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  • @~18:00 The only reason you can make money with free distribution of art is because copyright is the norm. If copyright weren't the norm, you wouldn't be able to make money off of your podcasts/other free stuff.

  • SOPA directly translated into Swedish means "Trash/garbage"

  • SOPA, as bad as it seems is nothing compared to ACTA, (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) Insomuch because, although it has been in the making for years, it has completely bypassed the democratic process by being deliberately kept from the public. If you don't believe me go look it up. Canada, the USA, Singapore, S. Korea, Japan, new zealand, and morocco have already signed it.

  • Who gives a fuck. This is taking place over in America... Fuck America

  • @rankingtrevor Yeah, because this definitely won't have any effect on any other country in the world. At all. Nope.

  • Steph agreed with Stef so much I could literally picture him humping his leg.

  • Either SOPA is a conspiratorial attempt to censor the internet because communication is paramount for the uprising that have happened recently and will be for any future ones and they don’t want that.

    Or it is an attempt of corporations to hold onto dinosaur business models, the head of Valve said it best to beat pirate sites provide a better service.

    Best of all it turns out the companies pushing SOPA are the ones who had a monopoly on the pirating software go figure

    /watch?v=WJIuYgIvKsc

  • I wasn't entirely sure at first which baldie was you! haha

  • Why is our GOVT so wicked? And so crumbles democracy... this just sucks...

  • They are shooting themselves in the head if they push SOPA through...

  • THE GOVT LEARNS NOTHING... PROHIBITION DOESNT WORK!!!

  • OUR PRISON SYSTEM IS IMMORAL!!!

  • PROTECT FREEDOM!!! STOP SOPA!!! :)

  • No accountability on why entertainment industries are losing money. Most of the crap out there today - sucks. People buy quality - not just because they need to be entertained. People will find their own way to be entertained - especially if they dont have money to buy a stupid CD.

    #SOPA - Fascism FTW

  • SOPA infringes on my human right to click and download

  • people are still going to get there info i'll give you all an example

    when cocaine became illegal did people say '' oh it's illegal now we should just stop using it now''

    No they said '' fuck that we want cocaine were going to get it!'' the point of what i'm saying is when there is enough demand for something people will be there to meet that demand and no one will stand in there way of delivering that product and making a profit off of it

  • dns protocol?..

    har har

  • "had to write out a check, had to get a stamp....."

    During that time, you also had to go to great lengths to copy material. Technology balances itself out on both sides.

  • Kinsella got me to throw another fiver on Louis CK's pile. Worth every penny too! That's definitely the way to go; provide real value to people, no strings attached and don't be a dick about it.

  • SOPA sounds as foul as TARP.

  • Watch this video:

    watch?v=30-d2G3vrpE

    the corps pushing SOPA wrote and pushed the file sharing software.

    It's a setup, classic entrapment.

  • YES! This is what I really think is stupid. That all those that pirate would buy the products if they couldn't pirate it. That is such a stupid argument.

  • I bet there's a lot of well paid jobs at SOPA.

  • Comment removed

  • I wonder, could this Law protect an inventor from being robbed by some leading corporations?

  • @LeonidRozumenko , I wonder, can patent law prevent an inventor from selling his invention because some leading corporation believes it's too similiar to its own product? Answer: yes. Does it happen in practice? Answer: Yes, all the time. Question: who holds most patents and who is in a best position to acquire even more? Answer: leading corporations.

  • I am Leonid Rozumenko, - the inventor of the screenboards.

    The name of my work, where I described this new for that time type of data entry devices:

    UNIVERSAL MULTILANGUAGE MULTIFUNCTIONAL KEYBOARD

    the very term the screen-boards was also created by me in this work to describe with the words what I had in mind.

    My ideas passed international patent search as Inventive and Innovative

    So it was (and it is!) my invention!

  • @LeonidRozumenko pics or it didn't happen....

  • My ideas passed international patent search as Inventive and Innovative

    So it was (and it is!) my invention!

    I had American patent agents from "Invention Home"

    and American patent attorneys from "James Ray and associates"

    but Microsoft, Apple, Showcase, Accenture, Sony and others took my ideas for free as if I never existed and don't deserve any royalties.

    so Bill Gates and Apple wizards, what are you doing???

  • How this idea came to me?

    I studied programming in USA 12 years ago

    plus, I know several European languages

    and I like to write sometimes in one language, sometimes in another

    so I thought how to create a tool for this purpose...

