[LINK] In other news....

Richard Chirgwin rchirgwin at ozemail.com.au
Mon Jun 25 13:59:34 AEST 2007


Rick Welykochy wrote:
> Robin Stephens wrote:
>
>> On 23/06/07, grove at zeta.org.au <grove at zeta.org.au> wrote:
>>> http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/06/23/1959801.htm
>>
>> In the article: "US District Attorney Chuck Rosenburg has hailed the
>> conviction, saying that whether committed with a gun or a keyboard,
>> theft is theft."
>>
>> I think anyone who has had a gun pointed at their face would disagree.
>
> Rosenburg is off the mark. If what he says was technically correct,
> there would not be two separate areas of law, one for larceny
> (theft of physical property) and one for copyright (theft of
> virtual property).
>
> Philosophically speaking, it is one thing to relieve another
> person of their chattel at gunpoint. It is quite another to copy virtual
> property without actually depriving anyone of anything using a keyboard.
>
> Would Rosenburg feel the same under either circumstance? I strongly doubt
> it. Continuing Robin's thought, in the case of being held up
> at gun point, post-traumatic stress and attendant psychological damage
> is a real and commonplace outcome. The same cannot be said for virtual
> theft.

Rick,

Rosenburg isn't actually expressing "what is", he is describing "how we 
would like it to be" from the point of view of a particular political 
philosophy.

Right-wing thinkers the world over are beating this drum - the one which 
says "intellectual property rights are the same as physical property 
rights". The aim is to end up with judges who agree - to end up with 
laws changed not by parliament, but essentially by a process of creating 
a "new" community standard through loud enough noise.

I would, however, note that the "point of a gun" issue is not theft ... 
that's why someone who uses a weapon to rob a person will confront a 
different set of charges to someone who (say) commits a break-and-enter 
without confronting or distressing the house-owner.

RC

RC

>
>
> cheers
> rickw
>
>
>



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