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Comment by Dowwie | Hacker News Reader

Before you end up stealing someone's private property, introduce yourself to the property owner and ask for permission. If the property owner changes, you have to go through the process again. Rights aren't grandfathered in.

This seems to be beyond what many people are capable of. This app is going to be shut down.

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There's something about the concept of private property that gets people properly riled up. It's mine, my preciousss!

What if you live in a monarchy and all the land and all the trees belong to the king? Do you have moral/ethical right to steal fruit from the king's trees?

There are very few private trees around where I am. This app lists a lot of trees in public spaces around me - trees I never gave a second thought before. I'm grateful for it.

> This app is going to be shut down.

Pray tell more. By whom?

how would you feel if someone stole your car? that is private property

Oh of course I'd be upset! (I don't have a car, but will entertain your theoretical scenario.)

If someone stole fruit from my tree I'd be upset too!

I'm so lost; what is your point?

I'm not the OP or at all involved in this thread until now, but fruit trees will yield fruit again and again, a car will not. Now, if you owned the means of production for a Model T and I took a Model T, how upset would you be? That's more like "taking an apple" since you own the "tree"

Also not in this thread until now, but two thoughts:

First: A car can be "the means of production", if you're a driver for Uber/Lyft.

Second: the issue I understand is that this website isn't letting one person take fruit from a tree, but treating all such things as open invitations for all persons to take from the tree. To your analogy, that isn't taking a single Model T car, but seizing the factory and stating you're making cars for the entire city with it.

One could argue that if the City needs Model Ts and you're not doing anything useful with the factory, one should reprimand it to benefit society

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