    I thought about it and I thought about it... I went to bed with these thoughts

    and a week or two waked up with this idea about the screen-boards.

  • then I supplied it with the GOOD QUALITY brainstorming.

    Out of my ideas in this package came all existing screen boards,

    Windows Ubuntu, extensions for the TV and much more!

    My work covered all related to the screen-boards themes and gave them the PERSPECTIVE...

  • And it wasn't just the ideas which I shared! -

    I paid more than 15 000 $ in the process!

    I paid 11 500 00 $ just for the PCT application (Patent Cooperation Treaty application) to protect my author-inventor's rights around the Earth for three years!!!

    Yet, I can't find investors anywhere, though I paid to my patent agents for the Premium Site and for the marketing - to sell my ideas to the big companies

    but these "gentlemen" took it for free!

  • P.S.: the same applies to the Nexus One

    which boldly advertises their product right here on YouTube.

    the same applies to T-Mobile, Samsung and others

    which continue to do it on TV

    Gentlemen, check your conscience, - is it fair to leave the inventor of the screen-boards without any compensation?

  • @stefbot Youtube has added a Donate button that you can add under your videos, i'd suggest doing that! Just a headsup :-)

  • I am a pirate, very little on my computer is legitimate. That doesn't mean I have not purchased the software, movies, or music. It is simply easier for me to have everything on my computer. I would rather not dig through a box every time I want to watch a movie and sit through 15 minutes of un-skippable ads, and copyright warnings. Having my media server loaded with several terabytes of music and movies allows me to access all of my "illegal" media instantly with no bullshit, anywhere.

  • Laws are nothing other than commands from a group of humans that have the imagined right to hurt you if you disobey them.

  • I once built and projected an early screening of a movie for a professional football team. The paranoid studio sent two security guards to wand the wealthy pro athletes as they went into the theater. I also had a guard literally sitting watching me as I broke the movie down, as if I was somehow going to make a quick copy of it in the film lab that I had hidden in the projection booth. As for trailers, studios require theaters to run their trailers on their prints as part of the rental agreement.

  • Warner Brothers also sent out faxes to theaters warning them not to let people make copies of the "Dark Knight Rises" trailer. I saw one of these faxes myself. The studios will send checkers to theaters to make sure that their trailers are programmed onto their film releases, because they desperately want people to see them, but then they complain if people make copies of those same trailers. Ridiculous. That's just free advertising, for crying out loud.

  • @peterscottfrost. WB trusts the dolts that run movie theaters to enforce this? Movie goers recorded the DKR prologue using their iPhone!

  • @1977Melville

    Theater employees don't get paid enough to give a damn. They can barely be bothered to kick out unruly kids, much less worry about what people are recording on their phones.

  • I used to buy a lot of CDs because of music that I discovered here on YouTube that had been used in people's videos. Then the corporations started getting aggressive about forcing these videos to be taken down. It shocks me how many of my favorited videos from the past disappeared. I rarely buy music anymore. The idiotic corporations have no idea how much business they may have lost from people like me. It's also a shame because some of those videos were quite creative works of art themselves.

  • Here's a thought: The SOPA combined with the ability to detain american citizens without due process indefinitely passed only 2 weeks ago in The National Defense Authorization Act. ...chilling doesn't begin to define this. How bout waking up one morning to some gubment goons sacking all your computers, and your getting shipped off to cuba because you posted a video that was 'copyrighted'. These people are like ninja's...evil ninja's who strike in many places at the same time.

  • I download movies all the time. I can't afford to buy alot of films and in fairness theres a lot of drivle out there. Also the qulity from a compressed torrent is really bad at the best of times. If i find a film i really like i will go and buy it on dvd or blue ray to watch in all it's glory. So the more people see a film the more possible sales. After all when they get stale they'll end up on the box.

  • Lets override SOPA by enforcing SSOPA (STOP STOP ONLINE PIRACY ACT)

  • Download DeSOPA for the Mozilla Firefox web browser.

    Follow the link in this vid's description. /watch?v=GJx6tYbWeJk

  • How about some slightly deeper truth with hair:

    G. A. Cohen - Against Capitalism - Part 1

    youtube.com/watch?v=yA9WPQeow9­c

  • @kropotkinbeard1 Ugh... Cohen, really? The egalitarian weasel who took cheap shots at Nozick, fantasized about having refuted the argument that "inequality" arises from equal distribution by just means and failed to provide solid justification for coercive intervention?

