To discuss this, we have to use the same language. Um, I'll choose English. I didn't add the word "personal"; that is how it is listed in the dictionary. The purpose of that is to distinguish what is meant by "property". The word "property" has a lot of definitions (such as a synonym for "a characteristic") most of which don't have much to do with "theft".

In English, "theft" involves "personal property" which is something physical that you can possess (which means that information isn't personal property). When I copy information, I don't deprive you of it. Income is not property either ("potential income" doubly so).

You can make arguments that so-called "intellectual property" has some things in common with property. But if you wish to redefine the English word "property" to include "information", then, sorry, no, I can't have an intelligent discussion with you.

Copyright has to do with control of information.

Copyright discussions inherently use the axiom that (original) information is property.

No, copyright holders like to talk about their information as "property" as it pretty much makes all of the decisions go their way. "Fair use" goes from "when should I be allowed to copy this information?" to "when should I be allowed to violate your copyright?" to "when is it okay for me to steal your property?".

Information is only 'not property' because you're denying it.

I saw a whole lot of people blithely talking about information as if were "property". That is quite a conclusion to jump to. I'm telling you to not jump to that conclusion. I'm not saying "information" is "electricity" or anything else. I'm saying "information" is "information". If you want to argue that it is also "property", then it is your responsibility to make that case. "Information" can have some aspects in common with "property", but it isn't the same thing as "property".

Restate your arguments using terms other than ones that people have foregone conclusions about (like most people do for "stealing property").

But the difference between "information" and "property" is trivial compared to the difference between copying information and theft. There isn't much point in me discussing copyright with someone who has already concluded that copying is "theft". Since you can't even understand that "information" is not identical to "property", then there is a ton of ground to cover before the discussion has much point.

Just in case anyone has missed this point: I haven't really said anything about my thoughts on copyrights.

Whoa. Calm down.

You seem to be making assumptions about emotional state. I suggest you stop that as doing so in text-only communication is probably going to cause you problems.

        - tye (but my friends call me "Tye")

In reply to (tye)Re3: Software piracy- what would you do? by tye
in thread Software piracy- what would you do? by scottstef

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.