Quote:
Originally Posted by Elfwreck
Most of the "pirates" want digital information to work like physically-bound information: here's this thing I liked; I bet you'd like it too; take a look. The fact that they don't have to lose their copy to share one is a nifty feature--but if it didn't work that way, there'd still be plenty of filesharing.
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This is why I started by stating that the issue here is just economics. All else is a rhetoric and a waste of time. File sharing would not be economically a problem if you could only do it the way you lend a book to a friend: one at a time. Once you can ‘share’ your files with millions of people that then do not have to buy them, you have a problem: how to pay the authors if no one will pay them? And how can anyone argue that it is fair for 10% of people to pay for the other 80% to use?
This is why the analogies very common in these discussions with the lending of books or televisions or whatever are irrelevant.
The problem with file sharers is that they have no clue as how to pay authors, how to make activities like writing software, music or books profitable enough so that you can make a living out of that. The model they have in mind is their own: someone working someplace else and then at weekends doing something creative.
BTW, you certainly cannot take down the darkweb, but you can limit it and you can campaign against it. Likewise, you cannot put a stop to robbery, but you can do everything possible to discourage it.