    If by "deeper truth" you mean unstructured argumentation, then I'm with you.

  • @Alhoshka Uhhh...Yes, ugh..Cohen, really. And "cheap shots at Nozick"? He was far too kind to Nozick in fact. And what "coercive intervention"? There is none. I recommend either making an argument against him. Few have done any worthy refutations thus far. Probably even fewer than have successfully refuted Chomsky. Virtually nil.

  • @Alhoshka "Egalitarian weasel"? I know of no one fitting this description. And I do hope your adding the "egalitarian" with weasel was in no way an attempt to infer than egalitarianism is a bad thing. That would be silly. As far as taking "cheap shots at Nozick" at Nozick I must simply laugh. If anything he was far too kind to Nozick and was obviously so. It was almost like a wise grandfather (Cohen) understandingly patting the head of a slightly intellectually challenged grandson. Nozick is..

  • @Alhoshka ...not even in the same ballpark as Cohen, either intellectually or morally. And thre is no "coersive intervention" to my knowledge. "Coerced" by whom? The free people who freely elect their free representatives? The libertarian paranoia of always being "coerced" is sad, infantile, and pathetic. There is tons of material out there easily demonstrating exactly why this is the case, not that any materials should be necessary. Re: "Unstructured argumentation, yes, for those who don't...

  • @Alhoshka ...understand the arguments, usually people who haven't really studied them all that much, and are confused by any structures which transcends anything they're used to, yes, it probably does appear "unstructured". Sort of like how anti-Chomsky droolers percieve his ideas as unstructured regardless of the fact that they are nothing but. Anyway, did you have an actual argument, or just want to whine about the evils of "egalitarianism"? (snore)

  • @kropotkinbeard1 It should have been called "against fascism". The guy is confused or completely aware of the distortion he is selling. Either way undeserving of anyone's time.

  • @grumpone Who are you referring to?

  • This continuous petitioning of the government by the mega media corps, has a powerfully negative effect on investment on the internet.

    Imagine what we'd have if the government, 'the gun', wasn't always aimed randomly at entrepreneurs.

  • This will eventually be passed. Prepare by getting onto the I2P network (goog it).

  • Intellectual property is just the fear of changing your business model, you get a adept your product to the market, not the other way around.

  • Stef, is that your brother? XD

  • A very useful discussion, thanks to both of you for your efforts!

  • /watch?v=JhwuXNv8fJM tb did a good video on this

  • Apple is the evil company that pretends replace the current web with its App Store, selling us a paradigm of new way of interaction through a dumbest TV and Ipads, replacing the personal computing and forcing us to store our information in its cloud.

  • @superoptimo Yeah, Apple lost me with their no cash policy (not sure if this was on everything in their store or just one product but it does not matter), force me to use digital money and I will shop elsewhere.

  • Q: Steph, lets say I download all of your vids,and put them on one DVD. And then I sell those DVDs for $10 each. Are you saying that you deserve nothing out of that $10?

  • @Andybaby asking that question presupposes that preventing or penalizing the copying of the vids is the only possible solution to ensure the "author/creator" gets their "fair compensation". In short, its asserting that there can't possibly be another solution, or even interpretation of the problem itself, and this assumption is actually the only "rationale" provided for the proposed solution. Instead, I insist that there *are* other solutions possible, so that rationale is nonsense.

  • @mattsamudio

    I'm not presupposing anything, nor discussing solutions. I only asking if Steph feels it's 'fair' that he gets $0 from the sales of 'my' DVD.

  • @Andybaby yes, you are presupposing - both that Stef gets nothing from your sales, and that there's anything legitimate that can be done about it. The former isn't necessarily true, and if the latter isn't true, the question is meaningless - i.e. you may as well ask me if I think its fair that you can take pictures of me and sell them without me being able to impose anything upon you for it.

  • @mattsamudio

    My question doesn't 'presuppose' anything. My example explicitly states that Steph gets $0. My question is simple: is that fair? Does Steph have the right to any $ made from my sales of 'my' DVD? It's not like me 'taking pictures of you'. Its like me selling pictures YOU took.

