

The War on Piracy = The War on Drugs... - daegloe
http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/permalink/2012/120330drugs

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btipling
Ridiculous spin that inhumanely minimizes the innumerable deaths and misery
the war on drugs has brought down on entire generations of families throughout
the world.

If we could end the war on drugs at the expense of loss of net neutrality and
ten thousand years of existing copyright laws persisting I would find this to
be favorable a million times over.

When you attempt to draw distinctions between piracy and the war on drugs you
are exaggerating on a scale so large that it can only detract from your cause.
You do not help it. The piracy issue is not going to go away, but the cost of
you not being able to watch what you want when you want to is in no way shape
or form as serious a problem as the drug problem. You come back and tell this
story when piracy has destroyed whole city blocks, has contributed to a death
toll in the tens of thousands, has destroyed the security of nations the size
of Mexico, and funds the particular madness of mass murdering drug lords that
carry out their violence in impunity.

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chc
Eh, I think you're overstating things as well. When two things are compared,
they do not have to be alike in all respects — merely those relevant to the
comparison. Put another way: Contrary to the title, comparing is not
identifying.

For example, something with many layers might be compared to an onion or a
matryoshka doll, but that doesn't mean it's edible or that it's made out of
wood.

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btipling
No, that doesn't work when you're comparing something to a tragedy. You can't
ignore the seriousness of the matter without it being a statement all in its
own. The kind of comparison made in the post is hyperbole.

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shin_lao
The war on piracy is just the result of intense lobbying and lack of
understanding at the top. It's a transitional state until we adjust copyrights
for the digital age. I'm not sure we have the same level of lobbying for the
war on drugs.

I don't want to start a heated debate about the war on drugs, or drug usage
(which is a too frequent topic to my taste on hn), but I think we can agree
that pirating doesn't have the same obvious negative effects than certain
drugs (legal or not legal, that's not the point): inability to drive,
violence, health problems, loss of productivity...

That is why I don't think it's a good comparison.

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stephengillie
Piracy addicts are less likely to steal physical items which can be fenced to
feed their piracy addiction.

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vellum
The analogy isn’t perfect. But it works in that enforcement alone isn’t the
solution.

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nikcub
all that they have in common is futility

it would be more apt if it was big pharma behind the war on drugs

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ajhit406
== ?

