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user-inactivated · 3516 days ago · link · · parent · post: The Trans-Pacific Partnership suggests Obama has no sense of irony
"American IP is stolen at alarming rates" is a ridiculous thing to say. "Stealing" implies the owner of a thing is deprived of the thing stolen. It is impossible to steal intellectual property. Intellectual property is not a thing, it's a bad analogy that justifies laws allowing publishers to monetize the culture we should be freely sharing with each other. It has always been that way, and arguments about the benefits to authors have been rhetorical slight of hand from the beginning. The only way we will be rid of IP protections is for them to become unprofitable, or for the industries dependent on them to die off. Either way, widespread not-really-stealing hastens that day, and so is a good thing.