Illegal copying of a movie isn't "stealing" under the law so much as "copyright infringement". If the actual master discs containing the movie itself disappeared and later popped up on eBay, then it would be stealing. To use your Mercedes metaphor, it'd be like someone making a copy of the blueprints and using spare parts they already have lying around to make their own, except that it doesn't transfer properly since you're talking about two completely different types of things which is missing the point entirely.
If a symphony orchestra is going to be playing Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and one of their preview run-throughs is broadcast on the radio, but without all of the members there, people can listen to it for free and decide whether or not they want to attend the actual performances, just like people watched the workprint of Wolverine: Origins for free and MANY saw the finished product anyway.
People can watch Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog for free on Hulu as much as they want, but the DVD still sold exceptionally well when it came out. Look at Wilco's "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" and Radiohead's "Hail to the Thief" which were both leaked and highly downloaded by people before they properly came out and BOTH have sold at least in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions of units. Especially amongst people who already had digital copies. Look at what Radiohead did in late 2007 with the release of "In Rainbows" and how they still made millions off people willing to buy it on CD, in limited edition discboxes and in the original digital form. Look at how Trent Reznor GAVE AWAY the NIN albume "The Slip" and it still SOLD tons of copies, look at how The Raconteurs did the same sort of thing with "Consolers of the Lonely". Look at how TV series have sold tons of VHS and DVD collections over the years despite the ease of people being able to tape the broadcasts. Look at how books still sell in the millions even though public libraries have been around for centuries. Look at how Creative Commons let Jonathan Coulton make a career out of letting people download his music for free if they'd like and has netted him a huge fanbase worldwide!
In short: get your head out of your ass and realize that physical theft isn't what's going on, instead, if the companies would learn to adapt, people would see the internet as a new Renaissance.
Edison stole intellectual property from his researchers at Menlo Park by making them sign contracts (much like the ones at MANY companies today) wherein they sign over their rights to any ideas they have on the job. He then signed his own name to the patent applications. He only did this after Tesla left the Edison corporation to partner with Westinghouse about alternating current generators when Edison refused to a) get the picture and stuck to the broken technological model of DC, and b) refused to pay Tesla for his work developing better transformers for the power stations.
Aside from that, I agree completely with the article.
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by Zach Totz.
Nonsense? No. The word you're looking for is Renaissance.
Illegal copying of a movie isn't "stealing" under the law so much as "copyright infringement". If the actual master discs containing the movie itself disappeared and later popped up on eBay, then it would be stealing. To use your Mercedes metaphor, it'd be like someone making a copy of the blueprints and using spare parts they already have lying around to make their own, except that it doesn't transfer properly since you're talking about two completely different types of things which is missing the point entirely.
If a symphony orchestra is going to be playing Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and one of their preview run-throughs is broadcast on the radio, but without all of the members there, people can listen to it for free and decide whether or not they want to attend the actual performances, just like people watched the workprint of Wolverine: Origins for free and MANY saw the finished product anyway.
People can watch Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog for free on Hulu as much as they want, but the DVD still sold exceptionally well when it came out. Look at Wilco's "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" and Radiohead's "Hail to the Thief" which were both leaked and highly downloaded by people before they properly came out and BOTH have sold at least in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions of units. Especially amongst people who already had digital copies. Look at what Radiohead did in late 2007 with the release of "In Rainbows" and how they still made millions off people willing to buy it on CD, in limited edition discboxes and in the original digital form. Look at how Trent Reznor GAVE AWAY the NIN albume "The Slip" and it still SOLD tons of copies, look at how The Raconteurs did the same sort of thing with "Consolers of the Lonely". Look at how TV series have sold tons of VHS and DVD collections over the years despite the ease of people being able to tape the broadcasts. Look at how books still sell in the millions even though public libraries have been around for centuries. Look at how Creative Commons let Jonathan Coulton make a career out of letting people download his music for free if they'd like and has netted him a huge fanbase worldwide!
In short: get your head out of your ass and realize that physical theft isn't what's going on, instead, if the companies would learn to adapt, people would see the internet as a new Renaissance.
Regarding Thomas Edison
Edison stole intellectual property from his researchers at Menlo Park by making them sign contracts (much like the ones at MANY companies today) wherein they sign over their rights to any ideas they have on the job. He then signed his own name to the patent applications. He only did this after Tesla left the Edison corporation to partner with Westinghouse about alternating current generators when Edison refused to a) get the picture and stuck to the broken technological model of DC, and b) refused to pay Tesla for his work developing better transformers for the power stations.
Aside from that, I agree completely with the article.