The key problem is that copyright infringement by a private individual is regarded by the court as something so serious that it negates the right to privacy. It’s a sign of the twisted values that copyright has succeeded on imposing on many legal systems. It equates the mere copying of a digital file with serious crimes that merit a prison sentence, an evident absurdity.

This is a good example of how copyright’s continuing obsession with ownership and control of digital material is warping the entire legal system in the EU. What was supposed to be simply a fair way of rewarding creators has resulted in a monstrous system of routine government surveillance carried out on hundreds of millions of innocent people just in case they copy a digital file.

  • @[email protected]
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    55 months ago

    Do you want corps just stealing every new idea and product, cloning it, and muscling out the original inventor without paying them a dime? Because abolishing copyright entirely would be an excellent way to do that.

    • @[email protected]
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      145 months ago

      That already happens. People who research normally do it under a wage and the invention goes to the company paying the wage. If not, a small inventor doesn’t have the financial means and the lawyers to fight a big company copying their idea. The small person is never defended.

    • @General_EffortOP
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      -35 months ago

      Property rights are the only thing that protects the poor from the rich. Sure.

      • @[email protected]
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        15 months ago

        Copyright is the only thing protecting us from getting absolutely fucked even harder by the rich than we already are, yes.

        • @General_EffortOP
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          25 months ago

          How does that work? By definition, a rich person owns a lot of property. Therefore, laws that give more power to property owners favor the rich. Copyright is a type of property.