Quote:
Originally Posted by tompe
There are other things you morally should not do than theft so of course the argument is not that just because it morally is not equivalent to theft then you can do it.
The discussion here was about what should be legal and illegal in the sense that the laws codifies the moral we have agreed upon.
And if the question is to follow the laws you will not be able to read the laws about theft to see if you are allowed to download something or not.
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Actually, on my part the discussion has been both about the legal issues at stake (i.e. copyright infringement) and the moral issues (which I regard as stealing the work of another person without payment).
As for your final point, that is silly; laws by their very definition are part of the public record. They are not copyright protected in the same sense that a creative work is.
The point here ultimately is that person A does work, person B derives value from that work without person A's permission. Call it whatever you want, it is just plain wrong in pretty much any rigorously argued ethical system you care to mention.
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Bill