[TomGuy]

Copyright was intended to protect an author, for example, from having someone else steal his work AND resell it under the thief's name. If someone stole the original author's work and kept it hidden, without financial gain, then that would be a criminal act of theft, not a copyright infringement.

Downloading songs may be theft, not copyright violation, unless the downloader repackages and sells the song as the downloader's own. Downloading songs should be under theft crimes, not copyright crimes.

This just shows how convoluted the whole copyright/theft laws have become.

Hatch's remark to blow up computers is no less than blowing up one's house or tv if they steal cable or satellite; blow up their car if they fail to stop at a stoplight; etc.

[Destro]

whatever it is it is not copyright theft

[supercat]

Downloading songs may be theft, not copyright violation, unless the downloader repackages and sells the song as the downloader's own. Downloading songs should be under theft crimes, not copyright crimes.

I wonder what the Founding Fathers would have thought of the notion that a restauranteur has to pay for permission to sing songs for guests, even when no transcription of the music is involved.

[wizzler]

No offense, but you're sort of, um, talking out your arse.

Downloading a song without permission of the copyright holder is infringement of copyright. Violating copyright is not contingent on "repackaging" or "selling a song" as one's own.

Look closely at the word "copyright" for a moment. It is the exclusive RIGHT to COPY. Downloading a song -- i.e., making a copy -- is a violation of that exclusive right. To bring it close to home: so is the rash of posting copyrighted articles that occurs here at Free Republic.

There are valid arguments to be made on both sides of the copyright issue. But the debate would be better served if people would take the time to understand the basics of the whole thing. I don't think I've ever seen more uninformed commentary on any topic than I continually see regarding copyright matters.