate on that question (other than by quoting implausible estimates of the cost of "piracy"). That, at least, is a defensible position that can be debated constructively. edit: spelling, punctuation.
- pyre 16y agoTheft is criminal and Copyright Infringement is a civil matter (thus far). At least in the eyes of the law, they are different. Just because users were doing something that negatively affected your business doesn't mean that you can redefine the English language just to make the general population more sympathetic to your complaints. e.g.: My employer is *extorting* me by requiring that I work for my pay cheque! I should be able to charge my employer with extortion!
- ElbertF 16y agoIf charging for virtual goods isn't a viable business then you need to start doing something else, just because you "want" to make money this way doesn't mean there should be the law for it. People download my software for free and I think it's great.
- chwahoo 16y agoStatements like this can frustrate both sides of the debate. Words like "theft" really consist of a cluster of related meanings. Copyright infringement probably satisfies some of them, but not others. I think your case would be better made by stating more directly what you mean. For example: "piracy does not take away someone else's material goods and so is not as immoral as Biden's comparison with smash-and-grab theft would imply." This reminds me of an awesome article that discusses the debate about whether or not "obsesity is a disease" http://lesswrong.com/lw/2as/diseased_thinking_dissolving_questions_about/ http://lesswrong.com/lw/2as/diseased_thinking_dissolving_que...
- ErrantX 16y agoI've always sat on the fence with this. One interesting point that was made was that if people keep calling it theft attitudes may change - or maybe it would simply pave the way to making it a criminal offence. Ultimately how I always feel is this; if someone is pirating your work then I don't mind if you call them a thief (in anger or whatever). But if you're not one of those people then it's a weasel word to be using.