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by iowemoretohim 293 days ago
Why is leaking the video the right thing? There were multiple videos of the incident including footage from a EarthCam live camera. And the NTSB released multiple videos as part of their investigation. The video wasn't leaked in order to stop a coverup.
2 comments

>Why is leaking the video the right thing?

Because it's in the public interest. The law doesn't state what's right only what's permitted.

Isn't that an even stronger argument that the leak shouldn't be criminal?
No, for the same that stealing an item isn’t okay because there is more in the back.
Impact and harm is absolutely part of the criteria by which we judge crimes and penalties. Not sure where you're going with that.
Of course harm matters. Stealing a priceless original is worse, and punished harder, than stealing a commodity out of a corner store. That doesn’t mean the latter is fine.
There's a spectrum between "not fine" and criminal prosecution!
> a spectrum between "not fine" and criminal prosecution!

And I’d say someone who premeditates a company wide shutdown, triggers it, and then doesn’t offer to help after its damage becomes clearly apparent crosses the line of criminal responsibility.

You can infinitely "steal" digital data. That's where the analogy breaks down.

Imaginary property is imaginary.

> Imaginary property is imaginary

Property, a social construct, is always imaginary. The ship on IP, from insider trading laws to copyright, has sailed. If the only argument against a potential crime is IP isn’t real, the person is probably wrong.

This is all very well but exactly what type of IP is CCTV footage? It's not copyrighted. It's not patented. It's not trademarked. ...trade secret?
Copyright
Stealing physical property deprives its original owner of it. The same can't be said of IP.
So what? That at most means they’re slightly different flavors of the abstraction we call “property”.

And owning property — even physical property — entails having the right to prevent other people from using it, even in ways that don’t deprive you of it. You can’t drive my car without permission, even if you bring it back in perfect condition and I wasn’t planning on using it that day.