CaptainTux's Journal: Intellectual Property

There's an interesting discussion going on today on Slashdot about intellectual property. Some of the posts in response to the main article are quite funny while others really just make weak arguments to justify the wholesale piracy of copyrighted materials.

Here's the deal folks: for the time being, it is considered illegal in many countries to distribute copyrighted material (be it songs, books, movies, etc) to others without obtaining permission from the copyright holder. You might not agree with these laws but that doesn't mean they don't exist. As such, if you're going to violate the law, you should be prepared to pay the consequences of doing so without complaint.

I hear many people say that pirating music from the internet is a "civil disobedience" issue and their way of "striking the industry where it hurts". Bull. There are other legal ways to do the same thing. Want *only* the songs you want? Consider iTunes or the other legal music distribution services. Want to buy a whole CD but don't want to pay $15-$17 and put money in the pockets of the RIAA? Buy it at a used music store. They're all over the place and CD's go for as little as $3 USD. Whatever you do, stop justifying a weak moral position by trying to disquise it as some sort of moral holy-war. Nobody buys it. If you want *free* music then say you want free music and be man/woman enough to simply say you are aware you're breaking the law but are willing to do so. But don't try to make it a socially relevent issue where you look like you're only doing it to help free society from the evil bonds of the RIAA. That, my friend, is being intellectually dishonest about intellectual property.