[plug] Re: "stealing"?

[garry]

I believe, IMHO, you are 1/2 right. 
The _other_ 1/2 is similar in effect, only the method of delivery is
changed. If you use a copyrighted product without the copyright owner
being paid, are you not depriving him/her the opportunity of selling a
paid seat in exactly the same way? 

(In my simile, the difference in fuel and maintenance costs for one
seat's occupation would be immeasurable on a commercial flight!)

And this is the point. If you choose to use product someone has for sale
without paying for it when you should have paid for it, you are reducing
the income of that person.

Intellectual property is still property, whether or not the original
physical disk is used to distribute it.

IF we deny a copyright holder his/her intellectual rights, we need to
otherwise reward him/her for their efforts. In a Marxist society, it
would be according to need, for effort according to ability. I'm glad I
don't live in such a society, the innovations we enjoy would not have
been made!

I'm not sure if this is where you are coming from, but a Linux list is
not the place for a socialist/capitalist debate.. That would be far
better argued in the Modern History section of your favourite library..

Regards

Garry


> . If you take a person on a flight, something has been lost by the
> provider of the flight: the ability to take someone else.  This loss
> occurs regardless of the existence of laws that prevent you doing so
> or not.  In contrast, making a copy of a copyrighted work without
> permission does not directly involve the loss of something by the
> copyright owner.