  • @Andybaby I must disagree - you are selling copies of that which has value in all cases. The presuppositions are in $ as the only "return", and that there's any legitimacy in resulting imposition (i.e. "taking a cut"). Stef made his stuff available for free, you made copies and sold them. If Stef wanted to prevent that, he'd have to do something other than what he did. Asking about the "fairness" of that is like asking if its fair that we have to spend valuable time sleeping to be healthy.

  • @mattsamudio

    Ok, lets say Steph planned to make his own DVD "Collected works", and sell it for $20 each. And mine comes out 6 months earlier, selling for $10?

  • @Andybaby Man, ur describing my dream, cheap prices, man the freed market is great>!

  • @Andybaby Stef had the choice of how to release his material - if he chose to release it for free before making his DVDs available, he's obviously allowing for the possibility that you might do as you're proposing. As I indicated previously, "fair" doesn't really come into it, unless you presuppose some form of legitimacy to imposing some measure against the scenario.

  • @Andybaby sking that question presupposes that preventing or penalizing the copying of the vids is the only possible solution to ensure the "author/creator" gets their "fair compensation". In short, its asserting that there can't possibly be another solution, or even interpretation of the problem itself, and this assumption is actually the only "rationale" provided for the proposed solution. Instead, I insist that there *are* other solutions possible, so that rationale is nonsense.

  • @Andybaby Yes, that is in fact what he is saying.

  • @Andybaby I get great advertising, and probably more donations. :)

  • @stefbot and in giving up a big chunk of the profits, you also save 100% on the cost of distribution and marketing.

  • @theredscourge i meant to say copying, managing inventory, and distribution, you already said advertising/marketing

  • @stefbot

    Example 2: Billy starts a new website 'StephCentral', with your complete works: books, writings, vids - the lot. Every time you create anything, Billy immediately copies it and put it on his website. Billy makes $ from ads, generated by visitors attracted to the work YOU produced. There also is a big 'donate' button on Billys site; people give $ to Billy because his website is 'better' than your youtube one. He doesn't give you 1 cent. This doesn't bother you in the slightest?

  • @Andybaby "This doesn't bother you in the slightest?"

    Bother>? Maybe, but does that mean u pay armed men to enforce ur IP>? No_

  • @Andybaby I think everyone agrees this is atrocious behavior. Your forgetting a key component. In fact THE Key component: Force.  Steph has every right to call the person who does what your proposing a complete tool, and a hack, and in the same sentence affirm his right to do with his computer as he wishes. Steph does not have the right to initiate force against someone peacefully sitting at their computer, and neither does anyone else.

  • @indefiance24

    The person 'sitting peacefully' at his computer is profiting from the work of another. What if someone peacefully walks into your home and takes the $100 bill you had saved? Does Steph not have the right to 'own' the work he toiled to produce?

  • @Andybaby if I steal a $100 bill from you, it mean that you dont have it anymore - hence theft of property. Copying or emulating an idea is not theft because it doesnt take it away from you. Thats a big difference. Theft of property can only be considered theft if you take a physical thing from someone else, If they still have it then you didnt steal it from them.

  • @slickbtk

    The availability of instant ,effortless digital copies does not take away the basic moral principle that: If you worked all day to write and record a song that would make you $100, and someone sells/gives a potential customer your work for free/cheaper, that *is* like someone taking the $100 bill a boss gave you. Even if we agree that 95% of downloaders wouldn't have bought the product anyway, that 5% might be the difference between making a living or not.

  • @Andybaby @Andybaby you are talking about two different things, one is morality and the other is law. They are opposites. For example it is moral to hold the door open for an old lady, however it is immoral to imprison,assault or steal money from someone for not holding the door open for an old lady. see the difference? it is always MORE immoral to enforce morality. Its ironic because the most immoral actions in our society are actually the enforcement of someones morality.

  • @slickbtk

    Interesting. Ok, just to get on the same page here, lets say you discover a $100 bill fell out of your pocket. You later find out that Sally saw you drop it, and took it. She says it's hers now. In most countries (legally) *you* 'own' the $100 bill ... are you saying it's immoral to forcibly retrieve the $100 from Sally?

  • @Andybaby "retrieve the $100 from Sally?"

    I note that you write "THE $100" from Sally using the definite article. As in there is one, and only one, $100 bill under discussion.

    Sally did not see you drop it and take a picture (make a copy). She took the ONE AND ONLY ONE $100 bill.

    Yes it is moral to forcibly retrieve the $100 bill. No it is not moral to forcibly retrieve a picture of the $100 bill.

