"Intellectual property" is a concept that feels like its right out of kindergarden. Like two three year olds fighting over who had an idea first, instead of sharing the idea and both benefiting from it.

Except that instead of 3 year olds, bawling and pulling each others hairs, its adults, paying lawyers and trying to fine each other and ruin each others existence because they dared to copy something.

They go as far and say "copying is stealing".

But that is and always has been a lie. The process of copying is not taking anything away, on the contrary, it creates new value by duplicating a work of value.

The only place where someone looses value from copying is in a capitalist system under monopoly conditions, aka, when there is only one source and whoever sits on the source is keeping supply artificially below demand to achieve high prices.

This is what "copyright" is. A monopoly granted by law.

As anyone knows who knows the first thing about capitalism, monopolies are always bad. For everyone. As the rules of free market do not apply.

This is why creative commons and free software are so successful. The freedom of copying benefits everyone, the whole society. If that wasn't the case no more free software would be created.

Granted, "pirating" works that are paywalled violates copyright law, but that does not make it morally wrong, just legally wrong. The moral justification for copyright is one of greed.

Instead of getting paid for work (commissions) like any other worker or businessman in any other industry who creates something, the artist in question who paywalls his work wants to be paid for the same work he once did, over and over and over and over again by monopolising himself as the only legal source.

The same with music. The same with patented technology. And yes, I know, the original intent of introducing patents was to do good, but the way they are used these days is inherently evil.

I do strongly believe artist deserve credit.

If you post a work by someone else, by all means post a link to the artist, make them known, advertise for them, just as their work should be their best advertisement.

Claiming someone else's work as your own is immoral. Its simply a lie.

But IMHO copying is OK. We are privileged to live in a world where works can be copied by the click of a button instead of having to do it by hand, stroke by stroke or letter by letter. And with perfect digital copies, instead of imperfect hand made attempts.

In the middle ages the work of a copyist was hard manual labor. Nowadays its so easy it feels almost wrong.

But it isn't. It's a blessing. And whoever insists on paywalling his creations simply hasn't understood that. Because they are still on the mental level of a 3 year old, fighting over who thought of it first.