Interesting and informative article on the evils of piracy
I strongly recommend usdn_rep (and people like him) read this ASAP!!
Complete article here
My name is Dr. Albert Oxford. Imagine a world where at any moment your car, your stereo, even your clothes or your children, could be taken from your home and blithely "traded" on the streets. Imagine your five year-old child or grandchild in the hands of filthy, rap-loving criminals who befoul him in every unimaginable way before beating him and leaving him for dead in the gutter. Now imagine that said thieves justified their actions in the name of "open" and "free" trading, and that these thieves included your brother, or your husband, or even you. And worst of all, imagine that no one bothered to report their names to any kind of online file thievery database.
Now replace the child in that scenario with "copyrighted music and software" and you understand the crisis we are in.
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How do illegal file thieves/traders justify their actions? These are some arguments they have given me:
"The technology has changed to the point that the information physically cannot be held prisoner at the hands of any one group. Right or wrong, the issue is moot. Information wants to be free, and has become free."
Fine. Let's take that logic one step further. Let's say someone developed a piece of software, say, a machine, that allowed the user to molest a child from the comfort of his own home, simply by clicking his mouse.
No problem, right?
Now imagine the child is your child.
Another one:
"You basically have one group who wants to take something I have that by its nature wants to be free and try to hold it, to imprison it, keep it under wraps. I refuse to do that. I take it freely, I will give it freely."
Think that's a quote about Online File Trading? I've tricked you; that is a direct quote from convicted rapist Ronald Schneisen, on the subject of Child Molestation.
"...trading of intellectual property is as old as the first Guttenberg Bibles, which were handed freely from owner to owner for the reading. Due to the pure physical nature of the printed page it cannot be restricted to one set of eyes, nor the sound of music to only one designated set of ears. Free intellectual property-trading is not a new idea; restriction of said property is the new idea, and an impossible one."
Sounds good, right? Now take the argument above, and simply replace the words "File Trading" with "child molestation."
"You fundamentalist inquisitors have no right to infringe on my sexual freedom. Child molestation is a victimless crime."
Really? What about the child?
"Child molestation has a long and rich history that stretches back even before the foundation of this country. Who are you to try to come along and stop it?"
You know what else has a long history? Murder. That doesn't mean we shouldn't try to stamp it out, and it doesn't mean we should give file trading/child molestation a free pass.
Complete article here
