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> This is IP theft. In light of pg's recent article amounting to "information wants to be free" and there's nothing we can do about it... How, exactly, is wha

> This is IP theft. In light of pg's recent article amounting to "information wants to be free" and there's nothing we can do about it... How, exactly, is what Zynga is doing different from pirating films, music, or software? In both cases, it seems to me that the original creator hasn't lost anything. They still have their game. They still get to say "they" made it. Etc. Are we really only against pirating when it helps big companies and not when it hurts them?

erichocean 15y ago
If you're going to down vote, at least explain why.
- ChrisNorstrom 15y ago
  Wasn't me, I actually think it's a good question, really made me think. In this instance I don't believe an "all or nothing" attitude about all IP is healthy. The same way an all or nothing attitude about taxes, war, death penalty, and freedom of speech is healthy. Too much protection and we get patent trolling, not enough protection and we get IP theft leading to less innovation and unfair treatment of the inventors. Naturally, our instinct is to share something with friends when we discover it. Which is why music and movies are pirated so much. Stealing IP, that's also a human instinct passed down from our lovely evolutionary primate relatives. To an extent it's beneficial (creative commons, github forking, open source projects) and too much stealing/borrowing is destructive to its inventors while really beneficial to the stealing party (Like the way China's been "borrowing" high speed rail and maglev technology from Siemens, Transrapid, and other companies and re-patenting everything with slight changes so they can avoid licensing costs and can resell the technology as "Chinese Innovation"). At that level it's really unacceptable, pirating music and movies here and there, that's entertainment, it's not right but it's not seriously destructive to society.

erichocean 15y ago

If you're going to down vote, at least explain why.

ChrisNorstrom 15y ago
Wasn't me, I actually think it's a good question, really made me think. In this instance I don't believe an "all or nothing" attitude about all IP is healthy. The same way an all or nothing attitude about taxes, war, death penalty, and freedom of speech is healthy. Too much protection and we get patent trolling, not enough protection and we get IP theft leading to less innovation and unfair treatment of the inventors. Naturally, our instinct is to share something with friends when we discover it. Which is why music and movies are pirated so much. Stealing IP, that's also a human instinct passed down from our lovely evolutionary primate relatives. To an extent it's beneficial (creative commons, github forking, open source projects) and too much stealing/borrowing is destructive to its inventors while really beneficial to the stealing party (Like the way China's been "borrowing" high speed rail and maglev technology from Siemens, Transrapid, and other companies and re-patenting everything with slight changes so they can avoid licensing costs and can resell the technology as "Chinese Innovation"). At that level it's really unacceptable, pirating music and movies here and there, that's entertainment, it's not right but it's not seriously destructive to society.