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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dannyalcatraz" data-source="post: 3402532" data-attributes="member: 19675">While it is true that copyright is a modern legal construct, the concept of theft is old.It is a common misconception that theft requires that the owner of property be denied possession of his property.  All that is required for certain forms of "Theft" is using the property in a way that the property's owner does not consent to or in opposition to the owner's wishes or interests.(And, while we're at it, realize that "theft" is the general overarching term in American law- "piracy," "larceny," "embezzlement," "copyright infringement" and others are merely terms for specific kinds of theft with different relevant elements.)From Black's Law Dictionary:"Theft is any of the following acts done with intent to deprive the owner permanently of the possession, use or benefit of his property: (a) Obtaining or exerting unauthorized control over property; or (b) Obtaining by deception control over property; or (c) Obtaining by threat control over property; or (d) Obtaining control over stolen property knowing th properrty to have been stolen by another"(emphasis mine)One of the core benefits of personal property is the control over who gets to use it by loan, lease, gift or sale, or by refusing to do any of the above- the right of exclusion.  That ability to deny distribution is defeated by the person who copies the IP without permission.  Even though the property's owner retains ultimate possession, copying something (be it spell or software) without permission is theft.That all said...Even in the absence of copyright, there were other ways of enforcing one's IP rights, the 2 most common being self-help (hunt down the infringor yourself and demand recompense) or appeal to authority (usually the local royal).Appeal to authority cases looked a lot like copyright law (with "Who came up with the IP first?"  "How did you come by possession of the IP?" type questions ), since the value of IP has seldom been questioned, but with one crucial execption: there was no truly neutral court.  It mattered whether you caught the copycat in your home court, the copycat's home region, or some other space.  Your home court would likely rule in your favor, likewise, the copycat's home court would rule for him. Others would rule based upon political or economic expediency- was the IP holder or the copycat from a political ally or foe?  Or could the court in question simply confiscate the IP for their own use?Which is why we have copyright.In a fantasy world without formalized IP protection, I'm sure most powerful spellcasters would go the route of self-help...and I'm pretty sure that not too many would stand in their way.That's incorrect.While you cannot copyright ideas, once affixed to a permanent medium, the IP creator is protected regardless of form. If I write a book in English, and it is copied into Greek or Russian (which use a Cyrillic alphabet) or Japanese (Kanji, Hiragana, or Katakana) against my permission, it is still copyright infringement.  Nor can George Lucas do a movie of my book without my permission (unless it can reasonably be deemed a kind of fair use like parody).</blockquote>

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