Some philosophers might argue that you are the one who is delusional since you believe there is something called property in the first place. Property is a man-made construct, similar to the Tooth Fairy. It has its uses, primarily in the area of keeping goods in one's own hands and out of the hands of others.
But actually, you "own" something if and only if you have the power to keep it to yourself (either through your own force, or a proxy force such as that of legal authorities, armies, gangster friends of yours, etc.). Lacking that power, you don't own it at all.
If a gopher steals your shoe and runs off and buries it somewhere, what happens to your "property" then? A gopher doesn't recognize your "property" because a gopher has not been conditioned to believe in the construct of property. The shoe belongs in the possession of whoever can take it.
When we are talking about something as deeply abstract as digital information, which can be stored in the form of an arrangement of magnetic switches, radio waves, or even ones and zeros printed out longhand on a page, there is even less reason to cling to this construct than in the more everyday realm of material objects.
Another interesting precursor to this book in French philosophy is Michel de Certeau's The Practice of Everyday Life, which discusses tactics involved in appropriating company time for personal use.
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Some philosophers might argue that you are the one who is delusional since you believe there is something called property in the first place. Property is a man-made construct, similar to the Tooth Fairy. It has its uses, primarily in the area of keeping goods in one's own hands and out of the hands of others.
But actually, you "own" something if and only if you have the power to keep it to yourself (either through your own force, or a proxy force such as that of legal authorities, armies, gangster friends of yours, etc.). Lacking that power, you don't own it at all.
If a gopher steals your shoe and runs off and buries it somewhere, what happens to your "property" then? A gopher doesn't recognize your "property" because a gopher has not been conditioned to believe in the construct of property. The shoe belongs in the possession of whoever can take it.
When we are talking about something as deeply abstract as digital information, which can be stored in the form of an arrangement of magnetic switches, radio waves, or even ones and zeros printed out longhand on a page, there is even less reason to cling to this construct than in the more everyday realm of material objects.
Another interesting precursor to this book in French philosophy is Michel de Certeau's The Practice of Everyday Life, which discusses tactics involved in appropriating company time for personal use.