The Death of D. (Was Tango vs Phobos)

[bobef]

Robert Fraser Wrote:
> Yigal Chripun Wrote:
> 
> > Robert Fraser wrote:
> >  > I've had very mixed feelings about all this. One one hand, the letter
> > of the
> > > law may be questionably constitutional. But millions of dollars every day are
> > > lost because people (including myself occasionally...) steal copyrighted
> > > material. Honestly, I think there should be much stricter penalties for
> > > things like internet piracy, because it's simply so widespread and damaging.
> > 
> > Of course you have the right to have your own opinion (that's also in
> > the constitution) but all of the above is bullshit. (sorry for the
> > language).
> > 
> > stealing only applies to physical things like chairs and cars. that
> > whole metaphor of information as physical entities is wrong.
> > you sure can infringe someone's copyrights but you cannot steal anything
> > since there's nothing to steal.
> 
> Some philosopher said that all philosophical debates were inherently
> linguistic ones that stemmed from not having the words to represent the
> concepts being spoken about. We're using different definitions of "steal,"
> but the concept is clear -- it's taking something you don't have the right
> to have taken without paying for, and the debate is over whether you do
> or should have that right.
> 
This discussion is, of course, pointless but since I read it I may also comment :) I wan to support Yigal Chripun. So you say stealing is "taking something". But information (and software) is not something. It is not something you can take. I "pirate" something and I have my copy and you have yours. Nothing have been taken all are happy. This is actually a good thing. Too bad food doesn't work this way. The problem is greed. It has nothing to do with stealing.

> I think what a lot of these arguments boil down to is people trying to
> justify taking stuff without paying for it. Plain and simple. I do on occasion
> download videos (these days only anime fansubs).  And I don't feel bad
> about it. But I do know it's stealing. Downloading a $10 CD is really
> no better than shoplifting a $10 CD, because the people who worked to
> bring that CD into existence are not being paid for it.

It is not the same as shoplifting as you are not depriving anyone from anything. So you are not stealing anything. It is moral (and that is relative) to pay for the author's work, but only if you like it. When you buy a CD with 14 shitty songs because you are exposed to advertising of one good one, why don't you pay 1/15 of the price? This is more stealing than "pirating" because you are actually mislead to buy something that you would normally not buy because it sucks.

I have had similar discussions but how can you explain my mother who works for 150$ a month (and she needs to eat pay bills, etc with these) that she has to pay MS 500$ for their software that is what? Pixels? Bytes? What?

Anyway. In my opinion it comes down to greed cause no one is stealing anything. Just some people are not willing to share although they are not losing anything. And to lose something you must own it. So you can't lose a million dollars of sales because you haven't sold anything in the first place. If authors were more conscious (less greedy) they would share because if the users were more conscious (less living in a society where everyone wants to *make you* pay for something) they would show gratitude by paying.

Regards,
bobef