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rob05c  ·  3417 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Can we cogently refute "stealing is stealing"?

    What's the moral argument for piracy?

You're reversing the burden of proof. One must prove something is immoral, not the reverse.

What's the moral argument for tying your right shoe first? There is none. Clearly it's immoral, you should always tie your left shoe first.

    You say: that I have no right to anything I produce. Why? I disagree completely.

I didn't say you have no right to anything you produce. If you print a book, you absolutely have the right that physical book. But no, I don't believe you or I have the moral right to the information we produce. If you sell that book to someone, I don't think you have a right to tell them "you can read this, but you can't let anyone else read it, and you can't write these same Latin characters in the same order."

    Does my bank account belong to humanity?

A bank account is not information. Information is part of it, but it's more specifically a record kept by your bank. Whether that information is public is an issue of privacy, which is related, but probably ought to be saved for a different post.

    you didn't address the part of kleinbl00's post that you quoted at all, as far as I can tell. What's the moral argument for piracy?

No, I really didn't, because morality is a lot trickier than practicality. And honestly, I haven't decided what I believe precisely, when it comes to the nuances of Deontology and Teleology and all their ilk. I tried to make a moral defense using Classical Liberalism, but yes, I didn't do a great job.

If you really want a balanced reasoning, and a better defense than I can make, I do highly recommend Thomas Jefferson's letter. I know I've already linked it twice, but he does a much better job than I can of weighing the implications, practical and moral, of intellectual property.