Quote from: Rassah on November 09, 2011, 05:06:00 AM

Summarized:

Quote from: kiyote on November 09, 2011, 04:00:55 AM

What's a right:

Quote from: Wikipedia

"Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles ... the fundamental normative rules ... according to some..."

Or, the specific type of right to our case, the "Claim Right":

Quote from: wikipedia

"Person A has a claim that person B do something if and only if B has a duty to A to do that something."
...
If a person has a claim right against someone else, then that other person's liberty is limited. ... such as [walking on] other people's private property"

Where rights come from:

Quote from: wikipedia

"Politics ... discussion about ... "rights" is ongoing...."

And the specific claim right of Copyrights within the United States:

Quote from: wikipedia

"Copyright law ... part of federal law, and is authorized by the U.S. Constitution.

The Congress shall have Power ... by securing for limited Times ... Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries."

Or "it's this or that, maybe having to do with politics, and discussion is ongoing, but we think it comes from law or Constitution."

As I said, no understanding of what rights are or where they come from. Or rather, believe rights are things just generally agreed on based on the whims of contemporary culture, and which we commit to paper.

Assuming you live in the US, you live in a republic. You voice is heard through your vote for your representative, as well as any conversation you may have with him or her convincing her of your point. The representative secures rights, in this case copyrights, through legislation, which aim to, yes, reflect "things just generally agreed on based on the whims of contemporary culture."

The point I've been trying to make throughout this whole ordeal, disagreeing with that legislation doesn't grant you the right to be exempt from copyright. In fact, I doubt you can understand why the "whims of contemporary culture" deem a certain level of it necessary.

Which is actually understandable if you've never been in a position to have produced something for which copyright granted a noticeable benefit, yet have been in a number of positions where you have either seen or felt the negative repercussions of breaking copyright.

But the people who actually produce something will always be given the preferential treatment. As they should be.