[ Home page | Things which suck ]
Welcome to the brave new world of selective vocabulary: where members of trades unions are `wreckers', advertisements are `infotainment', text is `content' and content is `king'[1]; and people who break the copyright law are, ludicrously, `pirates':
| Actual pirates... | Copyright `pirates'... |
|---|---|
| board ships by use of force, killing or injuring passengers and crew members, occasionally selling same into slavery; | cause no physical harm; |
| steal ships and their cargoes, selling them for profit and depriving their original owners of the benefit of same; | don't deprive anyone of anything; |
| have been a serious problem for commerce from the first time anyone put to sea carrying a blunt instrument; | don't present a real problem and are a recent invention of the `content' industry; |
| are very active in the South China Sea; | may not even be able to swim; |
| may be deterred by high pressure water hoses and naval escorts; | won't be deterred by pathetic attempts at `digital rights management'; |
| are occasionally sanctioned by governments, as in the case of `privateers' during the Napoleonic wars. | are occasionally sanctioned by large corporations, as when News Corporation paid a lab to forge a rival pay TV station's authentication cards. |
Copyright (c) 2002 Chris Lightfoot. All rights reserved.