> peddling fake DVDs
> caught being involved with the new Switch flashcard
I'm OK with this. Literal non-crimes as far as I'm concerned. Literally nothing.
> His old computer repair shop had a bad reputation among computer enthusiasts in the 80s for not shipping parts
So he's guilty of running a shitty store.
It took time to arrange the bits in such a way that you desired to copy them.
Copying bits is not stealing. It's worse than stealing, it's counterfeiting.
When you steal a car, the car manufacturer can still sell cars at that value. When you counterfeit software (or anything digital), the original work is devalued over time, because as the counterfeit becomes more widespread, the value approaches $0.
Correct. It's that labor which is valuable. The labor of creation, of finding that interesting unique number in the sea of infinity. That's valuable.
Well at least it used to be anyway. AI is proving itself quite adept at finding interesting numbers.
> it's counterfeiting
No, it's copyright infringement. That's what they call it anyway. I don't consider it worse than literally anything. I consider it natural. People do it without even realizing that they're doing it. Every single day. At massive scales.
> the original work is devalued over time, because as the counterfeit becomes more widespread, the value approaches $0.
It doesn't approach zero, it is zero. It always was zero. Once created, information is infinitely copyable, it is infinitely abundant, supply is infinite.
That's the reason why they had to create an artificial scarcity system on top of it. Because it's not actually real.
It's this copyright nonsense that allowed people to delude themselves into thinking numbers could bought and sold. Maybe that was true once in the age of the printing press. It's not true in the 21st century, the age of information and globally networked pocket supercomputers. Copyright was over the second computers were invented.
It's time to let go. Creators need to find alternative business models where they get paid before the act of creating for the act of creating. Because it's that labor which is scarce and valuable. The end result is not.