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Comment by TheBiv | Hacker News Reader

I tried to be rational and then I got to the second paragraph of their own brief:

"The second and even more pernicious effect is that illegal theft of intellectual property is undermining both the means and the incentive for entrepreneurs to innovate, which will slow the development of new inventions and industries that can further expand the world economy and continue to raise the prosperity and quality of life for everyone. Unless current trends are reversed, there is a risk of stifling innovation, with adverse consequences for both developed and still developing countries."

Source: http://ipcommission.org/report/IP_Commission_Report_052213.p...

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Yes, they might as well have thrown "... for the good of mankind..." in for good measure.

On another note, thanks for linking to the source material.

And ... won't someone please think of the children

1. Their intellectual property is not being stolen, it's impossible to "steal" a digital file. Their rights are being infringed.

2. The major thing retarding development of new inventions and industries are the wealthy luddites digging their feet in and trying to extract as much as possible from actual innovators.

> "illegal theft of intellectual property"

Say what?

Such bizarre phrases make me seriously doubt the intelligence and education of the people who wrote this.

But they are petitioning for legal theft of control over your computer. I think they know what they are saying.

They are not stupid. This isn't a mistake. It's Dark Arts. They're trying (quite successfully) to attach the word "theft" to copyright infringement, so that people discuss it in terms of moral intuitions about stealing. 'cause if it is called "stealing" then it must be evil, right?

And they've been doing so for a long time. "You wouldn't steal a car" etc. were all about equating piracy with stealing from a shop or whatever.

Exactly. Funny though, now the obvious answer to "you wouldn't download a car" is "of course I would, just give me a big enough 3D printer!".

The dinosaurs running the entertainment industry wouldn't know innovation if it smacked them in the face.

They are not idiots, at least not all of them. The're mostly the real-life example of Upton Sinclair's quote.

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!"

Wow, "The National Bureau of Asian Research", really?

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