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[Thasmodious]

Originally Posted by Korgoth

Anti-piracy laws are not unjust. Being a buzzkill is not unjust.

It is many people's views, including mine, that the intellectual property laws in America are very unjust. They exist to enslave the creators, inventors, musicians and artists, exploit the consumer and protect the rights of the distributors. The creator doesn't own the property created, the company that distributes the property owns it. The creator has to actually give up their rights to it to the company that has print facilities and a distribution network. Ideas, information and art should belong to everyone, not to the distribution companies.

It's so messed up that not even the author or artist actually owns the intellectual property they create. You can create whatever you want. But if you want to actually make a living or have your work seen or heard (you know, in the sense that art elevates all of humanity), you have to sell your soul to some company who then owns the work you produce

User to user distribution is an expression of that viewpoint. Sure, most of the people who actually use such services to "get free stuff" don't think about that or care. But those who invented, support, and disseminate the technologies that make such networks viable very often do.

Funny how anyone who makes the claim "stealing is stealing" in regards to this issue never seems to consider the grossly inflated profits of the distribution companies that put out movies, music, video games, etc., to be theft.

That brings us to another ridiculous statement -

Also, morality and ethics are not subjective.

Of course they are. They can't be any other way. Subjectivity means that something is relative to the way it is perceived. Objective means that something is what something is, without the filer of perception. Morality is entirely an invention of humanity and cannot be viewed outside of that context. Therefore it is entirely subjective. Yes, we can all agree Hitler = bad. That doesn't make it objective. And no, Hitler didn't agree that Hitler = bad. Many of the Nazis working the camps didn't agree that what they were doing was bad. They felt it was justified. Just as there are many people today who feel it would be justified to exterminate all muslims. MOST of the world agrees that such a thing would be wrong, and not only wrong, but purely evil. But it is still, and can only be, a subjective evaluation.

Subjectively, many people view our archaic notions of property rights to be a moral evil. Like I said, I do. I want to see the people, the "consumers" (I hate that term) empowered - not the owner caste who want to control, exploit and profit from what everyone even reads, sees, hears, and enjoys.

(All that said, our hobby is different. Gamers make the products, gamers run the stores, gamers work and run the companies involved. It all kicks up to corporate overlords like Hasbro, sure, but the profits are a lot more slim than, say, the runaway gouging that takes place in music sales for example. If you play the game, support the game. If you use the services of a local game store, support the local game store. Paying for our D&D books comes pretty close to directly paying the creators of the works that we enjoy. The gaming market is one that is small enough, and specialized enough that the consumers really do exercise a degree of control on the market, rather than the Owner Caste. So support that, it's a rare thing in a real world capitalist market.)

-puts soapbox back in closet, goes back to reading .pdfs-