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Originally Posted by pietrocrazy
Why are you and certain other people so attached to the idea that copyright infringement is theft?
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because it
steals away the possibility for an author to actually make money off his creations! What value it is that he may keep his original copy when everyone else can obtain for free?
Quote:
Originally Posted by HansTWN
The problem is that "copyright infringement" has, for many people, become a term that does not imply any wrongdoing. The difference to theft is that the original owner still has a copy, but the similarity is that the infringer now has a copy he has taken by illegal means. Copyright gives the owner the almost exclusive right to create copies (with fair use exceptions) and if you get yourself a free copy you have trampled on his rights and unduly enriched yourself. In the end, what is important is that the infringer has obtained something he has no right to get without paying for it. Arguing "the original is still with the author" is just ridiculous semantics, trying to justify a despicable act. Whatever you call that act is another matter.
And let's face it -- most people who download illegal copies and try to argue their guilt away do so for purely selfish reasons. They just have this sense of entitlement that others should work for them for free. And a disclaimer here, I am just a reader, not an author. But unlike some, I do think that an author of a book I read deserves as much respect as the mechanic who fixes my car. I don't share the view that Western Society in particular should only pay people for manual labor and that anything that ever happens to be on a computer and can thus be easily copied is just worthless 1s and 0s. So if King Giggles's attitude prevails then very soon nobody will have any work. Perhaps Giggles can move to China and work on an Apple assembly line, that seems to be the only kind of job he considers worthy of getting paid for.
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priceless post. Too bad I gave you karma before for a slightly less refined one...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Giggleton
To me, copyright feels like a prohibition on the act of thinking. Thought and expression of those thoughts was free before copyright, thought is not free currently, thought will be free when copyright is abolished.
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what's really prohibiting you to have thoughts is whatever you're taking, man. Copyright is not impeding you to express your incoherent thoughts here... though I certainly wouldn't pay for them...
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Giggleton
Do you think that those who copied books before the invention of the printing press felt that they were involved in wrongdoing?
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There was no money involved! People were not only illiterate, but also were not willing to pay other people to tell them novel stories and tales -- in part because there were already plenty of stories and tales in the Bible and that sufficed in the Dark Ages. Once people got some time for their own useless personal enjoyment, they thought the idea of reading new stories was a worthy one and would be willing to pay for people to tell them.
nowadays crackheads just want their addiction for free...