"Darren New" <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote in message
news:4a0cb7e8@news.povray.org...

> What does the copyright holder own,

Copyright.

> as a possession, that I'm taking away
> when I copy a CD?

You are taking away his right to control (of how / by who / under what
conditions... etc) his work can be copied. That is, you are taking away
*whatever priviledges* were granted to him *in* the copyright. Note that
it's not the same thing as taking away the copyright. Just as a murderer
does not take away the "right to life", but what is specified in that right,
that is, life. It's a fallacy to assume nothing is taken away since
copyright is still stands. Laws and contracts don't of course disappear when
broken, they will continue to stand. "Right to life" does not vanish when
someone murders another, it's the "life" that vanishes. I'm guessing that
the "violating copyright does not take away anything" camp here fail to make
that fundamental distinction.

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