mistypedURL

Slowly, ever so slowly, some of the clear thinking with respect to filesharing and intellectual monopoly (imaginary property, if you will) is filtering into more mainstream channels. I was rather pleased to see these two pieces by Joe Konrath and David Gerrold; both say some excellent things before veering off into the content industry’s Bizarro World.

Konrath starts out making some clearheaded observations about filesharing (”piracy”), recognizing that current technology has made copyright unenforceable, that there is no evidence that sharing hurts sales, and that free promotion is a good thing. Much to my dismay, he proceeded to append his post with the smile-erasing quote, “I’d like to make it clear that I believe piracy is stealing. I simply do not equate it with stealing something tangible.” Wait, what?

Likewise, Gerrold realizes that part of continuing to make money in a changing world involves recognizing what business you are actually in, something Mike Masnick often talks about. Much like the horse buggy industry was actually in the business of transportation, the recording industry is selling entertainment, not plastic discs. Disappointingly, Gerrold caps this off with a false axiom, saying, “Downloading what you haven’t paid for is electric shoplifting—no question.” Excuse me?

Both of these authors have undermined their otherwise intelligent pieces by buying into the notion that copying files has some kind of relationship with physical theft. One is infinite, so copying increases the amount available for all, while the other is scarce, where taking deprives somebody else of the object. Still don’t understand? Watch this simple video.

Nobody is breaking into these people’s homes and leaking artwork to the internet; nobody is depriving others of objects. Parroting the deliberate attempt to equate sharing with destructive behavior is ignorant – if you can’t parse the difference, it’s difficult to take you seriously.