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I don't want to "take their livelihood from them with no replacement." That has already happened. File sharing is widespread and unstoppable. Legalizing it mere
by kethinov 7y ago
I don't want to "take their livelihood from them with no replacement." That has already happened. File sharing is widespread and unstoppable. Legalizing it merely legitimizes the reality we're already living with.
- Zonulet 7y agoWait, I thought the argument from the anti-copyright people was supposed to be that piracy doesn't hurt sales, not that piracy takes away livelihoods?
- kethinov 7y agoI'm not anti-copyright. I'm very much in favor of commercial infringement remaining illegal. The argument that piracy doesn't hurt sales is reductive and unhelpful. Of course it hurts sales in the sense that if you could somehow invent a perfect DRM that is unbreakable, more people would buy things. But it's also true that not all pirates are lost sales. Some people if stopped by DRM just won't consume the content at all. But more importantly, since piracy can't be stopped, the debate is moot. We have to accept it as widespread and inevitable rather than debate what would happen if we could stop it.