On file sharing and p2p networks

[Drake]

So I'm watching yet another blow-up about the whole file-sharing, music/movie download, is it really theft? issue, and it (as always) comes down to the tired metaphor: downloading is like going into a store, putting a pack of bubble gum in your pocket and walking out with it. Downloaders, of course, respond that the metaphor is flawed because downloading isn't actually depriving the owner of the product of any physical object (and people who download aren't going to buy the product in the first place, blah, blah, blah).

Anyway, I'm proposing a new metaphor for this controversy:

If it is true that copying a thing is not a true "loss" to the owner of that thing, then no one should object if I snip a piece of hair off of their child and have their child cloned so that I can own a "copy" of him or her and do whatever I choose to that copy. The child's parents haven't lost any use of that child, nor has the child lost use of itself. I've just taken a copy, which hurts no one. Just because you created and have legal guardianship over the original product does not give you the right to deny my desire to make a copy for my own use.

What say you, gentlemen? Good or bad metaphor?

[sterlingice]

Wait? So you're saying I can get my own cloned kid to do my laundry and clean the apartment and stuff and leave them in a cage if I use Bit Torrent? AWESOME!

SI