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By torpor on 8/12/2011 11:56:39 AM , Rating: 5
Stealing means you take something and deprive someone else of it.

But copying/playing music doesn't take anything from anyone. If you have an mp3, and I make a copy, you still have your copy. You've lost nothing. For instance, if you built yourself a computer, and I built a computer with the exact same parts, what have you lost? Nothing, of course. But if I take your computer, you don't have one anymore.

That's why our laws don't equate copyright infringement to stealing. It's not at all the same.

Our country is hurt by stifling scientific and cultural innovation by preserving these "rights" well beyond any reasonable term. Mickey Mouse is still copyrighted, nearly 100 years after first being introduced. Do you get how ridiculous that is?

And FYI, a typical record deal gets you 3% of profit after every expense the RIAA can think of or manufacture is deducted from the sales. So, on the basis of the above lawsuit, the artist might get $900, assuming the full $30,000 is considered profit (good luck).





By torpor on 8/12/2011 5:51:07 PM , Rating: 2
Taking the money would be theft.
Taking the music would not.

You assume I am willing to purchase something which moves freely between two people; that being knowledge. People have always tried to control ideas, and they have always failed.

Did you know the song, "Happy Birthday", is copyrighted?

Next time you're at some small child's party, and everyone starts to sing Happy Birthday as the cake comes around the corner, loudly inform everyone there that they're a bunch of thieves. Do it the same way you would if you saw someone raiding the mom's jewelry box and stuffing the contents into their pockets.

If this action feels natural and correct to you, then by all means, continue thinking what you think.

There's one more thing you don't understand. I'm not trying to have a philosophical discussion with you. I'm explaining the legal reasoning why our laws are as they are, and why things like the DMCA are an offense to that original reasoning.

