Why do you think these are the important features of stealing? Isn’t the point just that you’re taking someone’s legal property, and illegally helping yourself to it? The fact that you can do this with a machine that has a neat interface doesn’t seem important. ETA: And I agree its not really the book you’ve stolen in this case, but the money you avoided paying. Thats the thing I have a legal right to, but have been illegally deprived of.
I take it, rather, that you have an argument for why this is not stealing, or why if it is, it is nevertheless justifiable.
Why do you think these are the important features of stealing?
Because that’s what the word means. And you not having the thing that you previously had is kind of a big deal.
Copying a some work you have done is Copyright Infringement. It is also illegal. It’s just a slightly different one.
Mind you ‘stealing’ is somewhat more appropriate than ‘piracy’. After all if it was a pirate it would take your stuff and quite probably kill you. Possibly also raid your village and rape all your womenfolk.
Reminded me of this enlightening and well-researched article. (Or collection of highly questionable claims and idiotic hysterics that in aggregate make the whole thing quite amusing; take your pick.)
You never had the money. I have not deprived you of anything. If you were intending to buy a lottery ticket but I went and bought every lottery ticket in town (for whatever bizarre reason) would you say that I’d stolen something from you?
Your question was ‘Isn’t it wrong?‘, now you’re going with ‘But it’s illegal!’
I don’t care much about my opportunity to by lottery tickets. If you want to be a nuisance, buy up a couple of my favourites packaged foods. If you want to be a menace buy up all available food, or all sources of a couple of vital nutrients.
I guess I wouldn’t call it stealing, but the fatal one I would say should be illegal, if it was likely to happen otherwise. The nuisance one, I would call monopolising, and maybe anticompetitive. That’s a good analogy, but with a few differences. Copyright infringement can be lots of people individually satisfying their requirements, leaving a publisher with no market for the product, and anticompetitive behaviour can be one company satisfying all of a competitor’s market, possibly deliberately to get rid of them, leaving that competitor with no market for their product.
We can discuss whether or not they’re evil (and in two of the cases above they very obviously are), but the discussion is bound to be pretty pointless if we group them together with theft (which is a different issue).
And I’ve seen a lot of pointless copyright arguments. The discussion here I expect to be better than most. I haven’t really made up my mind on what the law should say about copyright, and since I’m not deciding the law I’m not going to try too hard.
Stealing: I break into your house and take a book without your consent. You no longer have the book.
Copying: I use ctrl-c ctrl-v on your book. Now both of us have the book.
Pretty fundamental distinction, isn’t it?
Why do you think these are the important features of stealing? Isn’t the point just that you’re taking someone’s legal property, and illegally helping yourself to it? The fact that you can do this with a machine that has a neat interface doesn’t seem important. ETA: And I agree its not really the book you’ve stolen in this case, but the money you avoided paying. Thats the thing I have a legal right to, but have been illegally deprived of.
I take it, rather, that you have an argument for why this is not stealing, or why if it is, it is nevertheless justifiable.
Because that’s what the word means. And you not having the thing that you previously had is kind of a big deal.
Copying a some work you have done is Copyright Infringement. It is also illegal. It’s just a slightly different one.
Mind you ‘stealing’ is somewhat more appropriate than ‘piracy’. After all if it was a pirate it would take your stuff and quite probably kill you. Possibly also raid your village and rape all your womenfolk.
Copying is not a crime, it is a civil offense. Just FYI.
I swear I’ve also made this point myself in a sibling comment. But to neaten the casual wording up here I’ll replace ‘a crime’ with ‘illegal’.
I see that you have, but I saw this first.
Reminded me of this enlightening and well-researched article. (Or collection of highly questionable claims and idiotic hysterics that in aggregate make the whole thing quite amusing; take your pick.)
You never had the money. I have not deprived you of anything. If you were intending to buy a lottery ticket but I went and bought every lottery ticket in town (for whatever bizarre reason) would you say that I’d stolen something from you?
Your question was ‘Isn’t it wrong?‘, now you’re going with ‘But it’s illegal!’
I don’t care much about my opportunity to by lottery tickets. If you want to be a nuisance, buy up a couple of my favourites packaged foods. If you want to be a menace buy up all available food, or all sources of a couple of vital nutrients.
I guess I wouldn’t call it stealing, but the fatal one I would say should be illegal, if it was likely to happen otherwise. The nuisance one, I would call monopolising, and maybe anticompetitive. That’s a good analogy, but with a few differences. Copyright infringement can be lots of people individually satisfying their requirements, leaving a publisher with no market for the product, and anticompetitive behaviour can be one company satisfying all of a competitor’s market, possibly deliberately to get rid of them, leaving that competitor with no market for their product.
And yet, as you say, none of that is stealing.
We can discuss whether or not they’re evil (and in two of the cases above they very obviously are), but the discussion is bound to be pretty pointless if we group them together with theft (which is a different issue).
And I’ve seen a lot of pointless copyright arguments. The discussion here I expect to be better than most. I haven’t really made up my mind on what the law should say about copyright, and since I’m not deciding the law I’m not going to try too hard.