Quote:
Originally Posted by MCSmarties
There is no such thing as "pirating" or "stealing" intellectual property.
It's properly called " copying".
Whether it is "right" or "wrong" to do so is a separate question, even offical opinion differs quite widely between European and American legislators (see the controversy about ACTA).
But at least people should be aware that the semantics in this case have been greatly distorted by the publishing industry. questioncopyright.org attemps to discuss this philosophical question in depth.
Try the following essay for some insights:
" The Surprising History of Copyright and The Promise of a Post-Copyright World".
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You forgot to mention that in Europe people who don't copy already pay for those who copy. There is a surcharge on any storage media (hard disks, SD cards, SSDs, you name it) which is distributed to "creators". This is, of course, a solution. Though a blatantly unfair one. Paying for what you use is the much better option for everyone involved. And pirating means "unauthorized copying" of intellectual property, so, of course, it exists.
And the sources you quote are completely wrong. We have discussed this previously. The first (as far as we know) copyright goes back to 1068 in China -- they already had printing presses) and in Europe copyrights were granted very soon after Gutenberg. In the 1400's and 1500' there were already a number of protected individual works (copyright was granted on a case-by-case basis expressly to allow the author to recoup the investment in time and money. Pirates were punished harshly, facing heavy fines and confiscation of all unauthorized copies.
The general copyright didn't pop up overnight, it was the result of centuries of evolution.