Kids justify illegal downloads, study finds

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sorry, let's try again (reformatted)

Corporations have power because we grant them power with our dollars? This is nice in theory --- it's actually how capitalism is supposed to work. Unfortunately, our system is largely mercantilist. Corporations can afford to buy politicians and are thus protected by (unjust) law. Laws protect them from competition and protect their "right" to plunder the consumer (through direct subsidies or monopoly protection). Look at the copyright laws --- practically nothing passes into the public domain anymore. IP laws were originally adopted to encourage creative activities. They now function as protective measures put in place to ensure an income stream for large corporations and lawyers.

Why is it exactly that so many people believe the duplication and transfer of an electronic file is theft? I was under the impression that theft was wrong not because the thief has gained property, but because the victim has been deprived of his property. Let's say you play in a band. You decide to practice in your garage and I overhear a practice session. I like your stuff so I set up a mic next to your garage to capture your performance. I have made a bootleg without your permission. Is this stealing from you? Would it be stealing to simply sit out in my yard and listen? Have you been deprived of property? Do I owe you some type of admission charge? Is this really the same as if I had stolen your car? What if Star Trek replicator technology existed? If I scanned your car and produced an identical copy for myself, is this theft?

In anticipation of your next argument, NO, a company's claims of "lost revenue" are not legitimate and are not evidence of theft or harm caused by the "illegal" distribution of content. The accounting methods used to compile these numbers make the boys at Arthur Andersen look like angels. If a company falls short of projected revenues, this is not evidence of damage caused by "piracy." Using their logic, I should sue the music industry for causing me to fall short of my projected income of $1 million last year. Also, counting or estimating the number of bootlegged discs or transferred files cannot provide accurate numbers. Calculating the number of units moved by a bootlegger at MSRP is illegitimate for the simple fact that the bootlegger could not move his product at MSRP. Bootleggers don't cut into a company's profits so much as that company fails to maximize its own profits by pricing many potential customers out of the game.

So the big argument here is that a kid who has no intention of buying a "legitimate" album and instead downloads a music file (which deprives big music of nothing since he likely wouldn't have been a customer anyway) is somehow a criminal and a thief while the coven of lawyers hired by the music industry who use legal threats and strong-arm tactics to terrorize this kid and extort money from him (depriving him of real property) are not considered thieves and are merely protecting their rightful property, lost revenues --- which is to say that big music is entitled to the cash of potential customers. It's time to rethink this argument. It's time to reform or abolish IP laws.

The greedy imbeciles who dominate the music industry could put the bootleggers out of business overnight if they wanted to. They could send the lawyers packing also. They would simply have to lower their prices and abandon their outdated distribution and overall business models. There is a strong market for music but that music must be priced and packaged properly. Crushing the bootleggers through honest competition would be a laissez-faire solution. Unfortunately we are not living in a laissez-faire world.

For further reading, here is a good article from the Mises Institute arguing against IP law:
http://www.mises.org/story/2632

...and another that explains how making e-books available free of charge had the counterintuitive effect of boosting the sales of the printed versions:
http://www.mises.org/story/1473

Posted by: AH McGee   Posted on: 08/15/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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