On 5/15/2009 9:21 AM, Jim Henderson wrote:
> Where the record labels, MPAA, etc get into "stealing" is not the
> stealing of the work, but they contend that every time someone infringes
> their copyright, they are denied profits (ie, the profits are stolen).
>
> In order for that argument to hold water, you have to assume that
> everyone who infringes the copyright of the rights holder would have paid
> for the product, otherwise there's no theft of profits (since there would
> have been no purchase made without the infringement).

This makes me wonder if a person who has downloaded, say, 100,000,000 
songs off the internet without paying for them, was sued, could they 
defend themselves by saying they wouldn't have paid for the music anyway?

Certainly they would still be guilty of copyright infringement, but I 
don't think there would be any theft involved.

-- 
...Chambers
www.pacificwebguy.com

Post a reply to this message