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comment by user-inactivated
user-inactivated  ·  3710 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Can we cogently refute "stealing is stealing"?

    You aren't giving the creators of the art the money they rightfully deserve

To quote the great wasoxygen: compared to what? I do not steal content I would otherwise pay for. I steal content I would not otherwise pay for. Stealing content isn't a zero-sum game.

This is a very underrated "appeal to common sense" argument, but it doesn't say a thing about the morality of filesharing. From that angle, I agree with wasoxygen -- at the most basic level I'm taking something someone made and enjoying it without paying for it. I don't pretend to be moral while doing so, because I'm not an ass. And like wage said, with musicians at least you can turn the "immoral" decision into a moral one by contributing more directly in other ways.

What's hilarious is the intellectual property militants who pretend they have some human right to all content ever created. It's the old study about the lottery owners turning conservative all over again ... how many musicians who espouse that ideology make their music free on bandcamp? Some, but not too many. [Oh, b_b said this below -- to be honest all the good opinions are pretty much on display in this thread. Nice job hubski.]





b_b  ·  3710 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I thought that was a quote from No Country for Old Men (although I don't know if McCarthy or the Coens wrote it, as I didn't read the book).

"Just how dangerous is he?"

"Compared to what? The bubonic plague?"

wasoxygen  ·  3710 days ago  ·  link  ·  

It was McCarthy.

    Somewhere in the world is the most invincible man. Just as somewhere is the most vulnerable.

    That's a belief that you have?

    No. It's called statistics. Just how dangerous is he?

    Wells shrugged. Compared to what? The bubonic plague? He's bad enough that you called me. He's a psychopathic killer but so what? There's plenty of them around.

This was even better:

    Turn the lights on, Moss said.

    He turned the lights on.

    How much money?

    A lot of money. What will you take to drive me to San Antonio.

    The driver thought about it. You mean on top of the five hundred.

    Yes.

    How about a grand all in.

    Everything.

    Yes.

    You got it.

    The driver nodded. Then how about the other half of these five caesars I already got.

    Moss took the bills from his pocket and handed them across the back of the seat.

    What if the Migra stop us.

    They wont stop us, Moss said.

    How do you know?

    There's too much shit still down the road that I got to deal with. It aint goin to end here.

    I hope you're right.

    Trust me, Moss said.

    I hate hearin them words, the driver said. I always did.

    Have you ever said them?

    Yeah. I've said em. That's how come I know what they're worth.

rob05c  ·  3710 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    What's hilarious is the intellectual property militants who pretend they have some human right to all content ever created.

What's hilarious is the intellectual property militants who pretend everyone else has some human right to all content they create.

I reject your reality and substitute my own!

user-inactivated  ·  3710 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    To quote the great wasoxygen: compared to what?

Where did he say this? I can't find it anywhere.

    at the most basic level I'm taking something someone made and enjoying it without paying for it. I don't pretend to be moral while doing so, because I'm not an ass.

I don't pretend to be doing good (and to be honest I barely ever pirate anymore; most content to me nowadays is not worth consuming), but I don't pretend to be doing bad either. Is that what you meant by "being moral"?

user-inactivated  ·  3710 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    I don't pretend to be doing good (and to be honest I barely ever pirate anymore; most content to me nowadays is not worth consuming), but I don't pretend to be doing bad either. Is that what you meant by "being moral"?

Hmm. Maybe, not exactly. It's all very definitional, though. Immoral may not mean bad. (See the zero-sum point above.)

wasoxygen  ·  3710 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    Where did he say this?
It's a pet phrase. I only see one public example of prior art.

Flag: stop stealing my line.

user-inactivated  ·  3710 days ago  ·  link  ·  

(Also, I hate to default to skepticism, but if a given moral seems to make sense and requires a tangled web to circumvent, a lot of the time it's a good rule to live by. Interesting conversation here; good post.)