Bylund on piracy
Per Bylund recently published an article on piracy in Sweden, on LRC. The article is about piracy, and how government and multi-national corporations are trying to shut it down, in the name of property rights.
I have long claimed that piracy is not, or ought not to be considered as, a crime. Although I am not a believer in rights per se, I do believe in the necessity of fixed, mutually agreed, rules. One of these rules should be (the way I see it), the old testament commandment "Thou shalt not steal".
Piracy, however, is not stealing. Everyone who has bought a DVD movie recently have seen the anti-piracy campaign, "you wouldn't steal a car", etc., a campaign which is comparing stealing a car to downloading a movie (or music, etc). This is an incorrect statement. If I steal a car, or if I walk in to a grocery shop and steals a bag of chips, some meat, mineral water, and today's news paper, then I am actually stealing a physical object.
Downloading, or piracy, cannot be compared to this. Downloading means creating a copy of the original file. The original file does not cease to exist, and it does not exclusively fall into the downloader's possession (legitimate or not*). The downloader simply creates a copy of it.
Read Bylund's article here.
*With possession I mean control of an object, no matter how the object has been possessed. Someone who steals a car possesses it, although he does not own it.
I have long claimed that piracy is not, or ought not to be considered as, a crime. Although I am not a believer in rights per se, I do believe in the necessity of fixed, mutually agreed, rules. One of these rules should be (the way I see it), the old testament commandment "Thou shalt not steal".
Piracy, however, is not stealing. Everyone who has bought a DVD movie recently have seen the anti-piracy campaign, "you wouldn't steal a car", etc., a campaign which is comparing stealing a car to downloading a movie (or music, etc). This is an incorrect statement. If I steal a car, or if I walk in to a grocery shop and steals a bag of chips, some meat, mineral water, and today's news paper, then I am actually stealing a physical object.
Downloading, or piracy, cannot be compared to this. Downloading means creating a copy of the original file. The original file does not cease to exist, and it does not exclusively fall into the downloader's possession (legitimate or not*). The downloader simply creates a copy of it.
Read Bylund's article here.
*With possession I mean control of an object, no matter how the object has been possessed. Someone who steals a car possesses it, although he does not own it.
Labels: Lew Rockwell, Per Bylund, piracy, property rights
posted by Johan R. Sjöberg at 10:21 AM
1 Comments:
Certainly I can see anti-piracy laws being impractical to enforce in a free market, but on its' own the fact that a crime is not prosecuted does not stop it being a crime. Then again why create crimes you are unwilling or unable to enforce?
I'm still a bit agnostic on this issue. For instance does this mean that a secrecy clause in a contract is not legally valid?
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