Claim: Copyright means a person gets paid over and over for the same work. If you build a house, you only get paid once for it. Response: First: the fact that creators can sell their work repeatedly is a benefit … Continue reading
Response: There are two problems I see with this argument: First, England was not the first country with copyright. The first known copyright was in Venice, and it was granted to an author who petitioned the government in Venice so … Continue reading
I sometimes see this argument paired with quotes like this: When kids download your stuff for free off of the internet and tell you about it, you don’t get mad at them. My parting line is ”I’D RATHER BE HEARD … Continue reading
Claim: Copyright is unnatural. It doesn’t exist in nature. Response: The problem with this claim is that it seems to be an “appeal to nature” fallacy – it doesn’t exist in nature, and therefore shouldn’t exist: An appeal to nature … Continue reading
Response: I’m okay with the claim that copyright is too long. I don’t really see long copyrights as helping creators. I see it more as helping corporations who currently hold the rights. If people want to campaign for shorter copyrights, … Continue reading
Claim: “If company A creates product A and company B creates product B (and these are competing products), I can buy either product A or product B. If I pirate product A or if I buy product B, the result … Continue reading
This claim is often paired with a claim along the lines of: “stores don’t like competition, they’d like the government to prevent all competition. Piracy is exactly the same: a kind of competition, and creators want to outlaw it just … Continue reading
Response: The major issue with copyright is giving customers an incentive to buy digital media (instead of getting free copies and not supporting the creator pay-off the debts incurred by creating it in the first place). We have three possible … Continue reading
Example: The thing with torrents is I can borrow stuff from my friends across the oceans, continents, etc… Just like borrowing stuff from [my] best friend. (Source) Response: It’s true that it’s not illegal to borrow/loan thing to a friend. … Continue reading
Response: We all have positive feelings towards libraries and think of them as a social good. However, I see several problems with this comparison. First, libraries pay for the books they loan. “[Libraries] account for about 10 percent of publisher … Continue reading