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If I build a factory at great personal cost, but the materials and electricity to produce the goods cost next to nothing, is it theft if people take these goods
by 127 15y ago
If I build a factory at great personal cost, but the materials and electricity to produce the goods cost next to nothing, is it theft if people take these goods without my permission? I don't see the difference between this and intellectual property.
You say it is not accurate but don't provide anything substantial to back up your claim. Instead you use a logical fallacy: because these persons are bad, thus the argument of using term "theft" is bad.
- redbad 15y agoWhen someone takes your factory and materials and electricity, you don't have them any more.
- dhimes 15y agoYou missed his argument. What is it when someone steals his (extremely cheap to produce) goods?
- Tyrannosaurs 15y agoIt's theft but extremely cheap is not the same as free.
- jellicle 15y agoWhen someone takes his goods, he doesn't have them any more.
- dhimes 15y agoIt's not like he was trying to collect them, he was trying to sell them. This person took them without paying.
- Symmetry 15y agoWhat if someone figures out how to make a similar factory very cheaply, and drives you out of business by only charging their marginal production costs for their widgets? The important difference, I think, is that they're using their own materials and electricity to make their goods, but people who engage in copyright infringement are too. EDIT: And I'd note that many would would say that this second person is "Stealing the customers" of the first factory owner, but that doesn't mean what he does is actually morally equivalent to stealing.
- 127 15y agoIf they make their own factory then that is ok. Simple capitalism. That is not my point, however. If they use the original factory without paying that is not ok.