Mises Wire

Don’t Call Them “Pirates”

Don’t Call Them “Pirates”
Mises Wire Stephan Kinsella

So says Big Copyright, which adopted the term for copyright infringers because of “its suggestions of theft, destruction, and violence.” But now, the “pirates”have “co-opted the term, adopting it with gusto and hoisting the Jolly Roger across the Internet (The Pirate Bay being the most famous example).”

I agree. Copyright infringers should not be called pirates. A pirate is a robber, plunderor, predator. The term much better describes the patent and copyright lobbies, which use state monopoly grants to plunder and rob the masses.

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