Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: Oops, you missed some things!

Author:William Crim
Posted:9/1/2000; 9:52:27 AM
Topic:The Lie of "IP"
Msg #:20705 (In response to 20697)
Prev/Next:20704 / 20706

You are confusing enforcement of copyright by the owner, with the lack of will to infringe by the consumer.

If you make it easy to infringe on copyrights, a good many people will do it. As we see with Napster. Some people might have the best of intentions with Napster, but most don't. Most just see free music and download away.

With anonymous and/or distributed systems, just about any information worth copying could be copied. The easier it is, the less likely people are to see something wrong with it. If you can get information for free, it helps reinforce the idea that it SHOULD be free. Do you honestly think the 20-something Napster users are going to wake up on their 35th birthday with a newfound respect for Intellectual Property, or do you think they will be downloading their infringing MPEG-6 Elmo movies for their children?

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