4 ms·
Are you implying there aren't masses of roving scoundrels lying in wait on the high seas, just waiting for cargo ships with holds full of DVDs to wonder by? Ce
by KMag 3y ago
Are you implying there aren't masses of roving scoundrels lying in wait on the high seas, just waiting for cargo ships with holds full of DVDs to wonder by?
Certainly, the very word "piracy", the terrorism of its day (the days when "piracy" was first used to describe copyright infringement), wasn't used to get sympathy and support for tyrannical measures, was it?
- rogual 3y agoI had always wondered, if they were going to try to give copyright infringement the name of a worse crime to dissuadde people, why would they pick something as cool and popular as PIRATES? I had no idea the usage was so old. It makes sense now, thanks!
- KMag 3y agoIt dates at least from the 1886 Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (Article 12 uses the word "piracy".) I presume the Berne Convention wasn't the first hyperbolic use of "piracy" to describe copying without permission. The Barbary Pirates were still somewhat operating until France took Algiers in 1830. I'm not sure which other pirates would have been around after 1830, but the real threat of piracy was within living memory in 1886. Murder and plunder on the high seas is so much more exciting to claim you're fighting, rather than admit you're cracking down on someone in a basement with a printing press.