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Copyright v. Piracy: "It's not theft." | by Illiad | 2008-08-27 16:36:18 |
| You got that right. |
by Peace_man |
2008-08-27 21:22:06 |
Copyright violation is not theft, since it doesn't deprive anybody of anything. Or, if you will, it is 'lesser' theft, since what is stolen is not something material, but the opportunity to make money from something.
As such, I'd rather see copyright violation being moved away from criminal law entirely; and that includes the Canadian version of the DMCA treating circumvention of DRM features as a crime. It isn't. Also, the kind of punitive damages that far exceed any reasonable estimate of the actual harm done by copyright violators (RIAA lawsuits) should never be assessed by a court that pretends to serve people; it shows a court to be serving other interests than the common good.
Since what is stolen is the opportunity to make money from a creative work, I totally agree on treating abandoned works as belonging to the public domain. Since the copyright holder has no intention of making money from the material, there is no harm in distributing it. None whatsoever. And if you want a justification that is politically correct in the circles that harp on the benefits of copyright, it will even benefit the economy by someone being able to serve up a few ads along with this publicly available content :-)
Now, since we are on the subject on what is proper and just in the exercising of copyright, I personally feel that it is improper to include ads in DVD's. Without any kind of notice on the cover; without offering a choice of possibly paying a little more to avoid those annoying ads. And using the DRM features that copyright holders are now insisting on including with technology that plays back copyrighted material to make these ads unavoidable. That kind of abuse of the public is ethically wrong. And before the copyright holders get on their high moral horse braying about piracy being a crime, they really should ensure their own behaviour can stand some scrutiny.
I'm not saying that piracy is not wrong. I'm saying that I find it very understandable, given the way copyright is treated by large copyright holders*, and, thanks to their lobbying effort, by the government and courts. I can easily see it as an exercise in civil disobedience as a response to manifestly unjust laws.
*I'm excluding Illiad from this category - I feel his ethics are sound. |
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