approval from:
nozero 
| Piracy v. Israel v. Palestine piracy
\Pi"ra*cy\, n.; pl. Piracies. [Cf. LL. piratia, Gr. ?. See Pirate.] 1. The act or crime of a pirate.
2. (Common Law) Robbery on the high seas; the taking of property from others on the open sea by open violence; without lawful authority, and with intent to steal; -- a crime answering to robbery on land.
(Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.)
Certainly this very name's connotations do not jive with what is happening here.
I am of the mind set that copying for personal use is not Piracy. If no one bought the product, no one could copy it. Hence it is not theft. You can't be stealing if you have the original and decide to copy it for your own reasons. If you buy something, it is now defacto your property to do with as you wish. If you can clone it, IMHO two is better than one, etc. As long as you don't try and resell the copies, there really is no issue here. Just because there is technology out there that easily allows for the copying of legally purchased goods, doesn't mean you get to redefine the definition of theft.
The RIAA is just trying to prolong the inevitable. The reality is they can't do business by their old school model anymore and they are kicking and screaming about it. New technology has made their product worth less because it is easily reproduced. Instead of working on options to make the originals more valuable than the copies, or trying to define new markets to compensate for the technology change, the RIAA is setting their own industry up for the ultimate failure. It will never be the same again.
As for Israel v. Palestinians, I am a Jew with an Israeli wife. No matter what I feel about the intricate details about how things are happening over there, one thing is for sure: If there is not some mutual recognition of each other's innate human right to exist and attempt to prosper without coercion or the threat of force, the issue can never be resolved.
Realistically, the incidentals and particulars don't matter if that can not be agreed upon. And if it can, then those issues also become meaningless.
The past cannot be undone. The future cannot be changed until both sides have a mutual respect for each other's lives. |
