A Generation's Attack on Intellectual Property
Each generation is accused, and sometimes rightly, of its own special moral decline, and I wish to be the first to accuse my generation of its signature failing. Perhaps this is because I wish to achieve, with this attack, some temporary feeling of moral superiority. Perhaps it results from sincere feelings of anger, grief, and disappointment. Perhaps I want to start blogging again, and this was the first thing I could think of. I am not the first, nor will I be the last to make this specific argument, but here it is.
Human creativity is one of the most mysterious, powerful, and truly wonderful divine gifts. We are endowed with the ability to create something from nothing. This should not be considered lightly, because the only other example of such spontaneous creation at this scale was the birth of the universe.
Obviously human creativity also creates something from something else, and when someone creates something tangible it becomes their physical property. But the other property that is created, using the aforementioned method is equally, if not more, important. Intellectual property is…
“Hey, wait a sec… I see where you’re going with this! You’re going to rant about the evils of illegal music downloading”
“Well, yes, but…”
“Man is that old. Come on, don’t you realize how rich musicians are! Besides, the music industry loses more money through burned CDs than downloads.”
“Yes, but both methods are wrong. And not all musicians are rich. All producers are rich, but not all musicians are rich. Do you know why bands constantly tour?”
“’Cause that’s what bands do, they go and play their music. They’re musicians, they like that.”
“Well, that’s mostly true, but it’s also true that a lot of bands are forced to tour to make enough money.”
“Oh, you probably just made that up.”
“Why don’t you ask some artists? These people are artists. You’ve got to look at them like you look at Picasso or… well, some other painter.”
“Hmm… someone did their research *cough*”
“Picasso’s paintings are his property, you wouldn’t steal his paintings, would you? But you’d steal Green Day’s music… ok, bad example, a lot of people wouldn’t steal Green Day’s music (I mean, they’re not that bad, are they?)”
“Their earlier stuff is a lot better. They suck now.”
“Anyway, this isn’t supposed to be about whether Green Day still makes good music. My point is that making an illegal copy of a song is theft. It is a crime, just like any other crime.”
“Hmm… I was wondering when you were going to start equating music downloading with murder…”
“You bloody well know what I mean! Would you walk up to Kurt Cobain and grab his wallet?”
“He’s dead. And when he was alive he had security.”
“Alright, would you hack into Jack White’s bank account and withdraw some of his money?”
“No! The White Stripes are awesome!”
“And yet, you’d download their music.”
“It’s really good music, but I’m only 16, I can’t afford to buy the CDs for all the music I want to listen to!”
“There are other ways to listen to songs without buying them.”
“Now we’re talking”
“Television, radio, check the band’s website.”
“Oh, you mean, legal ways. Ways that don’t let you listen to the song anytime you want to.”
“That’s not necessarily a bad thing. You don’t need to listen to the same song over and over and over again. And if it’s so good that you want to do that, buy the album.”
“But I just want to be able to listen to it when I want to.”
“Uh-huh, yeah, sacrificing your morals for convenience, that certainly makes a lot of sense. Hmm… these native peoples are in my way, it would be so much more convenient if they were all dead…”
“Oh, wonderful, now you’ve gone and compared music downloading to the Trail of Tears. Which I find particularly ironic considering: YOU’RE RELATED TO THE MAN RESPONSIBLE FOR THAT SPECIFIC TRAGEDY”
“Don’t you go and bring my long dead ancestors into this, and don’t get off topic. The problem with your generation is that you fail to see intellectual property crimes as morally wrong. You’ve grown up with web 2.0, where everything is share and share alike, and since you’re all kids, with no or minimal financial responsibility, you forget that adults still have to make money to live. You record some song just for fun and let people listen to it for free and don’t understand why the Strokes or Rolling Stones don’t let you do the same thing.
I won’t argue against open source (especially considering that I argued for it a few posts ago), but just because some things on the internet are free doesn’t mean that everything should be. There always should and will be a place for ‘closed-source’ programming, just as there will always be a place for music THAT YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR. We live in a capitalist society, and you must learn that sometime, and you must learn to respect that, because there are certain advantages to living in that type of society. The most noticeable one is that the salespeople are a lot nicer. They may call you at all hours of the day, but they are nicer because they know that you can always do business with their competitors. This actually has almost nothing to do with illegally downloading music, but I just wanted to point out why capitalism works real quick.
Ultimately it comes down to a judgment call on your part, kids. Is it wrong to steal? Or whatever euphemism you want to use there (“I’m just sampling their songs”). Just because you don’t feel wrong doing something, just because you don’t feel that twinge of guilt, doesn’t make it right. Keep in mind that the internet, and computers in general, function in such a way as to create a wholly other world that you may not feel entirely exists, which explains the lack of guilt you feel. And don’t say that isn’t true unless you’ve got a degree in psychology and can prove me wrong.”
“Oh, yeah, that makes since, ‘cause you have a degree in psychology.”
“… just… just shut up! I thought I got rid of you, but you just screwed up my conclusion.”
“Oh, did I tamper with your ‘intellectual property’? Are you going to have me arrested for digital arson?”
“This isn’t funny, that’s my point. Musicians put tons of work into what they do, but don’t even get respect from their fans. I mean, their fans must not respect them if they steal from them. Can you respect someone you steal from?”
“I download their songs because I respect them.”
“Well, theft is a funny way of showing respect.”
“You’re pretty long-winded aren’t you?”
“Yeah, this is getting pretty long. Call it quits for now?”
“Heck, why not. We’ll agree to disagree.”
“Plus, I know where you live.”
