[LINK] Theft, copyright, larceny...

Craig Sanders cas at taz.net.au
Thu Jun 28 07:18:19 AEST 2007


On Wed, Jun 27, 2007 at 05:07:34PM +1000, Stewart Fist wrote:
> Craig wrote:
> > 
> > nope. as i understand it, the guy didn't sell anything. he was just a
> > warez kiddie, distributing copied games etc for free.
> 
> So if I rob a bank and then distribute the cash to other people in Sherwood
> Forest, like Robin Hood, I haven't been guilty of theft.

no.  the theft is in the taking of the money, not in what is done with it
afterwards.

see, there's this funny thing about language. words and phrases have
particular *meanings*, they're not indistinguishable replacements
for each other. that's why "theft" means "theft" and "copyright
infringement" means "copyright infringement". and it's why sane people
don't say "porridge" when they mean "prime minister".


> The law doesn't apply to me.

either does the english language, apparently.


> > what they're trying to do is establish the newspeak that "copyright
> > infringement" (of any kind) is "theft".
> 
> The "(of any kind)" sort of slipped in there Craig. Suggesting home taping
> of TV programs, perhaps?

no, it didn't just slip in, i put it there deliberately. and YES,
definitely including the taping of TV programs at home. try reading
some of the history of what the copyright industries have done (and
attempted to do) over the last few decades, they have lobbied hard to
extend copyright in all directions. they have tried banning VCRs. they
are currently trying to ban DVRs. they bought the DMCA in the US (which
affects us indirectly now because of the AUSFTA), and are pushing for
similar laws here.


> No.  It applies to people who rip off someone else's property to the tune of
> $60 million.  

the $60 million dollar figure is complete and utter bullshit.  it bears not
even the slightest resemblance to reality.


> And I don't know, or care, whether that is the retail value,
> the whole sale value, the cost of producing the software, or the cost of
> making the disks.  

you know, at first i thought you were just being semantically lazy -
which is a more serious problem when done by a journalist or other
public writer. 

now i suspect you're an enthusiastic corporate shill. so, whose
interests are YOU serving by pushing the bullshit line that "copyright
infringement" is theft?


> Until someone convinces me that the real value was a trivial 60 cents,
> rather the $60 million dollars claimed (ie +/- $59.99999 million) then it is
> theft.

the real value is zero.

> What figure do you put on it?  And on what basis?

on the basis that nothing was stolen.


> >they are being assisted in this
> > endeavour by governments, pro-business lobby groups, and journalists (both
> > willing corporate shills and the semantically-lazy).
> 
> 
> Do you people honestly believe that an Australian court allowed him to be
> extradited to the USA on frivolous grounds for a trivial offense ?

yes. however, the court may have had little or no choice since our
glorious government tossed out australian sovereignty by signing the
Multilateral Agreement on Investment in it's newer disguise as the
AUSFTA (you didn't seriously think that was about Free Trade, did you?
it was about signing away australian governments ability to reign in
corporate power).


> Or that the Americans put years of effort into getting him extradited, when
> they have a 300 million home video-tapers of their own they could prosecute?

yes.  making high profile examples of people is good for instilling fear.

> Or that an American court then sentenced him to a long term in gaol on
> similar frivolous grounds for a trivial offense ?

yes.

> Then that governments, pro-business lobbygroups, journalists, willing
> corporate shills and semantically-lazy people (presumably meaning me) then
> conspired to beat this all up into a story that appeared world-wide in the
> newspapers ?

no.  the beat-up isn't tied to this particular case, it's been going on for
decades.

> This has to be the conspiracy theory to beat all conspiracy theories.

no, it's just reality.


craig

-- 
craig sanders <cas at taz.net.au>

BOFH excuse #32:

techtonic stress



More information about the Link mailing list