this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2023
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ
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Sharing knowledge and creative works is how society progresses. Scientific progress relies on open access to discoveries and data. Creative works are shared, remixed, and built upon. But restrictive copyright laws have allowed corporations to severely limit access to information and works of art to optimize their profits. They frame piracy as “stealing” to make it seem immoral, when in reality piracy often involves simply sharing creative works with friends or communities that can’t access or afford them.
To Read More: https://technomagnus.vercel.app/posts/piracythe-moral-imperative-of-sharing-knowledge
I like your argument.
Copyright though also protects creators and deems their work valuable. For what reasons might someone write a book or a song if it were of no value? Is your time not worth something?
Prior to the printing press, stories were spread by word of mouth. Every community benefitted from the free exchange of ideas. Why then go through the effort of inventing the printing press? Answer: money, power, influence - progress as you decide it should be.
Today, society is controlled by the whims / stock portfolios of the corporations. Progresses occurs when a major corporation intends to "profit" from of an idea. Ironically, you and I and every other human on this planet have never been more connected yet we might have less power and influence today than a time prior to the Zuckerbergs, the Murdochs, and the Disneys hijacking our ship.
This can quickly turn to a conversation about communism and capitalism. The reality is that we live in a capitalist society and without someone paying someone for their time and investment, there is no opportunity for society as a whole to benefit from their work. Even is someone works full time on a project and puts it out there for the world to enjoy, if they aren't participating in the algorithm their work will largely go ignored. I say this as someone with a blog who refuses to put ads and google and facebook tracking on my site. If I really wanted to spread my work, I would have to integrate with the machine. But also, don't steal my shit! Worked hard on it.
People did it all the time, and there seems to be no correlation with improvements or motivation with the protection of modern copyright laws. The opposite side of the coin is that emlpoyees voluntarily invent content all the time (above their job description) that is immediately the property of their employer. The people who are going to be inventers STRIVE to innovate, regardless of money or lack thereof. A weaker Copyright model would not stifle innovation, but might even bolster it. At least actual inventors would likely have more opportunity to gain from their inventions.