  • @Andybaby In this case I lost a $100 bill and sally gained my $100 bill. So to transfer this to patent law imagine that what sally saw was my schematics on a new invention, if she simply learns my idea and trys to recreate it on her own then she did not steal because I still have my idea and schematics, if she stole my papers or opened up my head and took my brain then that would be theft. Again its not stealing something if the person still has that same something.

  • @slickbtk

    What if the schematic represented a lifetime of hard work and sacrifice? What if the law (when work began) was that the person *would* own the invention?

    If he deserves 0 compensation, then isn't that like a new socialist government telling Ford "thanks for your years of effort creating this amazing car factory, but we've decided it's too important to be owned by one person. It belongs to the 'people' now, thank you comrade"?

  • @Andybaby "write and record a song that would make you $100"

    This is the logical fallacy called "begging the question". The arguments in favor of "intellectual property" are full of them.

    Due to the 500 char limit on comments ( and my moderate writing skills ), I will simply refer you to:

    dklevine. com/general/intellectual/again­st. htm

  • Also controversial areas like DNA patents aside, IP laws make a distinction between owning an 'idea' (which you basically cant) and owning an expression of an idea (which you basically can). eg, I can sell my work *based* on Steph's videos, but not the videos themselves, which *he* owns.

  • @Andybaby again you confuse two different things. You cannot steal something from someone if they still have it. If I physically steal his videos or computer then thats theft. If I make a copy then I didnt steal his property since he still has it. Once you go down the road of "stealing" potential profit and potential income it will become clear how foolish IP laws truly are

  • @Andybaby Riddle me this. Would you actually go to another site, and pay real money to someone for content you know they didn't create, when the actual content creator offers it for free on a site you can trust? Your nuts if you answer yes. Your entire scenario is bunk. You've created a box to rot in, claiming there is no other possibilities. Don't be so narrow minded. Lastly, someone entering my home has to use force. Your comparing apples to oranges. False reasoning again.

  • @Andybaby Also: Your forgetting things like trust and reputation. Most people would prefer getting material and media from sites they trust. Any ripoff site immediatly stinks like old fish BECAUSE it is a ripoff site, and anyone visiting it will know this immediately. Only large conglomerate ripoff sites:piratebay, can do what they do because of economies of scale, they ripoff anything and everything. A site like you suggest would be too specialized, and would never gain traction.

  • @stefbot I'd be proud if people would pay $10 for a video of me talking about this stuff lol

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  • @Andybaby It's gonna be pretty hard to sell DVDs for $10 of Stef's work. His fans all know where to get it for free, because he mentions it quite a lot (pays to advertise, even with free stuff).

  • @Andybaby Its not really up to him what you do with the money you earn

  • @Andybaby

    Who would buy them for $10 each...?

  • @Andybaby, he deserves nothing out of those recordings since he isn't the owner of his ideas anymore after he has made them public. The only way he could directly benefit would be that he signed a private contract to explain his ideas to some of the interested people.

  • Naked skulls for freedom!

  • Two Stefans, both have glowing heads of knowledge

    THERE ARE TWO

  • i watched this with snowflakes :D

  • A11 work and no play makes jack a dull boy

  • Juris prudence. The later usually takes priority. HOWEVER, it is always subject to the US constitution. Any law passed, no matter how new it is, must be compliant with the constitution. If there is a conflict between two laws, the later law prevails. If there is a conflict between a law and the constitution, then the constitution prevails.

  • i see foreheads .....everywhere! .!

  • I hoped that it would snow enough to cover the shinning.

  • Boy do you two look alike!

    You could be brothers or cousins.

    Sure it's not your last names that are the same? (not two Stephs)

  • thats the pic you used on the back of upb... and that books like 4 years old

    time to take another picture stef

  • Hear that scraping sound in the final two minutes? It's a government bureaucrat, making sure nothing Illegal was going down there.

  • Stephen Kinsella seems to be very much into the political process.

  • @alique087 It's also rumoured that he enjoys cheese.

  • use the snow

  • Do you remember the " FALSE FLAG " 9-11 which gave birth to Home Land Security and the "Patriot Act" ? Here, two elements were put in place giving government more power to lock up the average Americans and impose Nazi rule.. Now this new ZIONIST law is still another platform to remove more rights of Americans. The government has the match lit waiting for the riots to start... and the Zionist's puppets are betraying all Americans.