“Hmmm”
Human creativity is one of the most mysterious, powerful, and truly wonderful divine gifts. We are endowed with the ability to create something from nothing. This should not be considered lightly, because the only other example of such spontaneous creation at this scale was the birth of the universe.
Obviously human creativity also creates something from something else, and when someone creates something tangible it becomes their physical property. But the other property that is created, using the aforementioned method is equally, if not more, important. Intellectual property is…
“Hey, wait a sec… I see where you’re going with this! You’re going to rant about the evils of illegal music downloading”
“Well, yes, but…”
“Man is that old. Come on, don’t you realize how rich musicians are! Besides, the music industry loses more money through burned CDs than downloads.”
“Yes, but both methods are wrong. And not all musicians are rich. All producers are rich, but not all musicians are rich. Do you know why bands constantly tour?”
“’Cause that’s what bands do, they go and play their music. They’re musicians, they like that.”
“Well, that’s mostly true, but it’s also true that a lot of bands are forced to tour to make enough money.”
“Oh, you probably just made that up.”
“Why don’t you ask some artists? These people are artists. You’ve got to look at them like you look at Picasso or… well, some other painter.”
“Hmm… someone did their research *cough*”
“Picasso’s paintings are his property, you wouldn’t steal his paintings, would you? But you’d steal Green Day’s music… ok, bad example, a lot of people wouldn’t steal Green Day’s music (I mean, they’re not that bad, are they?)”
“Their earlier stuff is a lot better. They suck now.”
“Anyway, this isn’t supposed to be about whether Green Day still makes good music. My point is that making an illegal copy of a song is theft. It is a crime, just like any other crime.”
“Hmm… I was wondering when you were going to start equating music downloading with murder…”
“You bloody well know what I mean! Would you walk up to Kurt Cobain and grab his wallet?”
“He’s dead. And when he was alive he had security.”
“Alright, would you hack into Jack White’s bank account and withdraw some of his money?”
“No! The White Stripes are awesome!”
“And yet, you’d download their music.”
“It’s really good music, but I’m only 16, I can’t afford to buy the CDs for all the music I want to listen to!”
“There are other ways to listen to songs without buying them.”
“Now we’re talking”
“Television, radio, check the band’s website.”
“Oh, you mean, legal ways. Ways that don’t let you listen to the song anytime you want to.”
“That’s not necessarily a bad thing. You don’t need to listen to the same song over and over and over again. And if it’s so good that you want to do that, buy the album.”
“But I just want to be able to listen to it when I want to.”
“Uh-huh, yeah, sacrificing your morals for convenience, that certainly makes a lot of sense. Hmm… these native peoples are in my way, it would be so much more convenient if they were all dead…”
“Oh, wonderful, now you’ve gone and compared music downloading to the Trail of Tears. Which I find particularly ironic considering: YOU’RE RELATED TO THE MAN RESPONSIBLE FOR THAT SPECIFIC TRAGEDY”
“Don’t you go and bring my long dead ancestors into this, and don’t get off topic. The problem with your generation is that you fail to see intellectual property crimes as morally wrong. You’ve grown up with web 2.0, where everything is share and share alike, and since you’re all kids, with no or minimal financial responsibility, you forget that adults still have to make money to live. You record some song just for fun and let people listen to it for free and don’t understand why the Strokes or Rolling Stones don’t let you do the same thing.
I won’t argue against open source (especially considering that I argued for it a few posts ago), but just because some things on the internet are free doesn’t mean that everything should be. There always should and will be a place for ‘closed-source’ programming, just as there will always be a place for music THAT YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR. We live in a capitalist society, and you must learn that sometime, and you must learn to respect that, because there are certain advantages to living in that type of society. The most noticeable one is that the salespeople are a lot nicer. They may call you at all hours of the day, but they are nicer because they know that you can always do business with their competitors. This actually has almost nothing to do with illegally downloading music, but I just wanted to point out why capitalism works real quick.
Ultimately it comes down to a judgment call on your part, kids. Is it wrong to steal? Or whatever euphemism you want to use there (“I’m just sampling their songs”). Just because you don’t feel wrong doing something, just because you don’t feel that twinge of guilt, doesn’t make it right. Keep in mind that the internet, and computers in general, function in such a way as to create a wholly other world that you may not feel entirely exists, which explains the lack of guilt you feel. And don’t say that isn’t true unless you’ve got a degree in psychology and can prove me wrong.”
“Oh, yeah, that makes since, ‘cause you have a degree in psychology.”
“… just… just shut up! I thought I got rid of you, but you just screwed up my conclusion.”
“Oh, did I tamper with your ‘intellectual property’? Are you going to have me arrested for digital arson?”
“This isn’t funny, that’s my point. Musicians put tons of work into what they do, but don’t even get respect from their fans. I mean, their fans must not respect them if they steal from them. Can you respect someone you steal from?”
“I download their songs because I respect them.”
“Well, theft is a funny way of showing respect.”
“You’re pretty long-winded aren’t you?”
“Yeah, this is getting pretty long. Call it quits for now?”
“Heck, why not. We’ll agree to disagree.”
“Plus, I know where you live.”
“Hmmm”
posted by Placeholder at 7:48 PM
2 Comments:
Ah, so you mean downloading pieces of music are to be concidered more of a theft of "Intellectual property" yet recording is not?
-Will
P.S. Liverals suck
recording copyrighted material is just as bad as downloading illegal copies of copyrighted material, because the both come out to the same thing. I don't recall ever suggesting in the essay that using programs like Audacity to record songs was in any way less morally wrong than using programs like Torrent or Limewire.
P.S. thank you for your subtle and reasoned political discourse, you are truly a gift to your political party.
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