“Thou shalt not steal pay.” -unlearner
And yes if those thieves are ever tried they’d have a like minded accomplice on the jury. No different from sneaking into the movie theater.
Beautiful demonstration of Christian values, by the way. Sort of an outrage tantrum.
“And yes if those thieves are ever tried they’d have a like minded accomplice on the jury. No different from sneaking into the movie theater. Beautiful demonstration of Christian values, by the way. Sort of an outrage tantrum.”
I used to share your view and even advocate it on this forum a few years ago. I do believe firmly in the idea of people getting paid for their work. I also believe in contract law and ip law as a concept.
However, the left is using these things to wage war on conservatives, Christians, and the free market in general. It is more than simple unfairness. It is war.
Right now, at this very moment, YouTube is generating millions of dollars in ad revenue for Google aka Alphabet that is largely based on the theft of intellectual property. Sure, they will often respond to complaints of ip theft and arbitrate between parties in dispute to an extent, but they profit regardless. And they have exempted themselves from any liability. Also, there is no way for any ip owner to verify that they are getting properly paid. For example, YouTube may be stealing millions generated by conservative viewers of “FoxNews” channels that are fake and owned by IP thieves. So, Fox News pays to create content, millions of conservatives watch its content on YouTube, conservative (and other) advertisers pay for ad placement within these videos, and YouTube and the thieves make money.
Intellectual property is like owning the moon or perhaps the air we breathe. The founders of this nation provided for powers that enabled Congress to create such laws for a specific purpose. That is NOT what is happening in most cases today.
When we have just laws, just implementation of these laws, and just application of these laws, I will happily return to my full support of them.
Until then, consider that intellectual property is not property in the Biblical / “Christian” sense you are bringing up. When Moses wrote God’s laws in which theft was specifically prohibited, intellectual property was not property. Money, land, and other tangible things are property that can be stolen. Imagine Moses forbidding Israelites from copying the written laws of God. It’s unthinkable. In fact, some were required to make copies. And this was in a time when doing so was quite difficult. Nowhere is it contemplated that a person could “own” a story, or the words written down (as opposed to the material on which those words were written).
IP is a legal construct. So one could reasonably argue that Christians should comply with the law because Paul wrote to submit to authority. But other passages do not support this principle in an absolute way. If the law changes and says we must all turn in our guns, would you say obedience would be the “Christian” thing to do?
Owning land, books, cars, money, etc. are clearly in view with the prohibition against theft. The idea that we must not copy words, images, thoughts, ways (”methods”) of doing something, etc. is never contemplated in the Bible. It is an innate human right to learn by observing and then copying or imitating what is observed—just like there is an innate right to self-defense.
Yes, the legal construct of IP can serve a useful purpose when a large number of people agree to compensate others for the use of their inventions, art, etc. But the people also have the right to share in the benefit derived from the abrogation of their innate rights. That’s not happening.
Every dollar that Satanic Hollywood loses from their “stolen” IP copied to remote Internet servers around the globe, is another dollar that does not go into the pocket of another Weinstein to abuse women and children. It’s another dollar that is not contributed to the baby-killers at Planned Parenthood or the political campaigns that support baby murder. It’s another dollar not re-invested in a propaganda machine targeting American youth with enticements to sexual promiscuity, perversion, murder, and a much bigger, dangerous, and real form of theft—Socialism.
Further, if there is any legal industry in the world less worthy of the protection of the law than Hollywood I’d like to know what that industry is. Hollywood has a reputation for having the most dishonest accounting of any industry. Theft is the normal way of doing business. This industry is almost completely unregulated when it comes to executing contracts and paying for services rendered.
I do not fault you for your views on this issue. I just have a different opinion. You should follow your conscience. I’ll follow mine.