Quote:
Originally Posted by Giggleton
Well, I was just trying to point out that censorship is copyright, which I say it is, so it is. Just like someone says copyright is ownership so it is. Whether or not any of this means anything is not for anyone to decide.
I used No one is in favor of censorship since it seemed simpler than saying Some people dislike censorship.
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Censorship and copyright are not remotely similar.
Copyright allows control of media by the rightful owners (under current law). Copyright allows property owners to profit from their content and control how it is perceived and distributed (if at all).
Censorship is a 3rd party (government) preventing access to media/content based on political, legal, or moral grounds.
The obvious distinction is that copyright places media under the control of the owner; censorship removes control from the owner and/or the potential consumer.
Under current law a consumer has no 'right' to access copyrighted material (the owner decides whether it is available or not), so copyright is not taking anybody's rights away. Content doesn't enter the public domain as soon as it's created.
In short:
Copyright - the creator/owner of media has the right to control how (or if) it is distributed
Censorship - access to content is controlled by the government regardless of the wishes of the content creator or consumer
I am OK with an author refusing to sell me their book, as I believe (and the law agrees with me) that intellectual property belongs to the author, but I am not OK with the government telling me I can't read a book because they disagree with it on political or moral grounds (though I have no issue with censorship of certain grossly illegal content).
Copyright isn't perfect, but it serves a purpose.