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Pluralistic: “If buying isn’t owning, piracy isn’t stealing” (pluralistic.net)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

If that would be possible then yes, or course.

That's bascially the Start Trek future, where everybody's needs are met and people can just do whatever they want. It doesn't "cost" anything to create stuff, so it's fine to copy everything for free. But that's not the reality we are living in. In our's somebody has to pay for things, and if everyone pirated everything then things couldn't be made anymore.

An example where it kinda works is open source software. People don't charge for copies, because they expect to get help with their work and also be allowed to use other OS software without paying for it. As long as that balance holds it works out fine, but there are a lot of projects that required too much investment from the creator's and didn't provide enough back for them to keep going. And even there, companies profiting from OS projects are expected or even required to pay it back, by contributing code and paying for engineers and sponsorships.