Quote:
Originally Posted by drmaxx
The word theft in connection with copy right is probably one of the most clever campaigns that successfully spred something just plain wrong. (However, "I am loving it" is coming close  ).
The copyright laws regulates the distribution of a creation and the rights of the creators. Theft has nothing to do with it.
However, I agree with your notion that downloading copyrighted material illicitly is morally wrong. |
But in the future, when there are NO physical products in some industries to be stolen, lost, damaged etc., illegal downloads will be the only way the owners of the material can lose out on sales of it.
So the legal code has to change. If you don't want to call it theft--fine call it piracy or some other term. They key is it should be a minor criminal violation on par with the misdemeanor theft penalties attached to stealing a book, CD etc. as in the digital age it is the equivalent of theft.
The company got none of your money, and you have a copy of the book/album/movie you didn't pay for. Same as theft, other than the loss of a physical copy--so sure don't call it theft if that bothers you.
But the penalty should be much the same as the company is out a sale and you still have a copy of the material you didn't pay for, and the "wrongness" of the act morally is about the same as stealing a physical copy.
Of course, such a legal switch needs to be accompanied by DRM being removed or made much less restrictive. Having pretty liberal and clearly defined fair use laws outlining what you can do with digital content you did pay for etc., so people aren't having to break laws to just get reasonable usage out of content they do own.
But once that's done, pirates need to be dealt with as minor criminals, not just hit with silly huge law suits that will never be collected on in civil suits.
Most will never get caught, but that's the nature of crime. The vast majority of shoplifting incidents aren't detected and punished. But there are many fewer shoplifting incidents than if it wasn't a criminal matter. Same with speeding. Most everyone does, but we'd all drive much faster if there were no speed limits to be enforced with criminal fines, loss of driver's license etc.