  • @panpiper

    In your example, the individual that is trespassing does not have permission to use your property. But if you were to sell your home and the buyer were to gather the blueprints, call a contractor down the street, send him the specs, and then allow him to duplicate the newly purchased home; where is the ("crime") violation of property?

  • OH MY GOD, I AM BLINDED BY A SOLID ONE-TWO FROM THE SHINING FOREHEADS OF TRUTH

  • @RuddODragonFear Hit the snowflake button. It will help keep you from being distracted by the foreheads of wisdom.

  • Didn't you believe in intellectual property Stef?

  • nice baldies nice..

  • twins ?

  • I started pirating pc games after years of being very against it. My reason is that these big companys take the piss, they spend more time on advertising than on the actual game itself. Releasing unfinished, buggy and broken games.

  • @edgarloike Don't buy them...

  • @UrbyKris

    ... he doesn't?

  • @jaykgrey Wrong word... don't play them is what I should have said. You're very clever <.<

  • @UrbyKris He is smart enough to get his words right at least. And ill play them only to test them, if they are worth buying then i do buy them.

  • @edgarloike Yeah keep mentally masturbating about that little mistake...

    If a company doesn't allow you to test them you shouldn't.

  • twins!

  • Which one is the original stef? The one on the right or the one on the left? Great info as usual! Free Humanity!

  • I declare my right to decrypt.

  • You didn't put the links in, now i have to typ it myself :P

    

  • Silence Opposition Permanently Act

  • Very Orwellian to doublethink the Newspeak from the Ministry of Truth - whatever the 'government' states is the exact opposite of what they intent.

    Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength, War is Peace! INGSOC! INGSOC! lol

    ++Good Brother.

  • @Nexus2Eden

    How glib.

  • RECENT HEADLINEs:

    BitTorrent downloads linked to RIAA, DHS IP addresses

    ‎RIAA Caught Pirating: "It Wasn’t Us." Really.

    So despite their IP getting busted, they deny it was THEM. JUST LIKE SO MANY OF THOSE THEY HAVE SUED. The cunts who produce nothing creatively but reap the lawsuit rewards are GUILTY of what they accuse over. And when they give the same excuse as their defendants we are expected to believe them.

    This is not about "balance". Copyright Nazis want no "fair use" etc.

  • Police (government) as well as public (non-government) causing violence sometimes are actors. Search in youtube

    PFi0e-HFGOc

    How would free society prevent provocateurs or violence?

  • It's illegal to know any code or passcode that you aren't supposed to know even if you aren't going to use it but fuck that.

  • <3 Stefan.

    That being said, this picture of him reminds me of a KGB photo or something. Pretty scary.

  • Kinsella is an intellectual giant who remains accessible to regular people.

  • Big insurance companies are very disinterested (in general) in making any kind of web-based innovations and instead feel much more confident bribing legislators. By effect their websites are not user friendly, and they don't look at reducing overhead through their websites. This actually offers a great opportunity to people who know how to make websites beautiful, functional and work FOR them to partner up with someone who understands the industry and make some nice money.

  • When I 'ahem' watch a movie more than once, I buy the DVD. There are many DVDs that I wouldn't have ever even considered buying if I hadn't had a chance to see it first.

  • @vention4wh

    Indeed. My rather sizable library of movies and TV shows exists only because I downloaded them first. Even some of the movies I don't like, I still buy. Not out of guilt for having illegally downloading them in the first place but because I like to have something physical to put on my shelf. I'm a collector. It's what I do. If it's on my media centre, it's on my shelf. ;)

  • SOPA will just put a digital iron curtain up around the US. This is just another 'Please wont some body think about the children' argument. Piracy, child porn, terrorism; these are the excuses our respective governments are using to reign in the flow of information to the citizenry. More divide and conquer strategies. If ever there was an example of the immorality of the state, here it is.

  • It wasnt Coldplay. It was Radiohead.

  • US Alcohol Prohibition 2.0 lulz

  • The great 21th century fallacy: Just because you buy something, does not mean, that you are buying a property of some kind. You buy what you value, but just because you value something, doesn't mean that IT can be "protected" from others. Digital content is like a service. If you value it enough, you will probably eventually buy it. If not, you will use it for free. Just my quick thought.

  • A Happy Christmas to one and all.

