05-05-2003, 10:04 PM
Hi,
Intellectual property is quite hard to steal.
Really? I think that it is the easiest of all to steal. Stealing someone's work, someone's ideas, someone's concepts is much easier than stealing their car or their cash.
Because even though one might effortlessly copy someone else's hard work, the originator still retains the work they have done.
Oh, I see. So it's OK to steal software, because the author still has the code? Or to steal books, because the writer still has the original? Or to steal a movie, because the studio has the master? Hell, for that matter, it's OK to steal art works made by a living artist, after all, he can always reproduce them and the materials are only a few bucks.
Sorry, but I think your argument is crap. Even in the case of the art gallery (I presume you really mean museum, galleries sell to the public and don't normally charge admission except to limited shows), it is still stealing. That gallery is in a building that someone has to pay for. It uses utilities that someone has to pay for. It has employees that have to make a living. Its source of income is the admission price. By entering without paying, you are stealing. You are taking a product (the entertainment you get from seeing what is in the gallery) without paying the price for it. It is called "theft of services" and depending on the admission price you avoid it can be minor or it can be major.
Actions have consequences. Shoplifting increases the cost of all products for all the paying customers. Warez makes the game publishing industry less profitable, causing some potentially good games never to see the light of day. Home made cable descramblers means that as smaller number of people must bear the cost of the cable services. In every case, someone is being ripped off, and usually it is the consumer that bears the cost in the end.
So, no thanks. Keep your argument. It *is* theft. And those that do it *are* scumbags.
--Pete
Intellectual property is quite hard to steal.
Really? I think that it is the easiest of all to steal. Stealing someone's work, someone's ideas, someone's concepts is much easier than stealing their car or their cash.
Because even though one might effortlessly copy someone else's hard work, the originator still retains the work they have done.
Oh, I see. So it's OK to steal software, because the author still has the code? Or to steal books, because the writer still has the original? Or to steal a movie, because the studio has the master? Hell, for that matter, it's OK to steal art works made by a living artist, after all, he can always reproduce them and the materials are only a few bucks.
Sorry, but I think your argument is crap. Even in the case of the art gallery (I presume you really mean museum, galleries sell to the public and don't normally charge admission except to limited shows), it is still stealing. That gallery is in a building that someone has to pay for. It uses utilities that someone has to pay for. It has employees that have to make a living. Its source of income is the admission price. By entering without paying, you are stealing. You are taking a product (the entertainment you get from seeing what is in the gallery) without paying the price for it. It is called "theft of services" and depending on the admission price you avoid it can be minor or it can be major.
Actions have consequences. Shoplifting increases the cost of all products for all the paying customers. Warez makes the game publishing industry less profitable, causing some potentially good games never to see the light of day. Home made cable descramblers means that as smaller number of people must bear the cost of the cable services. In every case, someone is being ripped off, and usually it is the consumer that bears the cost in the end.
So, no thanks. Keep your argument. It *is* theft. And those that do it *are* scumbags.
--Pete
How big was the aquarium in Noah's ark?