The Thin Line Between Copying & Stealing

Everywhere you turn on the Internet there is a copyright battle. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is fighting against the unauthorized copying and distribution of songs; the Associated Press (AP) is fighting sites that copy its articles without permission; and everybody is fighting sites like Pirate Bay that help distribute copied content.

Today, just as in the early 1700s, we are faced with a moral and a business crisis. As Kathryn Tyranski pointed out on this site a few months back, “…Why’s it okay for us to steal music over the web, but it’s wrong to go into Best Buy and pocket the CD?” I have asked that very question of a number of people and have unfortunately come to the conclusion that society has only respected copyright law because they had to.

Check out the entire blog at Internet Evolution.