Reply To: Political Statements
There are so many things wrong with your last post.
First, intellectual property exists tangentially to the concept of a market economy. Neither is dependent on the other for existence.
Intellectual property isn’t “goods” in the traditional sense, and particularly not in the modern age. You might get away with that if you were discussing market forces half a century ago, when it was a lot easier than two mouse clicks to replicate a song/DVD/whatever, but not today. The sale of entertainment commodities these days is not a zero sum game. How do you define “theft” when you have digital storefronts that can distribute an effectively limitless supply of virtual content?
If someone makes a copy of an MP3 that they bought and drops it onto their spouse’s MP3 player, is that “theft”? If someone rips a song off a CD that they borrowed and decides they don’t particularly enjoy the song and delete it, was that “theft”?
You throw a lot of absolutes in your definitions, without realizing that the universe has shifted around you. Nowhere have I seen you make any concession about practicality, especially as your position flies directly in the face of enlightened self-interest. You can talk about idealism all day long but at the end of the day what matters is how you go about changing people’s behaviors. Go talk to the Communists about how well idealism has worked out for them.