On the defense of rational debate

On the defense of rational debate

Posted Aug 25, 2005 23:05 UTC (Thu) by bignose (subscriber, #40)
Parent article: On the defense of piracy enablers

Please, can we stop playing into the hands of the "intellectual property" cartel with use of the word "piracy" to mean something it's not.

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html#Piracy

Piracy is a terrible crime: attacking ships on the open sea, doing violence against those on board and robbing them. It is a morally reprehensible crime, with little possible defense.

Copyright infringement is a far lesser crime: no violence is done, no property is stolen. It is far less clear how morally culpable (as opposed to legally culpable) a person guilty of copyright infringement is.

Please stop promoting the conflation of the two terms; it only defeats rational debate on the topic. To mis-use "piracy" to refer to copyright infringement pre-supposes a moral equivalence of the crimes that is completely unjustified, and only helps those who want extreme measures enforced.

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