Piracy

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Nice mental gymnastics.

There is a disturbing subtext to pro-piracy arguments.

While copyrighting general things like speech itself, or specific foods or whatnot is of course ridiculous. copyrighting specific individual executions of an idea is absolutely right and necessary. This is because everything that can be sold, including the physical, starts out as an abstract idea: an intellectual property.

The jaws of life stated out as an idea in someone's head, who then drew a rough schematic of it on paper, before it was mass produced into the physical life saving device it is today. No one can copyright the concept of pottery, but if a man creates a uniquely designed pot, with his own unique visual designs on it and sells it as his own unique creation, anyone making a pot exactly like his and calling it his own and trying to make a profit from it is obviously stealing his idea. No one can copyright paintings, but an actual physical painting that a man creates is his own unique execution of that idea. If you were to perfectly copy a William-Adolphe Bouguereau painting on a canvas, with the same tools he used (oil paint, mediums, etc.) and were to call it your own original creation, you would rightly be called a thief/plagiarizer of his unique execution of the painting concept. In the same way, while you can start your own hamburger chain, you can't make you logo a yellow set of arches over "Mcdonald's" text, and start selling burgers and fries with the exact same recipes and marketing strategies and say "this is my original intellectual property." Once again, you are stealing that specific execution of the idea.

Then we come to books, music, video games, and software in general. If a book is sold in the form of a collection of sheets of highly processed tree pulp, or if music, video games and software are sold on some unique physical proprietary physical form (such as vinyl records for music), pro-pirates will say that it is theft to take such things. However, as soon as these formats become digital or in compact digital disc form, in their eyes, it's no longer theft. What happened? What changed?

This is where the disturbing subtext of pro-piracy comes in. What do formats such as digital and digitally based discs have in common? Copying and distributing them requires a pathetically low level of effort. In other words, when a pro-pirate says "copying is not theft", what they're REALLY saying, sub-textually is this: "If it's EASY to copy, it's not theft."

Let's demonstrate this logic in action:

Sandy wrote a book. Getting your book published by a major publisher is very difficult, and the modern world, economically, is becoming more and more digitally based. So she decides to try her luck with selling/distributing her book digitally.

Pro-pirate copies her book and distributes it via torrent, etc.

Sandy: Stop doing that! I'm trying to make living off my work!

Pro-pirate: Your work is easy to copy and distribute, so it's not stealing.

Sandy: But I worked my butt of on it! It's my unique execution of the written word! If it were a physical book, you wouldn't be doing this!

Pro-pirate: So find a publisher who will make physical copies of your book.

Sandy: It's not that easy or simple!

Pro-pirate: Well, tough break toots. As long as your book is digital, it's easy to copy, and thus, not theft.

I remember one time when I was very young (and stupid) I helped out "friends" (who I've since broken off with) with a shoplift. In the aftermath, I felt crushing guilt and sickness to my stomach, and never wanted to do it again. When I used to be a pirate/so-called "ethical pirate"(I'll pay for it when I get the money!"), I would feel no such feelings. I just clicked with a mouse, and boom, it was there. I didn't feel any guilt or a drive to rid myself of such things until I became a Christian.

Thus, in addition to ease of copying, a lack of guilt/adrenaline rush that comes from physical stealing is a major part of the pro-pirate's rationalization. And you can see this in action as things become easier and easier to copy.

Vinyl records are now easier to copy than before. The phenomenon of illegal emulation and ROMS is the product of some individuals figuring out how to digitally copy game cartridges and distribute them online, making them easy to acquire. As 3-D printing technology advances, it's going to become a pirates wet dream.

In the far flung future, if someone came up with some sort of a ray gun that you could go to a car lot with, zap a car, and instantaneously perfectly duplicate the car and a set of keys right on the spot, the pro-pirate would not consider this theft, even though if such a practice became wide-spread, Car dealerships would go out of business very quickly.

God commanded us not to steal. Jesus also told a parable of all of us being endowed with talents by him ( Matthew 25:14-30). If someone distributes their talents in a format that is easy to copy, for the sake of said person making a living that person's attempt to make a living should be respected, period. Even if their idea/intellectual property is painfully easy to copy and distribute, and even if you feel absolutely entitled to said idea/intellectual property because of whatever flimsy rationalization you come up with.

Almost forgot - there is also the phenomenon of people scanning in physical books, page by page, and then distributing them in a digitized format. Once again, as long as even a physical object becomes easy to copy/distribute/gain, it no longer becomes "theft" in the eyes of a pro-pirate.

As you can see: the "If it's easy to copy, it's not theft" logic of a pirate, becomes a literal slippery slope very quickly and easily.

Imagine if the apostles had copyrighted their works and prohibited people from copying and distributing them, all in the name of greed. In all likelihood Christianity would have stayed a little sect now long-forgotten by history.

Freely you have received; freely give.

Big difference.

Think.

There's no such thing as a "digital book". Here's the definition of a book:
1. a written or printed work consisting of pages glued or sewn together along one side and bound in covers.

How about selling "real" books and not pretend ones?

Literally addressed this flimsy argument near the end of this post:

You're also proving my point about the "If it's easy to copy, it's not theft" argument of pro-pirates.