  • Okay, don't blame me if I don't have the best taste in music, but I watched the Blake Sheldon's Footloose video online for free off of Yahoo & I went to itunes and purchased the song. In fact, most of the music that I've purchased has been when I heard it on the radio and like the music and wanted to listen to it whenever I wanted. One major band allowed their fans to video tape their concerts and record sales of their CD went up since people wanted version that didn't have the audience noise.

  • Lol Stef I love when you use that psuedo-vampiric mad scientistesque pic

    But on a more serious note if Ron Pail takes Iowa expect these turds to ramp up their efforts to bring the many under the domination of the few.

  • Nullifying property and contract rights as Kinsella and Molyneux support *is* immoral. The reason to be against SOPA is not IP. It's a violation of the 4th amend. ISP's have no legal right to know what data is transmitted over their wires. Only by warrant should gov't be able to *discover* if copyright has been infringed. Kinsella is smuggling his anti-IP opinion into what is really a 4th amend problem. It's a misdirection that takes away from the real issue. Stealing IP is still stealing.

  • @plenarchist

    Why is only technological seniority protected? Why can't the first company to a particular market file for property rights, or the first company to employ a particular distribution method?

    Apple had to take the risk and do the hard work to make and market the iPhone, and other companies can just make their own smartphones for cheap because they didn't have to deal with the bleeding edge. -

    -

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    - Wal*Mart's command structure is a work of pure genius, and represented a lot of brainpower, a huge risk and a lot of expensive and error-prone experimentation to get just right, and now any other chain can just copy it.

    You speak of principles: "property" and "theft." Upon what principle can you justify IP, without simultaneously justifying all other forms of mercantilistic protection based on seniority?

  • @PanzerDivisionBOM probably something to do with the fact that incremental improvement is always possible; it already takes a long time for others to transition from their existing system to a new proven system, there is usually sufficient ability for companies to keep trade secrets secret besides that, and the fact that this encourages innovation, without which monopolies form.

  • @PanzerDivisionBOM when i view some copyrighted material on my computer legally, I have made a copy of it in RAM and on my hard drive just in order to view it, and I as a user can do whatever I want with it after I possess it. You cannot tell where someone is allowed and not allowed to wear a shirt you sold them, and telling someone how they must use information is equally ridiculous. not only that, but it costs more to enforce than to sell more info and encourage legit buying

  • @PanzerDivisionBOM "Why can't the first company to a particular market file for property rights..." They can if they indicate 'patent pending' on their product. The clock starts on a patent when the patent application is filed. If the patent is granted two years later, the term started the day it was filed.

  • @PanzerDivisionBOM in theory i could buy an iPhone and configure it, customize it, and if not for copyright, I would be legally able to resell it to people. However, because it has an Apple logo on it, my useful service that people are willing to pay for would instead be illegal, merely because Apple says so. That would be like the engine company having Ford thrown in jail for using their engine in a Ford vehicle, wouldn't it?

  • @northcottmichael

    But incremental improvement is possible in technology as well, and it takes time to employ technologies that someone else has developed, and driving down the prices of new technologies by competing with them is certainly a very valuable service. Try arguing that last one with someone who has had to pay for expensive patented medicines.

    You speak of monopolies. The original definition of a monopoly, in the age before every crank -

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    - started pushing his own theory of market failure, was a letter of protection offered by a government to a firm, entitling them to call upon the state to prevent other firms from competing with them. This description fits IP to a tee.

    Note also how your argument leaves the realm of principle as soon as it is examined, with much the same expeditiousness as the French Mercantilists displayed when arguing for their more obviously anti-Capitalist protections.

  • @PanzerDivisionBOM true, it is rather annoying to spend a ton of money on something only to have people copy it, but the path that drug patenting leads to is there being more money in treatments than in cures. If you can cure the disease, the competition does not get a chance to copy your medicine. The other thing is knowing a finished product is not the same as knowing the best process to manufacture it; for example take Intel's massive manufacturing advantage vs AMD in CPUs.

  • @theredscourge

    I'm frankly uninterested in utilitarian arguments on this point. Everyone and their dog has a different empirical theory on whether IP contributes to innovation, and people of opposing viewpoints frequently cite the same statistics as irrefutable proof of their correctness.

    Rather, I think it is more fruitful to show how IP is just one more form of seniority, qualitatively no different from the guilds and tarriffs that free market advocates already oppose.