Rant (Ver 1.032106)

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LOADING ANGER MODULE...
RIGHTEOUS FURY EXECUTING...
BEGIN RANT...
      It works like this: If you write a book, you own it. If you write a song, you own it. If you write a short story, you own it. What is so hard about that? What is so hard about understanding that you shouldn't steal from other people's works? Are you stupid or what?
      Forgive me if I seem abrupt, but I've had it up to here with hacks stealing other people's work and listening to them justify it. They toss around "fair use" even though they don't have the slightest understanding of what it means. They say that it's okay to use other people's words because "it's for charity." They say that it's okay to photocopy plays, books, articles in large quantities because "we're giving them away free." They say that they have a friend who has a cousin who has a brother who is dating a lawyer and she said it was okay.
      And if you call them on their twisted thinking, they look at you with wounded eyes and quietly say they were just trying to be "creative."
      Let me make it real simple for you. If you steal someone's work, it's theft. Forget about "copyright infringement." Those two words have been tossed around so much that they've practically lost meaning. Let's call it what it is: It's theft. It doesn't matter if you bought the book, the CD, the video, the script, you still have no right to use it to create new works, to adapt it into other forms, to film it, to tape it, to sample it. WHAT IS SO HARD ABOUT THIS?
      This will be even simpler. If you steal someone's work, you have no morals. You can babble on about fair use and claim your theft hurts no one and even misquote the copyright laws, but you're nothing more than a common crook. That's all you are.
      If you think you might be in violation of copyright, please go to the site for the United States Copyright Office. They have plenty of explanations of what is and isn't copyright theft.
END RANT
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