Torrent/Limewire = Piracy

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I was inadvertantly swept up into a discussion of piracy today on Facebook. Some of my younger friends were complaining about how to 'get free music' but didn't like my suggestion to listen to the radio. Someone suggested using Torrent/Limewire, which allows you to download media from other people's laptops.  (Sounds like a dangerous notion to me!)  What they really want is to own music without paying for it or having to listen to advertisements, which is funny because even YouTube now laces its site with advertisements. The notion of that discussion, quite frankly, is piracy.

It's not that I'm personally offended. I do not have any albums, or anything really at this time, out there available for purchase that can be stolen. Although I have had my own intellectual property stolen and published without attribution, I no longer remember the person, just the event, as a hedge against future events. This is about the law.

Ask yourself how you would feel if someone broke into your house and took your bed, your guitar, your laptop, or your dog. By all other accounts, this is clearly theft. Young people increasingly insulate themselves from this by saying that the music industry is full of miscreants and that it's ok because it's digital. One man's misbehavior does not license you to do likewise. Yet, that's probably why they think nothing of taking someone's pay and redistributing it to someone else- because they don't take it by force or in person. Yet, wire fraud is illegal, and if their money was wired to Kyrgyzstan tomorrow, they'd cry foul. If it is illegal to steal, it is illegal.

Giving your life is one thing, but taking it is another. Although Jesus encouraged us to give freely, he never spoke of force or gave men permission or instructions to take from one what he did not freely give. When you steal from someone else, you're effectively taking their life from them, because we trade our time and talents to create things of lasting or ephemeral value, and we cannot recoup our time. If you steal my work, my money, or my thoughts, you have in essense stolen part of my life, and the taking of a life is a capital crime in almost all nations, punishable by death of the offender.

Several months back, I asked a friend of mine to procure something for me. He told me that he would not pass it on because it was something he could obtain only by means of something "less than ethical" and knew my feelings about such methods. You may of course choose to live as you wish so long as you accept the consequences attendent with your choices. I have made a choice, and I refuse to use these filesharing methods, because they amount to modern piracy.

There is a higher law that states, "Thou shalt not steal." I have even gone so far as to return amounts ranging from small to large that I received either in error or as a bait, because I hope people will regard me ethically. Where I can, I obtain things for free, but if you really want it that badly, you can always borrow it as often as you like from the library, and if you want it that badly, why not purchase it?

Monday around lunch, I was in Food4Less while it was robbed. The woman escaped with a handful of groceries. I do not know if they will ever catch her or punish her. The fact of the matter is that she has punished all of us. As the cashier explained, the sad thing is that they pass on the loss to the honest shoppers. Perhaps that is partly why media costs what it does, because so many people procure it without paying, and they pass on the cost to those of us who actually pay. I know it costs thousands to produce and publish a book, a DVD, or a CD en masse. These people may earn more than we think they should, but if people are willing to pay it, who am I to argue with how they choose to spend their money? What I ask is that you not force a change in how I spend mine.

Jesus taught that we render to Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are His. I bowed out of the conversation after I made the point that it was about the law. It is often the little things that are the most dangerous. I will close with this story.

Many decades ago in Holland, there was a small boy who saved his town. One night, on his way home, he noticed water leaking through the dike and plugged it with his finger. He stayed there all through the night, through the next day, and into the following night as the temperature stayed bitterly cold. Although people noticed him standing there as they passed, nobody stopped to inquire or help or investigate. The boy stayed there long enough that he died of exposure. When they came to remove his body, they discovered what he had done, that if he had not plugged the whole, the entire town might have been flooded and all its residents killed.

It is often the smallest things that are the most dangerous. Viruses are very small, but by the time we know they have multiplied within us and begun their deadly work of abject destruction within our own systems, we have been infected for a long time. What small things we justify today may be gateways to greater things, greater crimes, that ultimately may end in our temporal or eternal destruction. If you are involved now, start paying the price for peace of mind. We get what we pay for, and when we pay for nothing, we often get unexpected things with hidden costs no matter how free they may at first appear to be. Oh be wise. What can I say more?