The ability to change features, prices, and availability of things you’ve already paid for is a powerful temptation to corporations.

  • @gapbetweenus@feddit.de
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    1821 year ago

    One of the great modern scams, was to convince society that unauthorized copying of data is somehow equivalent to taking away a physical object.

    • @Coasting0942@reddthat.com
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      711 year ago

      Jesus didn’t ask for permission to copy bread and fish. It’s a clear moral precedent that if you can copy you should.

      What would the Jesus do?

      Checkmate Atheists!

          • @gapbetweenus@feddit.de
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            101 year ago

            You seem to not understand what the word own means and the difference between material and not material goods.

              • @gapbetweenus@feddit.de
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                91 year ago

                I have a thing and than someone takes it away, so I can’t use it anymore. If somebody copies that thing - it’s not really theft.

                My point is more - concepts from physical world don’t nessessary apply to digital world.

                • @ParsnipWitch@feddit.de
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                  21 year ago

                  It just seems that what you are saying is that people shouldn’t be paid if their work doesn’t create something physical.

                  • @gapbetweenus@feddit.de
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                    01 year ago

                    Nope, that’s not what I’m saying. I just make a difference between copying, stealing, physical goods, digital goods and immaterial things. They are not the same.

                    Easy examples: original and copy does not really apply to digital works or two people on opposite sides of world can have the same thought but not have the same physical object at the same time, etc.

                  • @TootGuitar@reddthat.com
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                    1 year ago

                    You say “ask the dictionary” — multiple dictionary definitions as well as Wikipedia say that theft requires the intent to deprive the original owner of the property in question, which obviously doesn’t apply to copyright infringement of digital works.

                    You say “ask the law” — copyright infringement is not stealing, they are literally two completely different statutes, at least in the US.

                    So, what the hell are you talking about? Copyright infringement is not theft.

          • @lolcatnip@reddthat.com
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            31 year ago

            I love how you guys play these mental gymnastics to justify this shit to yourselves.

            I love how you bootlickers always deny that anyone could possibly have a principled objection to modern intellectual property laws. I don’t need to “justify” at all. I rarely even pirate anything, but I don’t believe I’m doing anything wrong when I do.

          • @aylex@lemm.ee
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            01 year ago

            “Something you never would have dedicated as much time to if you couldn’t be compensated for it.”

            Just telling on yourself 😂

          • @merc@sh.itjust.works
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            -11 year ago

            Intellectual property is not a thought that you own. It’s an idea

            Ah, it’s an idea, not a thought. Gotcha. Glad you cleared that up.

            Something that actually takes time to make, often a whole lot of time.

            Who the fuck cares? Dinner also takes a great deal of time to make.

            Something you never would have dedicated as much time to if you couldn’t be compensated for it.

            That’s not true. People have been telling stories and creating art since humanity climbed down from the trees. Compensation might encourage more people to do it, but there was never a time that people weren’t creating, regardless of compensation. In addition, copyright, patents and trademarks are only one way of trying to get compensation. The Sistine chapel ceiling was painted not by an artist who was protected by copyright, but by an artist who had rich patrons who paid him to work.

            Maybe “Meg 2: The Trench” wouldn’t have been made unless Warner Brothers knew it would be protected by copyright until 2143. But… maybe it’s not actually necessary to give that level of protection to the expression of ideas for people to be motivated to make them. In addition, maybe the harms of copyright aren’t balanced by the fact that people in 2143 will finally be able to have “Meg 2: The Trench” in the public domain.

      • @merc@sh.itjust.works
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        61 year ago

        Intellectual property is a scam, the term was invented to convince dumb people that a government-granted monopoly on the expression of an idea is the same thing as “property”.

        You can’t “steal” intellectual property, you can only infringe on someone’s monopoly rights.

