4 ms·

Piracy is not stealing. If I make an exact copy of your car and drive off in the copy, did I just steal your car?

hyperdunc 9y ago
Yes, the distinction is so obvious and yet it needs to be raised repeatedly.
jmull 9y ago
Your analogy is terrible, but let's go with it: If I spend a million dollars inventing a nice car that can be freely replicated I don't have to sell it for a million dollars to break even. I could sell a copy of it to 1100 people for $1000 each and everyone wins: Nice cars are inexpensive for everyone and I make a living, so I can keep inventing nice things. But if there are 200 pirates among the 1100 who take a copy of the car but don't pay the $1000 things are different. Now I'm selling 900 cars and losing money so I have to do something. Such as: * charge $1200 per car. Pirates win but car buyers lose, to the tune of $200 per car. Don't call it stealing if you don't want to, but your pirates are getting something and someone else has less money as a result. And of course you can't simply raise the price without losing some customers, so this can only go so far. * invest less to make up the difference (making a crappier car). Pirates win and car buyers lose. The pirates don't win as much, though, since they have to drive the crappy cars too. * enact stringent anti-copying mechanisms to try to precent unauthorized copying by pirates. This costs money, raising the price of the cars and is inevitably user hostile. So, again pirates win and customers lose. But again, the pirates don't win as much because they have to deal with the user-hostile anti-copying features as well. Note this is a vicious circle. As piracy makes the product more expensive and crappier, more people will be motivated to pirate rather than pay, causing the product to get even crappier or more expensive. And anything that makes buyers lose also makes my car company lose, with fewer sales at lower prices to less satisfied customers. * Ultimately, I might find I can't make money doing this at all: that there isn't a price high enough to make up for the piracy and low enough that anyone will pay for my crappy cars and I just stop making things altogether. Here pirates lose, buyers lose, and, of course, I lose. Don't call it stealing if you don't want, but you are getting something without paying for it and it is costing other people more money as a result. Not only is your piracy making stuff more expensive for everyone else, it's also making it crappier for everyone and ultimately lead to less nice stuff being available at all.
- executesorder66 9y ago
  > If I spend a million dollars inventing a nice car that can be freely replicated I don't have to sell it for a million dollars to break even. So do filmmakers make movies or an implementation of the bittorrent protocol? That analogy is terrible.

Yes, the distinction is so obvious and yet it needs to be raised repeatedly.

Your analogy is terrible, but let's go with it: If I spend a million dollars inventing a nice car that can be freely replicated I don't have to sell it for a million dollars to break even. I could sell a copy of it to 1100 people for $1000 each and everyone wins: Nice cars are inexpensive for everyone and I make a living, so I can keep inventing nice things. But if there are 200 pirates among the 1100 who take a copy of the car but don't pay the $1000 things are different. Now I'm selling 900 cars and losing money so I have to do something. Such as: * charge $1200 per car. Pirates win but car buyers lose, to the tune of $200 per car. Don't call it stealing if you don't want to, but your pirates are getting something and someone else has less money as a result. And of course you can't simply raise the price without losing some customers, so this can only go so far. * invest less to make up the difference (making a crappier car). Pirates win and car buyers lose. The pirates don't win as much, though, since they have to drive the crappy cars too. * enact stringent anti-copying mechanisms to try to precent unauthorized copying by pirates. This costs money, raising the price of the cars and is inevitably user hostile. So, again pirates win and customers lose. But again, the pirates don't win as much because they have to deal with the user-hostile anti-copying features as well. Note this is a vicious circle. As piracy makes the product more expensive and crappier, more people will be motivated to pirate rather than pay, causing the product to get even crappier or more expensive. And anything that makes buyers lose also makes my car company lose, with fewer sales at lower prices to less satisfied customers. * Ultimately, I might find I can't make money doing this at all: that there isn't a price high enough to make up for the piracy and low enough that anyone will pay for my crappy cars and I just stop making things altogether. Here pirates lose, buyers lose, and, of course, I lose. Don't call it stealing if you don't want, but you are getting something without paying for it and it is costing other people more money as a result. Not only is your piracy making stuff more expensive for everyone else, it's also making it crappier for everyone and ultimately lead to less nice stuff being available at all.

executesorder66 9y ago
> If I spend a million dollars inventing a nice car that can be freely replicated I don't have to sell it for a million dollars to break even. So do filmmakers make movies or an implementation of the bittorrent protocol? That analogy is terrible.