Quote:
Originally Posted by Ramen
Virtual to physical analogies are hard and error-prone. You can use them to show proportionality of anti-piracy measures but not much more as virtual and physical property differ on a very fundamental level.
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That's true (and you're right, neither analogy was a great one). I think the biggest reason we haven't been able to come to a satisfactory understanding of these issues is the fact that most people involved in the discussion cannot differentiate the needs of physical vs virtual goods.
E-books, for instance, have become an abstraction of a "real book," as many posters here have given the impression that they don't consciously consider e-books "real goods" (same goes for music and video). And if it's "not real," how can it be managed... or bought and sold... or tracked and identified?