        • @Katana314@lemmy.world
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          21 year ago

          This feels like an easy statement to make when it applies to Disney putting out new Avatar movies. Then, suddenly, you realize how extensively it causes problems when you’re a photographer trying to get magazines to pay for copies of the once-in-a-lifetime photo you took, instead of re-printing it without your permission.

          “InfORMaTioN wANts tO Be FrEe, yO.”

          • @merc@sh.itjust.works
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            11 year ago

            Then, suddenly, you realize how extensively it causes problems when you’re a photographer trying to get magazines to pay for copies of the once-in-a-lifetime photo you took

            That’s a pretty specific example. Probably because in many cases photographers are paid in advance. A wedding photographer doesn’t show up at the wedding, take a lot of pictures, then try to work out a deal with the couple getting married. They negotiate a fee before the wedding, and when the wedding is over they turn over the pictures in exchange for the money. Other photographers work on a salary.

            Besides, even with your convoluted, overly-specific example, even without a copyright, a magazine would probably pay for the photo. Even if they didn’t get to control the copying of the photo, they could still get the scoop and have the picture out before other people. In your world, how would they “reprint” it without your permission? Would they break into your house and sneakily download it from your phone or camera?

            • @Katana314@lemmy.world
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              11 year ago

              This is the kind of situation I’m citing:

              https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/09/one-mans-endless-hopeless-struggle-to-protect-his-copyrighted-images/

              A lot of photography is not based on planning ahead before being paid (a person requests Photo X, and then pays on delivery). Nature photographers, and in fact many other forms of artists, produce a work before people know/feel they want it, and then sell it based on demonstration - a media outlet notices their work in a gallery or on their website, and then requests use of that work themselves.

              The struggles of the above insect photographer are even with the existing IP laws - they only ask for fair compensation from what they’ve put so much effort into, and VERY MANY media outlets don’t bother; to say nothing of giving a charitable donation.

              • @merc@sh.itjust.works
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                01 year ago

                then sell it based on demonstration - a media outlet notices their work in a gallery or on their website

                So, they choose to rely on copyright, when they could do work for hire instead.

                they only ask for fair compensation from what they’ve put so much effort into

                No, they ask for unfair compensation based on copyrights.

                • @Katana314@lemmy.world
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                  11 year ago

                  No - they CAN’T do work for hire. Are you listening?

                  “Hi. I do really cool photos. Please hire me to take one, and after you’ve paid me, you can see it.”

                  According to you, that’s a comprehensive resume and advertisement for a photographer, absent of a single graphic. According to you, a client could come to a consult about buying a photo, sneak their phone camera up to the print, and say “Never mind about payment! I just copied it. You can keep the print! So long, loser.”

                  You’re not even trying to imagine the impossible hurdles such a craft would have trying to earn enough to eat food every day, much less have a roof over their head. If you have nothing substantive to add, everyone on this site should be done with you.

                  • @merc@sh.itjust.works
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                    01 year ago

                    No - they CAN’T do work for hire. Are you listening?

                    Your inability to imagine anything other than the status quo is really depressing.

        • @bane_killgrind@lemmy.ml
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          11 year ago

          Imagine if startrek was written with IP in mind. Instead of all these wunderkinds being all gung ho about implementing their warp field improvements on your reactor you’d get some ferengi shilling the latest and greatest “marketable” blech engine improvements.

          Fiction is much better without reality leeching in.

          • @merc@sh.itjust.works
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            11 year ago

            Star Trek was set in a future utopia. One of the key things about the show is that it’s a post-scarcity world where even physical objects can be replicated.

            They definitely wrote the series with IP in mind… in that their view of a future utopia was one where not only did copyright etc. not exist, but nobody cared much about the ownership of physical objects either.

          • @TootGuitar@reddthat.com
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            21 year ago

            For someone who bitches all over this thread about people strawmanning their position, this is a pretty fucking great reply.

