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In what way is it fallacious? Or dangerous? (That's a genuine question). Fundamentally, it's the same problem - producers have to adjust their prices to reflec

In what way is it fallacious? Or dangerous? (That's a genuine question). Fundamentally, it's the same problem - producers have to adjust their prices to reflect the threat to their income. If I produce something, and I forecast X% of my overall market to be stolen, I have to adjust my selling price according. It doesn't matter if that something is physical or digital. If I produce something that is digital I have the luxury of being able to reduce the cost as low as I like to capture as much value as I can, but that is still my choice as the producer.

haswell 3y ago
These arguments have been rehashed for decades at this point, and I think it’s best that I just link to an overview [0]. The bottom line is it there is a lot of nuance here, and simple analogies that make one act appear to be the same as the other lead to some reductionist conclusions that have been repeatedly taken up by lawmakers who do not understand these nuances. -[0] https://phys.org/news/2015-04-downloading-ethics-digital-piracy.html https://phys.org/news/2015-04-downloading-ethics-digital-pir...
- awjlogan 3y ago
  Thank you for the link, appreciate the read and the nuance is important and I don't at all believe in the fundamentalist view on either side. I'm in complete agreement that threatening someone with massive legal ramifications is not good, but I do believe that people who make things of value should be able to do so with proportionate recourse to law to protect their livelihood. Law is, of course, made (or at least moulded) by those with money/influence so weighing the proportionality is the issue.
  - haswell 3y ago
    Yeah, I agree. I don’t think people should be free to pirate with impunity, but I get very very uneasy when people trot out life ruining penalties (not saying you’re doing this). I’ve been transitioning away from a career in tech into creating educational content for a niche I love, and I’m sensitive to the need for recourse. At the same time, I think I’m far less likely as an individual creator to have much recourse because I don’t have a team of lawyers. This is the other aspect of these piracy discussions that always bothers me. It’s really the behemoths vs. individuals, which to me points at very misaligned thinking when it comes to the resulting policy/laws.

haswell 3y ago

These arguments have been rehashed for decades at this point, and I think it’s best that I just link to an overview [0]. The bottom line is it there is a lot of nuance here, and simple analogies that make one act appear to be the same as the other lead to some reductionist conclusions that have been repeatedly taken up by lawmakers who do not understand these nuances. -[0] https://phys.org/news/2015-04-downloading-ethics-digital-piracy.html https://phys.org/news/2015-04-downloading-ethics-digital-pir...

awjlogan 3y ago
Thank you for the link, appreciate the read and the nuance is important and I don't at all believe in the fundamentalist view on either side. I'm in complete agreement that threatening someone with massive legal ramifications is not good, but I do believe that people who make things of value should be able to do so with proportionate recourse to law to protect their livelihood. Law is, of course, made (or at least moulded) by those with money/influence so weighing the proportionality is the issue.
- haswell 3y ago
  Yeah, I agree. I don’t think people should be free to pirate with impunity, but I get very very uneasy when people trot out life ruining penalties (not saying you’re doing this). I’ve been transitioning away from a career in tech into creating educational content for a niche I love, and I’m sensitive to the need for recourse. At the same time, I think I’m far less likely as an individual creator to have much recourse because I don’t have a team of lawyers. This is the other aspect of these piracy discussions that always bothers me. It’s really the behemoths vs. individuals, which to me points at very misaligned thinking when it comes to the resulting policy/laws.