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MineralMan

(146,189 posts)
Sat Sep 6, 2014, 12:10 PM Sep 2014

Stolen Photos, Stolen Music, Stolen Movies, Stolen Content...

In many ways, it's all the same thing. Someone steals and the victim suffers a loss of some kind. It's popular on the Internet to say things like, "everything should be free" or "people shouldn't have stored their naked photos on that password-protected cloud." There are many excuses made for accessing stolen property, and all of those things I listed above are property.

"But the Internet should be free, dude!"

Yah, and so should new cars and that iPad you're using to access that Internet. But they aren't. Why? Because it's expensive to host countless millions of websites. It's expensive to produce music, make movies, and publish stuff. It's cool stuff, for sure, and we all want that stuff.

For physical things we have "receipt of stolen property" laws. If some steals that iPad of yours and gets caught, you'll get it back and the thief will receive some level of punishment. You'll be very happy about that, I'm sure.

Stealing other people's stuff is wrong. It has always been wrong. And make no mistake, the person looking at the naked photo of Jennifer Lawrence is stealing that photo. Same with watching a movie you didn't pay for or see on a subscription service, or that tune you downloaded from that "everything on the Internet should be free" website. It's all the same thing...stealing stuff that doesn't belong to you.

There are victims and thieves. It's not always money that's involved. Privacy is worth something, too.

So, if you searched around and found a photo of some celebrity that was recently stolen, and then had a nice long look, you stole something. You stole that person's privacy, just the same as the person who hacked into the cloud storage where it was found originally. You're just like that hacker, but without the skills to be the first to steal it. You still stole it.

And that's all I have to say about that.

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Stolen Photos, Stolen Music, Stolen Movies, Stolen Content... (Original Post) MineralMan Sep 2014 OP
How do you feel about ad blocking software Sopkoviak Sep 2014 #1
Why do you ask? Are you assuming I'm inconsistent? MineralMan Sep 2014 #2
Afternoon bump. MineralMan Sep 2014 #3

MineralMan

(146,189 posts)
2. Why do you ask? Are you assuming I'm inconsistent?
Sat Sep 6, 2014, 01:22 PM
Sep 2014

I don't use ad blocking software. On DU, I pay for a star membership, and don't see ads here. If a website displays too many or obnoxious ads, I stop going to that web site. There's always an alternative.

As for pay walls, I've never bypassed one. There are plenty of sources for almost anything that aren't behind pay walls. When I encounter a pay wall, I simply never return to that website.

Bottom line is that I do not steal stuff. I make my living by writing, and have since 1974. I've had work stolen and republished by people who didn't pay me for the work. They paid later, after a letter from my attorney. I'd have sold them the right to publish my work a lot cheaper than the money they had to pay me after stealing my work.

We all earn our living in some way. Some of us create content. Please don't steal from me or others who do that and I won't steal from you. How's that for a bargain?

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