            Hint: one can be pissed about people throwing around the not-based-in-legal-reality term “intellectual property.” One can be pissed about people using it as part of a strategy to purposely confuse the public into thinking that copyright infringement is the same as theft, a strategy which has apparently worked mightily well on you. One can be all of those things, and yet still feel that copyright infringement is wrong and no one should be entitled to “literally everything someone else creates.”

            What you posted was a textbook definition of a straw man.

              • @TootGuitar@reddthat.com
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                21 year ago

                I don’t know how the original poster meant it, but one possible way to interpret it (which is coincidentally my opinion) is that the concept of intellectual property is a scam, but the underlying actual legal concepts are not. Meaning, the law defines protections for copyrights, trademarks, patents, and trade secrets, and each of those has their uses and are generally not “scams,” but mixing them all together and packaging them up into this thing called intellectual property (which has no actual legal basis for its existence) is the scam. Does that make sense?

                • @merc@sh.itjust.works
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                  11 year ago

                  Exactly, “intellectual property” doesn’t exist. It’s a term that was created to try to lump together various unrelated government-granted rights: trademark, copyright, patents, etc. They’re all different, and the only thing they have in common is that they’re all rights granted by the government. None of them is property though. That was just a clever term made up by a clever lobbyist to convince people to think of them as property, rather than government-granted rights related to the copying of ideas. Property is well-understood, limited government-granted rights to control the copying of ideas is less well understood. If the lobbyists can get people to think of “intellectual property” they’ve won the framing of the issue.

                  • @TootGuitar@reddthat.com
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                    1 year ago

                    Could we stop having this meta-debate about what a person who is not either of us meant, and instead could you comment on the substance of my post?

      • @lolcatnip@reddthat.com
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        61 year ago

        If no one thinks that, why are you saying it right now?

        Actual theft of intellectual property would involve somehow tricking the world into thinking you hold the copyright to something that someone else owns.

      • @Cypher@aussie.zone
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        1 year ago

        The performers time is not infinitely reproducible so your argument is apples to oranges.

        • @ominouslemon@lemm.ee
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          51 year ago

          But the time to create a novel, a videogame, or a news story is not infinitely reproducible, either. So when you are pirsting one of those things, you are actively reaping the benefits of someone’s time for free, like going to a concert without a ticket

          • Venia Silente
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            41 year ago

            There’s a difference between the performer’s time to create not being infinitely reproducible, and an user’s time to use the product being or not infinitely reproducible. Whether I’m pirating or buying a TV show, the actors were already compensated for their time and use for the show; my payment for buying actually goes to the corporate fat: licensors, distributors, etc.

            Whereas when pay a ticket into a live concert, I’m actually paying for something to be made.

              • @CybranM@feddit.nu
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                61 year ago

                It just magically appears /s Its disingenuous to try and justify piracy on the basis that the performers have already been paid. I don’t agree with studios either of course, customers are being scammed

              • Venia Silente
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                01 year ago

                From the investors who are paying the cheques of course. They are corporations, they can afford to spend some coins on [checks notes] living wages.

                  • Venia Silente
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                    01 year ago

                    And such “return” comes after the work, not before. So there’s no reason to condition the wages to do the work, on the potential that the work might be sold or not and to what amount of people. Now that would be air-quotes “stealing”!

            • @ominouslemon@lemm.ee
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              41 year ago

              This only applies to cases where the artist/actor/whatever gets paid upfront. Most of the times, that does not happen. The creator of something only gets money when somebody buys what they have created (books, videogames, music, etc)

              • @Katana314@lemmy.world
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                21 year ago

                Even if they were paid upfront, they were paid off the idea that the company could make bank on their (ready yourself for the word in case it triggers): Intellectual Property.

                In a future world where people have achieved their wish and the concept no longer exists, companies have no reason to pay creators ahead of time.

              • Venia Silente
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                11 year ago

                I can get that they’d not necessarily be paid upfront, but there is no possible legal contract in which they are to be paid only in the future, in causality, according to the performance of a ~~third~ ~ fourth party who is not in the contract. What, are the actors paying their weekly groceries with IOUs?

