Comment by shadowgovt 3 days ago
I know of no other type of theft that results in more of something existing in the world. Stealing deprives someone of something; copying data (from training an AI all the way to pedestrian "YoU wOuLdN'T DoWnLoAd a cAr" early-aughts file-sharing) decreases scarcity, it doesn't increase it.
Your analogy between copyright infringement and bread theft is interesting, given how "stealing bread" has traditionally been used as a shorthand for systemic inequality.
Copyright is why Disney can ruin someone for doing something with Goofy they don't like. Yes, it protects smaller, less profitable artists too, but make no mistake: it's a tool of mass control and cultural capture.
Perhaps it's time to seriously ask whether copyright is actually doing its job of "promot[ing] the Progress of Science and useful Arts." "...but generally speaking, other nations have thought that these monopolies produce more embarrasment than advantage to society" [Jefferson].
Identity theft is the greatest con merchants ever pulled on the public. Turning the responsibility around from "A merchant got scammed because their KYC policy was too thin, because they make more money if they do more business with fewer verifications (until someone comes along and cheats them)" to "when they do get scammed, maybe it can be the fault of the person who was impersonated instead of the scammer" was some brilliant sleight-of-hand.
It isn't your responsibility if a bank you've never set foot in gave a bunch of money to someone who isn't you and said they were you... And it never should have been. The moment companies started trying to put that into credit ratings, they should have been barred for discriminatory practices against the unlucky.
>> Stealing deprives someone of something
Yes. In this case, it is the artist's sole right to reproduce said images, based on their creative output.
>> decreases scarcity, it doesn't increase it
What does scarcity have to do with stealing? You can steal bread and reduce food scarcity, but that is still theft.