From: Phil Hagelberg <phil@...>
Date: 2006-05-17T02:19:40+09:00
Subject: Re: Ticked Off

"Austin Ziegler" <halostatue@gmail.com> writes:

> There is a legal difference, yes. I'm not sure that there's a
> meaningful *semantic* difference in discussions that do not involve
> lawyers or people who deny that intellectual property exists in the
> first place. "Steal" is a synonym for "theft." It's still the
> misappropriation of something which does not belong to you and you
> have not been given permission to use.

Chalk it up to the hackerly tendency to be irritated by endless
repetition of minor inaccuracies. In this case there is not a great
semantic difference, but equivocating the two leads people to think
that they are the same in every case. 

For instance, if someone thinks that there is no difference whatsoever
between copyright infringement and theft, it's very difficult to
explain how fair use works--it comes across sounding like a
rationalization of wrongdoing. ("What, you mean it's not stealing,
it's borrowing without asking?")

> someone was advocating taking something that does not belong to them
> and they were not given permission to use, and preventing a friend
> of mine and a person who contributes to the community from receiving
> the appropriate compensation for his work.

Agreed. This is bad, and I am disappointed that people in the
community have sunk to such depths.

-Phil Hagelberg