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begging the metaphor is one approach when attempting to defend an indefensible position
by weeksie 4y ago
begging the metaphor is one approach when attempting to defend an indefensible position
- xigoi 4y agoWho said it's a metaphor?
- weeksie 4y ago"Taking food off the table" was a metaphor. Your statement makes even less sense if you weren't referencing that. You're saying, in effect, that zero marginal cost items are not property. That's a radical position that I would be surprised if you actually endorse after you think about it.
- xigoi 4y agoBefore the food metaphor, you said, quoting: > someone stole his intellectual property and distributed it for free
- nephanth 4y agoThat's not a metaphor. Copyright infringement/ ip violation is not theft. When an item is stolen, you lose it. When your copyright is infringed, you may not even know it happens. A lot of defenders of copyright often liken ip violation to theft. I remember a famous campaign where I'm from saying "piracy is theft". This is misinformation and fallacy. Copyright infringement is not theft, and there is no reason it should be treated as such
- tzs 4y ago> When an item is stolen, you lose it. "Steal" has many meanings and only some of them involve the loss of the thing stolen. The Oxford American Dictionary provides several examples (I'm using "___" to indicate indentation in the following) that illustrate the range of what can be stolen: steal | stēl | verb (past stole | stōl | ; past participle stolen | ˈstōlən | ) 1 [with object] take (another person's property) without permission or legal right and without intending to return it: thieves stole her bicycle | (as adjective stolen) : stolen goods | [no object] : she was found guilty of stealing from her employers. • dishonestly pass off (another person's ideas) as one's own: accusations that one group had stolen ideas from the other were soon flying. • take the opportunity to give or share (a kiss) when it is not expected or when people are not watching: he was allowed to steal a kiss in the darkness. • (in various sports) gain (an advantage, a run, or possession of the ball) unexpectedly or by exploiting the temporary distraction of an opponent. • Baseball (of a base runner) advance safely to (the next base) by running to it as the pitcher begins the delivery: Rickey stole third base. 2 [no object, with adverbial of direction] move somewhere quietly or surreptitiously: he stole down to the kitchen | figurative : a delicious languor was stealing over her. • [with object and adverbial of direction] direct (a look) quickly and unobtrusively: he stole a furtive glance at her. noun [in singular] 1 informal a bargain: for $5 it was a steal. 2 mainly North American an act of stealing something: New York's biggest art steal. • an idea taken from another work: the chorus is a steal from The Smiths' “London”. • Baseball an act of stealing a base. • Basketball & Hockey an act of taking possession of the ball or puck from an opponent: point guard Kaleb Joseph finished with eight points, four steals, and seven assists. PHRASES steal someone blind ___informal see blind. steal a march on ___gain an advantage over (someone) by acting before they do: stores that open on Sunday are stealing a march on their competitors. steal someone's heart ___win someone's love. steal the show ___attract the most attention and praise. steal someone's thunder ___win praise for oneself by preempting someone else's attempt to impress. [from an exclamation by the English dramatist John Dennis (1657–1734), who invented a method of simulating the sound of thunder as a theatrical sound effect and used it in an unsuccessful play. Shortly after his play came to the end of its short run he heard his new thunder effects used at a performance of Macbeth, whereupon he is said to have exclaimed: ‘Damn them! They will not let my play run, but they steal my thunder!’.]
- xigoi 4y agoAnd which of these definitions includes copying?
- weeksie 4y ago1. Taking food off someone's table was a metaphor. 2. If you're making the argument that theft is limited to tangible things, well, you're entitled to that belief, but generally the consensus is that intangible property is still property. Money is property. 3. If you're making the argument that zero marginal cost items are not private property, that's an extremely radical position that I doubt you actually endorse after thinking about the incentives in a society where that was the dominant view. The most legitimate argument for large scale copyright theft is eminent domain style seizure on the grounds that it benefits society. I would even endorse a weak version of that argument in narrow, well defined instances. And do. Copyright should expire, and it should definitely be harder to extend. And it should be possible to seize copyright from estates where the creator is no longer living, in certain circumstances, or at least expand fair usage in some graded manner. That's not what's being argued about though, what people in this thread, and what people who steal music and software used to believe was that those products weren't really property and so they could take them. It's flimsy justification for bad behavior.
- xigoi 4y ago> If you're making the argument that theft is limited to tangible things, well, you're entitled to that belief, but generally the consensus is that intangible property is still property. Money is property. The argument is not about tangibility. If you steal someone's virtual money, they still cease to have it. > If you're making the argument that zero marginal cost items are not private property, that's an extremely radical position On the contrary, I'd argue that allowing people to literally own numbers is absurd.