Record labels' man in Washington (News.com) [LWN.net]

Record labels' man in Washington (News.com)

Posted Sep 4, 2004 15:33 UTC (Sat) by cpm (guest, #3554)
Parent article: Record labels' man in Washington (News.com)

When was the concept of piracy coopted by these folks?

I don't understand this. I could imagine that
duplicating something without a license could
be trespass, and I can understand taking something
without a license (permission) could be theft,
I don't understand, and have never understood
where piracy enters. It has mystified me ever
since I first heard it. Piracy being an old
term, and having a pretty specific legal definition
I think. I've always thought it was some kind
of meme, and deception, an attempt to unfairly
sway opinion.

Theft is kinda strange to me in this context.
When i was a wee child, theft was kinda understood
as taking something that didn't belong to you.
The real crime being that the rightful owner was
deprived of its use, rather than the ethically dodgy
concept of ill-gotten gain. In order for theft
to have taken place, a party has to loose
something rightfully held to another party
who took it without any compensation taking
place.

If you have candle, and I have a candle, and
yours is lit, and mine isn't and I use
your candle to light mine, even without permission,
I haven't stolen anything, though I may have
committed trespass. If I take your candle
and leave mine (or not), I have committed theft.

Piracy is (was?) taking by force, and usually
involves goods in transit. Like robbery, but
usually on a much larger scale. Hijacking
is piracy, be that a truck or airliner or
ship. Robbing a drugstore at gunpoint is not
piracy.

How in the heck copying software became piracy
I have no clue.

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Record labels' man in Washington (News.com)

Posted Sep 4, 2004 18:17 UTC (Sat) by stumbles (guest, #8796) [Link]

But the word "piracy" sounds good in the press. Much like the term
"hacker" when used to describe illegal entry into computer systems. Which
for one is a characterization of the term cracker. A hacker is one who
writes programs. Again the media being that it is, sensationalists by
nature will almost always use the wrong terms to hook a reader.

But you are right about the meaning of piracy which when the term
originally was used described an armed (weapons involved) vicious and
bloody encounter. Additionally back in that day it was an activity
employed by countries that were at war or soon to be at war.

Editorial piracy

Posted Sep 4, 2004 19:50 UTC (Sat) by man_ls (subscriber, #15091) [Link]

How in the heck copying software became piracy I have no clue.

Easy: the term "pirate" was commonly used by writers when referring to editors who did not pay them royalties. Any good dictionary will show you that meaning (e.g. Webster 1913). Then it was used in music for unofficial live recordings published by small companies, usually with very poor quality ("pirate editions").

Finally the editors tried to reverse it and applied it to unauthorized copying made by users, with mixed success. Many musicians have a hard time collecting royalties from big record companies, so it is obvious to them who the real pirates are.