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Originally Posted by Shaggy
So you're not concerned with the financial justification of encouraging artists, you're just worried about control? You're offended because somebody managed to do something with content without the owners permission, even if it does no harm?
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I'm worried about both. In any case it's a potential lost sale. Even worse, most people I know who download stuff illegally also have it up for others to download on torrents ,p2p clients etc. So even if they wouldn't have bought it, they're making it available to tons of other people so some sales are lost along the way.
What I'm saying is that I think there is loss, and it's best to just assume a lost sale for each illegal transfer personally. Versus trying to quantify exactly how many were lost, which is impossible.
And then I'm saying even if there is NOT not a lost sale, the act itself is WRONG and should be illegal. And I'll get back to this below in responding to the other part of your post.
But yes, a lot of it is control. If I create something, and choose not to give it away freely but to try to make money off it. I want full control over it in terms of how people can get it (pay
If we had those memory erasing flash things from the Men in Black movies (or the Haitian from Heroes) I'd support using them on people who illegally obtained my material to wipe the experience of enjoying my content without paying for it from their brains.
But in all seriousness, yes, I support copyright holders having their sales protected, as well as having a great deal of control over their material and what people who didn't pay for it can do with it. I think control should be passed over in many ways when people do pay for it--can't copy and sell it, plagiarize etc., but they should be able to sell it, loan it etc.--I'm not lover of DRM. It's a hassle for legit users and does nothing to stop pirates.
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You're not seriously comparing copyright infringement to drunk driving, prostitution, drugs... 
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I'm not comparing the nature of the acts. Just showing there are various things that are criminal law violations that are behaviors that don't necessarily involve harm/loss.
The criminal law systems does not exist primarily to repair loss etc. It exists to shape behavior. Behaviors that are outlawed are behaviors which society doesn't want to occur--some cause harm/loss and need to be prevented, some don't, some are ambiguous on that front etc.
The legal system and punishments are deterrents to encourage people not to engage in those behaviors.
Copyright is one of those behaviors I think we need criminal laws to dissuade as many as possible from engaging in. Regardless of monetary loss, it's a wrong act that shouldn't happen.