[LINK] A Definition Of Piracy In The Digital Age

[Craig Sanders]

On Fri, Feb 06, 2009 at 04:50:11PM +1000, Lea de Groot wrote:
> 
> On 06/02/2009, at 4:19 PM, Craig Sanders wrote:
> 
> > nope. piracy is an act of theft involving the illegal seizure of a
> > ship, boat or other form of aquatic transport. it often involves
> > violence and/or murder.
> 
> Agreed.
> Nonetheless, there has arisen a neologism spelt 'piracy' - possibly  
> mostly propounded by the large vested interests, namely record  
> companies and the like, but happily taken up by the common people - to  
> use the word to refer to people who don't abide by their terms of  
> service in using the content they produce or distribute.

actually, no.  YOU are the one who is introducing the link to "terms
of service". the general public might recognise "pirate" as "copyright
infringer" or "making illegal copies", but they really *don't* think
about "terms of service". it's not a phrase that ever enters their
heads. they don't think of "licensing" content. they think "i bought
it, it's mine" - which is the root cause of the enormous cognitive
dissonance between what people think are the appropriate rights of
authors etc and what the copyright lobby has corruptly managed to get
written into laws around the world.

> Language is in the use, not in the textbook :)

and propaganda is propaganda no matter how successful it has been.

i, for one, choose not to give in to the propaganda campaigns of those
who are the enemies of free(*) culture.


(*) as in speech, not beer.

> If you have another concise word that describes the action above, I'll
> be happy to consider it, but I was just answering the question asked :)

"copyright infringer"

two words yes, but it's not a simple concept.  certainly nowhere near
as simple as the propagandists want people to believe.


craig

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