For what its worth, your analogy doesn't hold water, really.
A person that avoids paying a toll, uses a resources which, no matter how minute, does cause wear to. That wear does cost money in terms of maintenance. However, that does not mean it added to the cost of the initial construction (more on initial costs later).
Now, this would be akin to someone stealing a CD, listening to it, and placing it back. In which case, arguably, this "borrowing" is still stealing, and in the process causes wear to the CD.
Now, copying music, 'digital piracy,' does not at all follow this logic. That would be more akin to someone, at their own expense (i.e. bandwidth and hard drive space), paving a new road atop the old one and then not paying the tolls.
The initial costs part of the analogy also doesn't quite work. You're talking public sector and private sector: politics and markets. While there is definitely incentive to recoup the initial costs, making something by no means guarentees that you will.
Slashdot Mirror
For what its worth, your analogy doesn't hold water, really.
A person that avoids paying a toll, uses a resources which, no matter how minute, does cause wear to. That wear does cost money in terms of maintenance. However, that does not mean it added to the cost of the initial construction (more on initial costs later).
Now, this would be akin to someone stealing a CD, listening to it, and placing it back. In which case, arguably, this "borrowing" is still stealing, and in the process causes wear to the CD.
Now, copying music, 'digital piracy,' does not at all follow this logic. That would be more akin to someone, at their own expense (i.e. bandwidth and hard drive space), paving a new road atop the old one and then not paying the tolls.
The initial costs part of the analogy also doesn't quite work. You're talking public sector and private sector: politics and markets. While there is definitely incentive to recoup the initial costs, making something by no means guarentees that you will.
I'm not trolling, but seriously can anyone even navigate that site?
I couldn't even find where to get to slim black cases.
It's amazing, isn't it, that we would ratify a treaty that we knew that would could get around anyway.
Man, I'm all for laser weapons (higher precision and lowered costs), but where do you draw the line on cruelty?
Is it any wonder that we are the most litigious society?