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> there is simply no legal way to get a movie/tv show on the Internet.

Yes, how dare someone not sell their widget everywhere! If Ford won't sell me a car in Argentina, I'll just go steal it!

It's a freedom issue! I must be able to legally watch Friends!




Maybe a better analogy:

If <insert big pharma here> won't sell cancer drugs for reasonable prices in my country then we will have local companies ignore patents and produce knockoffs instead and sell them at production cost.

Which is exactly what's happening in india for example. Remember that you're not stealing anything. Just making copies.

Of course treating cancer does not have the same societal value as getting hollywood entertainment, but it's still a market failure when the content industry cannot satisfy demand in those countries. And at least turning both eyes is a much better approach than criminalizing millions.


How is that stealing? If they won't sell you the wiget then why should they get to claim copyright?

Copyright only exists to promote selling content, take that away and copyright vanishes right along with it.


No, copyright exists to say, I made this, I get to control how it's distributed.


No, copyright exists to incentivize the creation of new works for the benefit of society.


You're both right. Grandparent is more correct as to why, historically, copyright as a monopoly grant was first created, but parent is correct as to the explicit Constitutional provision granting Congress the power to create copyright (and patents, etc.) in the US system, and generally the most commonly accepted reason for the continuation of copyright in the modern world.


    To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by 
    securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the 
    exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.


The correct analogy is: Ford doesn't sell a Ford in Argentina, but a legal owner of a Ford car offered to give you a copy of hers/his, and you accepted it.


Except that your friend can't just click a button and send you a copy of their Ford. Your analogy makes no sense, Fords aren't made of bits.


Exactly. I was trying to show that analogies between digital content and physical things don't make sense.


Ah..that wasn't clear. My bad.




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