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1503 points participant3 | 2 comments | | HN request time: 0.621s | source
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djoldman ◴[] No.43577414[source]
I don't condone or endorse breaking any laws.

That said, trademark laws like life of the author + 95 years are absolutely absurd. The ONLY reason to have any law prohibiting unlicensed copying of intangible property is to incentivize the creation of intangible property. The reasoning being that if you don't allow people to exclude 3rd party copying, then the primary party will assumedly not receive compensation for their creation and they'll never create.

Even in the case where the above is assumed true, the length of time that a protection should be afforded should be no more than the length of time necessary to ensure that creators create.

There are approximately zero people who decide they'll create something if they're protected for 95 years after their death but won't if it's 94 years. I wouldn't be surprised if it was the same for 1 year past death.

For that matter, this argument extends to other criminal penalties, but that's a whole other subject.

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4gotunameagain ◴[] No.43578724[source]
It is not about trademark laws. It is about where laws apply.

If you torrent a movie right now, you'll be fined in many advanced countries.

But a huge corporation led by a sociopath scrapes the entire internet and builds a product with other people's work ?

Totally fine.

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1. genewitch ◴[] No.43578916[source]
Which huge corporation led by a sociopath? There's so many to choose from.
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2. noduerme ◴[] No.43578943[source]
The wickedest idea that social media run by sociopaths has implanted in the human psyche is the idea that anyone else would take advantage of immoral tactics if they had the means or could afford the payoffs.