On 1/26/07 10:33 AM, "Dave Crossland" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > The original point was: It doesn't make sense to equate copying > digital information with stealing physical objects.
No...? If you were to come into possession tomorrow of a copy of the yet-to-be-published seventh Harry Potter book, and you reposted it on the web, would _that_ be equivalent to stealing a physical object? Or would it be _worse_? > Of course, if you have an agreement not to copy, it is wrong to break > that agreement. But it is more wrong to not share with your friends. > Most people have an intuitive understanding of this, and share > unauthorised copies. So, if I've paid $500 for a media asset management package, it's "more wrong" for me to tell a friend, "I'm sorry, you have to buy your own copy" than it is for me to steal $500 from the author of the package, is that what you're saying? > The agreement not to copy is based on copyright law, and this was > originally created to benefit the public when they could not make > their own copies. Now that we can make our own copies, a law > prohibiting copying does not benefit us, so we break it. Most people > have an intuitive understanding of this. What? How did copyright law _ever_ "benefit the public when they could not make their own copies"? Uncontrolled copying would have "benefited the public" by making more copies available, and more cheaply, but at a cost of bankruptng authors who would never get paid for illegitimate copies. Copyright law has _always_ been about protecting authors, i.e. creators, from the undesirable economics effects of uncontrolled copying of their work. Period. Your statements on copyright law are completely contrary to actual fact. > How can we escape this moral dilemma, where we are being unethical > with either choice? How is respecting an author's wishes regarding his own work "unethical"? To quote Inigo Montoya in "The Princess Bride", "You keep using that word, but I do not think it means what you think it does."
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