Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Piracy more serious than burglary?

Copyright coalition: Piracy more serious than burglary, fraud, bank robbery

Ars Technica is one of the premier technology sites. They carried this thought-provoking editorial that talks of an attempt by a lawyer for a prominent media enterprise to make the US government consider intellectual property theft as more serious than "real" theft.

Isn't it really ridiculous for somebody to even think of say, an armed burglary involving assault as less serious than a bootlegged bad movie? This is where the corporates are bad. While capitalism and corporates are good for the economy and all that, this is one area that is safely handled by the judicial arm of the government.

I agree that copyright infringement is a serious issue. It should be punished severely. But please do not underestimate the seriousness of crimes such as armed robberies and frauds such as Vinivinc. The latter crimes can be "lesser" only if the amounts of money lost in either crime are compared. But is money everything?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

At least in this one area, the Hammurabi's Code and the justice in the Middle East even today looks fully justified.

An eye for an eye, etc.

Justice is not only harsh but is also very swift.

Even a simple motor vehicle collision on the highway in Saudi Arabia is attended to by the police in less than an hour, the guilty party identified on the spot and the spot cleared of all marks of the accident immediately.

One major reason why justice in India is mostly denied is because it is invariably delayed and is also buyable. Just look at the number of seized vehicles in any Police Station anywhere in the country.