[LINK] Is it unethical to infringe a patent?

[Craig Sanders]

On Fri, Aug 18, 2006 at 06:52:10PM +1000, Deus Ex Machina wrote:
> Howard Lowndes [lannet at lannet.com.au] wrote:
> > Deus Ex Machina wrote:
> > >nothing is owned by everyone. even if it is owned by everyone then
> > >the theft still cant happen since they are already an owner.
> >
> > Fallacy 1.  If you own something in common with other parties, it
> > is possible to steal from those other parties if your actions are
> > intended to permanently deprive all or any of those other parties of
> > their share of the ownership.
>
> its hard to consider that stealing, since you have an interest in it,
> you cant steal something you own, or something nobody owns, which is
> the effect of saying everyone owns it.

of course it's stealing. it's one owner depriving all the other owners
of their share of the property.

or do you think it's impossible for joint owners to steal from each
other?

it's a very common occurrence - people steal from their partners (in any
sense of the word - business, domestic, whatever) all the time. houses,
cars, business profits...they can all get stolen by one partner from the
other(s).

> regardless there are no titles that grant everyone ownership of
> anything I am aware of, are you?

most property doesn't have any title or other document proving
ownership. land is one of the few things that does. even cars don't (car
registration is NOT a title, it's just registration of the responsible
driver).


craig

-- 
craig sanders <cas at taz.net.au>           (part time cyborg)