Tim O'Reilly Says Piracy is Progressive Taxation

Idmat writes "In Tim's latest opus, he reflects on the lessons of his experience as a publisher: (1) Obscurity is a far greater threat to authors and creative artists than piracy, (2) Piracy is progressive taxation; (3) Customers want to do the right thing, if they can; (4)Shoplifting is a bigger threat than piracy; (5) File sharing networks don't threaten book, music, or film publishing. They threaten existing publishers; (6)"Free" is eventually replaced by a higher-quality paid service; and finally, courtesy of Larry Wall, (7)There's more than one way to do it. "

Comments

Just what we need

[NDPTAL85]

Yay, more lame justifications for illegal piracy/theft* of goods.

*To all you morally challenged individuals who will try to espouse on the differences between piracy and theft, save it. Theft is theft is theft. Downloading music you did not buy is theft period.

Re:Piracy is Theft

[reallocate]

It is common here to link theft to removing a physical object, to, as you put it, deplete the supply by one without paying for it. The assertion is often used an an attempt to nullify theft of intellectual property: That argument states that there is no theft since the supply is not reduced.

Theft is the acquisition of something -- physical or intellectural property -- without permission. If you shoplift a CD, that's theft, because you have acquired something without permission of the owner. That you "depleted the supply" is an effect of your theft, but it is not the theft itself.

Likewise, if you acquire a copy of intellectual property without the permission of the property's owner, you have engaged in theft. The fact that the supply is not "depleted" by your action does not nullify the theft.