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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JohnRTroy" data-source="post: 1540983" data-attributes="member: 2732">I do agree with Sigil about Copyright law, it has become bloated and a little too overbearing.  In some ways, I think the Internet and Filesharing helped bring reforms.  Music was overpriced.  Use of electronic communication was overpriced--remember when message boards cost 3-12 bucks an hour of use?  The new technology always brings some economic chaos, etc.However--studying sociology, I've seen evidence that unless is violates an extreme moral point of view--murder--if you remove the consequences for stealing or theft, more people will do it.  I think if piracy becomes too easy, people will copy stuff for free and not bother to pay for it--I think there are upstanding moral people who either buy the product or delete it, but I think unless there is the fear of punishment, more people will do it.There's a software developer I like, the guy who created HomeSite and TopStyle.  He presented his own case here--he actually setup the software to report how many people used it--he found out more people used the pirated version than legitimately subscribed to it--and that's only from his pseudo-crack, not people who actually hacked it as well.   I've also seen companies copy software left and right--and this is a guy who charges a very reasonable price.<a href="http://nick.typepad.com/blog/2004/01/on_piracy.html" target="_blank">http://nick.typepad.com/blog/2004/01/on_piracy.html</a> I am also concerned about the new memetic warfare going on, mostly started by radical thinkers like Richard M. Stallman.  While I accept a few things the Free Software Foundation want, there are some bothersome things involved.   The whole copyright is not theft argument is a bit suspicious--at the very least, it is akin to shoplifiting--just because it can be physically copied doesn't mean it should be.The cartoonist Sergio Aragones (sp?) once had somebody indignatly say why he should pay $100 for a sketch that took him 1/2 hour to draw.  He put it this way--"You're not paying for the half-hour it took me to do the drawing.  You're paying for the forty-one years it took me to learn how to do that."  I see many people forgetting about that part of the equation.What will eventually happen is one of two things:1)  DRM will become a reality--eventually hardware and software will be implemented.  The only reason it hasn't worked now is because it's still in the infancy.  Most people will accept this, as long as they don't become exploitive.  I don't want to see fair use become eliminated, but I also don't want the current unprotected status quo to remain the same.2)  Piracy becomes overly rampant and all of industries suffer for it.  The western countries end up going into economic chaos.  This will be slow to start but it will be an eventual certainty unless we can stem the flow of piracy, reducing it to pre-Internet levels.Here's the big reason why I think #1 will win.  You will note in the last few years, the global trend towards outsourcing.  Outside of service industries like McDonalds and dry-cleaning, the only place we can remain competitve is in the field of Intellectual Property.  Whether it's software R&D, entertainment media, or coallated databases, it will be threatened if rampant piracy prevents a revenue stream.  DRM will be implemented, just like anti-counterfeiting measures are added to money.  Nobody complains that we should stop adding protections to Money, or to credit cards--why not electronic media?</blockquote>

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