| I don't know why you were down-voted, but I agree with what you seem to _mean_ even though your use of strong rhetoric distracts from your point. The trouble is one can define "institutionalized theft" as either widespread "illegal" sharing (as you do), or as "unjust" laws preventing sharing, but not both. More accurately, the former is the masses breaking the laws, so only the latter actually qualifies as institutionalized. Though "institutionalized" was a poor choice of words, I see no merit in rehashing the tired debate over the term "theft" versus the more legally correct "copyright infringement." --Either way, I still get what you mean. Both of us value good work and believe the worker should be rewarded. A functional marketplace can be simply defined as paying someone else to do something you are unable or unwilling to do yourself. There is usually a level where it makes more sense to pay someone else to provide for a particular need. Those who specialize in providing for a particular type of need, gain advantages (expertise, resources, tooling, scale, ...), and can therefore sell for far less than it would normally cost others who don't have the advantage of specialization. The most important thing to realize is both "theft" and "monopoly" are deterrents to a fair and functional marketplace. Yes, I intentionally put "monopoly" in quotes because it is admittedly equally strong rhetoric as "theft" but I simply could not think of an better word. When one gets to the point of being able to admit both theft and monopoly are bad for markets, the very nature of the discussion changes dramatically; The question becomes, "How do we reward good work?" I'll be the first to admit any attempt to address the root cause will be exceedingly difficult. Additionally, we will most likely fail at completely eradicating theft and completely eradicating monopoly, but one needs to maintain an overly-optimistic view order to find a better solution to an unsolvable problem. I think you're a bright person and level headed, but if you'd rather not discuss this issue publicly, I completely understand. Like myself, I'd bet you have close friends or partners with vested interests in the status quo, and any public mention of change will undoubtedly piss them off. I like to think I'm very lucky in that my friends trust me to be fair minded even when the don't like me questioning the most difficult things. --maybe off-list? |