I always see people comparing pirate downloads as akin to motor vehicles while the copyright industry is the buggy whip manufacturer but has anyone parroting th

I always see people comparing pirate downloads as akin to motor vehicles while the copyright industry is the buggy whip manufacturer but has anyone parroting that actually stopped to think about how patently ridiculous the comparison is? Technology has not rendered copyright unnecessary. Yes, it is easier to mass-infringe these days than in the past but you must remember that, not only has it been possible (and generally easy) to infringe upon copyright, but that that is the very reason why copyright exists in the first place. Intellectual property is more than a business and it's silly to claim otherwise. To quote the US Constitution on the matter: "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries" This is the clause that essentially says "People can copy the work of others so in order to encourage creation we will allow creators an exclusive monopoly for some time after which it will belong to the public." The problem with copyright is not that the industry is trying to pretend that it's not easy to copy because that is really nothing new; the problem with copyright is that the idea of "limited Times" has gotten ridiculous but that is an entirely different conversation.