Quote:
Originally Posted by kennyc
Clearly that is your belief, but just as clearly it is depriving the person that created the words/file/book/story of making a living at it. That is stealing, that is unethical, that is morally corrupt -- unless, as I've said, that person has given up their right to there creation.
If I take the air from around you that would be legal, right, you don't own it, it wouldn't be stealing cause it doesn't belong to you right? Must be ethical and moral too.  |
No, it's not a belief, I don't need faith for this to be the truth or a Bearded Cloud Captain. It's plain and simple fact.
Taking an object without permission in the physical world deprives owner of object the use of said object. This is theft. It is theft because the physical world is based upon scarcity. Scarcity is one of the factors that gives an object its value.
I COPY an object in the digital world, original object stays in place, nothing is lost. There is no scarcity in the digital world. This is not THEFT, and it never will be.
All the losses you ascribe to the copying of a digital object are phantom at best, they're assumptions on your part on what might have happened if the digital copy weren't available to me for free. But the digital copies are available for free, not only that, they are near to zero cost (factoring internet bills etc).
The author, the creator must, MUST understand that society can't operate the same in the digital as it does in the physical. When there is no scarcity, the whole idea of monetary value becomes far more abstract than it is now.