                • @ominouslemon@lemm.ee
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                  11 year ago

                  Every artist in every field get MAYBE paid a tiny bit upfront, and then a percentage of the sales. That’s how books and music work, for instance

          • @Chobbes@lemmy.world
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            41 year ago

            Yeah, this is the real issue. That said it is a shame and a waste for the results of these efforts to be artificially restricted. I do really hope that one day we can find a way to keep people fed and happy while fully utilizing the incredible technology we have for copying and redistributing data.

            • @ominouslemon@lemm.ee
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              31 year ago

              I mean, we’ve kinda already found a way, and it’s ads. Now it’s obvious that the ad market as a whole is horrible (it’s manipulative, it has turned into spying, it does not work really well, it’s been controlled by just a handful of companies etc), but at least it’s democratic in that it allows broader access to culture to everyone while still paying the creators.

              Personally, I would not be against ads, if they were not tracking me. As of now, though, the situation seems fucked up and a new model is probably necessary. It’s just that, until now, every other solution is worse for creators.

      • @gapbetweenus@feddit.de
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        91 year ago

        I don’t see anything wrong with paying for software or music or digital media. I don’t think that not doing so is theft - like I also don’t think that getting into a concert without paying is theft. By the way a concert is also not digital data, at least an irl one.

        • @SCB@lemmy.world
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          71 year ago

          A library card is your ticket there and libraries are paid via taxes, which is why they’re free at point of use.

          Attending a free concert is not stealing. Breaking into the Eras tour is.

          • snooggums
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            91 year ago

            The library buys once and allows multiple people to read/watch each item without each person needing to individually purchase. Just like one person buying something and sharing it with others.

            The main point is that digitization distribution is not a concert

            • @SCB@lemmy.world
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              -31 year ago

              Digital distribution is a service. You can steal a service.

              If you fuck a prostitute and then don’t pay them, you are stealing from them.

              • snooggums
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                41 year ago

                If the prostitute uses a technique, and then you use the same technique without paying hem for reuse, is that stealing or does their direct involvement matter?

                • @sdoorex@slrpnk.net
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                  01 year ago

                  If you’re going to retype the code of a program from scratch, then your analogy is valid. If instead you are taking the production created through someone else’s labor without compensating them, then you are stealing from them.

                  • snooggums
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                    41 year ago

                    Stop reading my comments if you aren’t going to pay me.

                • @SCB@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  Prostitutes don’t become prostitutes because they know secret techniques.

                  The metaphor is describing the service provided, and that not paying for said service is indeed stealing.

                  Trying to make it a different metaphor requires a new framework from you, because you copying their actual service would be you pimping them, under this metaphor.

                  • snooggums
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                    31 year ago

                    Someone sharing content on a peer to peer distribution network is not using the digital distribution service of whoever sold the content. They are not ‘stealing’ HBOs bandwidth to share Game of Thrones.

                    They are sharing a thing that they initially paid for from HBO at no cost to others, similar to letting your friends watch it with you on your TV at the same time. The only difference is scale.

              • @psud@aussie.zone
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                01 year ago

                It’s okay I won’t use their digital distribution system to pirate their stuff.

                It’s just like falling to pay a prostitute you never fucked

        • @ParsnipWitch@feddit.de
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          1 year ago

          Libraries get money via tax. What people here are arguing for is that others should work for them or free. Because game studios, for example, are overwhelmingly not paid via tax money. They are depending on people buying their software. And many software has ongoing costs.

      • @CmdrShepard@lemmy.one
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        11 year ago

        Do you think I should be forced to pay for a ticket if I’m standing next to the concert venue on the sidewalk but can still hear the performance?

      • @psud@aussie.zone
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        11 year ago

        I have never had a problem with people taking a tape recorder to a concert, even if it’s against terms of service