TOS #9 and pirated music, copy protection, local laws
Reply #22 – 2009-11-02 16:24:11
I think we either need to be legal, or moral, or nothing. I assume it's the first, though personally I'd prefer the second! Given the global coverage of this forum I think a moral stance is the more sensible. From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morality My additions in [square brackets], wiki in quotes.In its descriptive use, morals are arbitrarily and subjectively created by society, philosophy, religion, and/or individual conscience . [e.g. "I think it's morally okay to download music, and so do my mates and my spiritual leader"]The arbitrariness of morality stems from the observation that actions that may be deemed moral in one culture in time may not be classified as such in others or in a different time. [i.e. The law changes, does that mean my morals change? And by virtue of moving about the planet morality seems to change.]The subjectiveness of morality is shown by the observation that actions or beliefs which by themselves do not seem to cause overt harm may be considered immoral, e.g. marrying someone of the same or opposite gender, being an atheist or a theist, etc. [e.g. "I'm against killing but downloading isn't really hurting anyone"]While for the most part immoral acts are classified as such because they cause clear harm, this is not by any means an all encompassing criterion; it's possible that many moral beliefs are due to prejudice, ignorance or even hatred . [...] known as moral skepticism, in which the unchanging existence of a rigid, universal, objective moral "truth" is rejected . In its third usage, 'morality' is synonymous with ethics. [...] Ethics seeks to address questions such as how a moral outcome can be achieved in a specific situation ... [so what's moral?] Morality is way too fluffy and subjective IMO. Furthemore, Synthetic Soul is assuming a connection between Law and Morality, and though often this is the case, in IP law I've never seen a great deal of morality. IP law is generally shaped by business interests and businesses have never been very good at morality. IMO morality is purely a personal matter (i.e. between me and my conscience). Just thought since we're talking morality it might be useful to consider its meaning. C.EDIT: Added quotes (at top of this post) from this thread.