Quote:
Originally Posted by corroonb
Copyright infringement is not piracy. Copyright infringement is copying and/or distributing copyright material. Piracy is selling copyright material without permission. People used to sell fake-DVDs. That is piracy. The vast majority of those who engage in copyright infringement do not profit from it, often quite the opposite.
Equating downloading a copy of a file to theft is quite ridiculous. One deprives someone of the use of the object in question, the other merely duplicates an electronic file. This is claimed to be a loss but that is only true if the infringer would otherwise always have purchased a copy. It is reasonable to conclude that this is not the case in all instances.
I really wish people would think about this issue in a somewhat rational fashion without swallowing wholesale the propaganda. There is a fundamental difference between actual property and so-called intellectual property. One has a finite existence, the other less so.
|
Well said. If you shoplift a DVD, you are depriving the store the ability to sell it, and there are costs involved with the manufacturing and shipping of the DVD. Those conditions are not there with downloading a file. With downloading a file, no one is actually victimized.
Downloading a file is not the same as theft of a physical object. It's not theft at all, as I see it. "Unauthorized copying" is probably the best term. I do think downloading is wrong, because creative people should be supported and compensated for their time, talent, and effort, and becuase they should have control of their intellectual property (for a time. Life + 75 years is ludicrous).
But it is not theft per se. I don't necessarily disagree that it should be punishable offense, but anything more than a mild fine or temporary loss of internet is pure overkill.