Is Piracy OK if the Property isn’t Intellectual?
Written by Ernesto on March 17, 2007It is doubtful that the term “intellectual property” is still applicable to the majority of the Hollywood productions, especially the intellectual part. So, is piracy still intellectual property theft if the property is not a product of the intellect? Great cartoon by Clay Bennett
Clay Bennett won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in 2002.
If you don't like torrents try MP3 Fiesta. They hold nearly 67,000 albums from nearly 17,000 artists. Prices are around the $0.10 mark for single tracks with full albums coming in at roughly $1.00. Tracks are available from 192kbps and they take major credit cards and PayPal
Previously: TorrentPod Episode 29
Next: P2P File-Sharing Ruins Physical Piracy Business
13 Responses (Add yours or TrackBack)
Bwhahahaha ;) great. Just like that other article, where clips were used to countermeasure torrenting, because we are downloading ‘creative and intellectual’ property. He made a point.
Sharing and Trading is not Piracy.
Piracy is copying products for resale without permission from the original creater/producer of the product.
Businesses could benifit more if the would see the great opportunity they are missing.
Ex. Allow free distribution of music and sell concert tickets or offer more tangible value to there products not only a 25cent CD and Picture, but a book or accessory that cannot be copied easily. It is impossible to copy a live performance. A printed book is difficult to copy. Include a free/discounted concert ticket with the CD.
Basically the big companies want to own a pattern of vibrating air (audio music). But they hold hostage our culture with copyright powers.
Imagine if “Happy Birthday” were copyrighted and we could never sing it in public.
“Happy Birthday” is copyrighted, and you have to pay someone if you want to use it in a video you plan to distribute.
The correct term isn’t theft. Legally, theft is a taking with the intent to deprive the true owner of the property from having possession and use. When intellectual property is illegally copied, the correct term is infringement.
@peter:
Ever wonder why restaurants make up stupid songs instead of singing the Birthday song? Because it’s copyrighted, and that would be an unauthorized performance of a copyrighted work.
See snopes.
http://www.snopes.com/music/songs/birthday.asp
Yeah, except for the fact that anything intellectual is too far beyond the mental age of the average American. Can’t win, can we.
Intellect is still intellect if the product seems retarded. It’s a creation that could not have happened without conscious effort. Intellectual Property means the creation belongs to the person or legal entity that created it. IP rights can be transfered as well. Since it is still a creation, even a retarded one, it still falls under these rights.
Though the comic does make a funny little stab at piracy. I still think it is piracy if you are not paying for the representation of the work that is being commercially distributed though. Sharing is one thing, sending a song to a friend or burning a cd for a cute girl.. sure. Torrents get into the realm of distribution though. Sites that are making dollars off advertisement and tracking these distributions of commercial product are pirating. People downloading are hardly at all just sharing as well. They’ve thought out that they don’t want to pay for the creation, so they are just going to take it from where it is being freely distributed. PIRACY.
Don’t defend it. Just accept it. You are a Pirate! :D YARARRRRGH!!
[quote comment="65461"]Ex. Allow free distribution of music and sell concert tickets or offer more tangible value to there products not only a 25cent CD and Picture, but a book or accessory that cannot be copied easily. It is impossible to copy a live performance. A printed book is difficult to copy. Include a free/discoun[/quote]
They really ought to go back to the LP as distribution medium; the equipment to reproduce them in quantity is expensive and often of extremely poor quality if my recollection of boots from the 70s is correct. Also, the sound quality of the legitimate product is superior to CDs anyway.
Cheers
Just my two cents, but intellectual property, whether an adaptation or a derivative thereof, is still a creation. The comic seems to be a comment on whether or not the idea has any intellectual value or what the intellectual value might be, i.e. the cultural significance, which has zero relevance to it’s commercial value but does not dispute the idea of an intellectual creation. They are two very different arguments and niether justifies theft. When all you have are your creative endeavors and the world seeks to benefit from them without paying, that is theft. The song is bread to the musician as is the film/dvd/mp4/whatever to the filmmaker/writer/producer/every single crew member who worked 15 hours a day.
Phil
One should have socailistic economy. this eliminate pirate problem. all things owned by state and free to all man of state.
also good to free healthcare. individual persons no need to have income. just work for state and state provide all things.
3 references to this post
Add your response