Claim: Everything is a copy/derivative of something else (therefore, copyright shouldn’t exist). The crux of this argument is that everything is built on earlier works (part of the public domain or other people’s copyrighted works), and since it’s built entirely … Continue reading →

Response: The word “censorship” is used to trigger an instinctive opposition to copyright, since people hate censorship. It also puts the pirate on the moral high-ground, since they are fighting “censorship”. But, censorship is when a creator wants to communicate … Continue reading →

Response: There’s a couple things to be said about “information wants to be free”. First, it ascribes intentions to inanimate objects. In this way, it’s a bit like the “Computers are designed to copy” – removing the focus on human … Continue reading →

Response: The fact that computers are designed to copy data is not very relevant. Presumably, people want to take the human-action out of the equation and talk as if inanimate objects are just “doing their thing”. But, this would be … Continue reading →

Claim: Piracy is Sharing; Sharing is good and should be encouraged Examples: Richard Stallman (Free Software Foundation): “Copying and sharing recordings was not a mistake, let alone wrong, because sharing is good. It’s good to share musical recordings with friends … Continue reading →

Claim: You can’t prove a pirate would’ve paid, so you can’t count piracy as a loss of income. / Not every act of piracy is a lost sale Response: It’s true that not every act of piracy equals a lost … Continue reading →

Claim: Copying is not theft. See video: Response: This video misses the point of copyright. The two actors arrive with their body parts already in existence, without a need to create them. As I’ve said in the past, if new … Continue reading →

Claim: Piracy isn’t theft. Related Claims: Piracy isn’t theft. Theft removes the original. Piracy copies it. (image) Summary: Oftentimes in discussions of piracy, the word “theft” and “stealing” gets thrown around as a description of piracy. Pirates then react by … Continue reading →

Example: Piracy is not raiding and plundering Best Buys and FYEs, smashing the windows and running out with the loot. It’s like being placed in a store full of every DVD in existence. There are no employees, no security guards, … Continue reading →

Claim: Piracy is what happens on the sea with ships. Copyright infringement isn’t “Piracy”. Response: Whenever I hear this argument, I imagine the person typing it must be really young. This is just a sidetrack into an unimportant semantic discussion … Continue reading →