The reaction to intellectual property "theft" has soured my view of its enforcement. At this stage, my immediate reaction to meeting someone who works for the RIAA or MPAA is very negative. If I meet someone who's been sued by one of these organizations, is as if they were a minor hero. Yet I want great digital artists to do more than just scrape by: simply because something has easy and unlimited distribution doesn't mean they don't deserve compensation. However, by demanding thousands of dollars in compensation from people who are at best curious and at worst lazy, its created a great sense of unfairness that I've never been able to describe.
One paragraph from the article did that neatly:
Quote:
Illegal downloading is, of course, a real problem. People who work hard to produce creative works are entitled to enjoy legal protection to reap the benefits of their labors. And if others want to enjoy those creative works, it’s reasonable to make them pay for the privilege. But framing illegal downloading as a form of stealing doesn’t, and probably never will, work. We would do better to consider a range of legal concepts that fit the problem more appropriately: concepts like unauthorized use, trespass, conversion and misappropriation.
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