Thou Shall Not Share?: Pondering the Ethics of Piracy

The issue of piracy has been on my mind lately... More appropriately, the notion of intellectual property, considering that it's impossible to remain intellectually honest in trying to develop a theology that circumvents the law of the land when that law is not in direct opposition to the Gospel Message. But aside from royalties being part of the law, is the idea of intellectual property really consistent with the values Christians are supposed to hold?

When looking at file-sharing through the eyes of the 8th Commandment, it's important not to jump to conclusions. It's important to first understand that in order to steal something, that thing must be steal-able. That means that, in the act of stealing, the original owner is then deprived of what was once rightfully theirs, which is not necessarily true when it comes to the duplication and distribution of copies of information. Sure, this breaks down when one considers the amount of time and effort that goes into generating most intellectual property (e.g. the millions of dollars it takes to film a movie or record and master an album, or even to write a book). To deprive an artist or software author the wages for their hard work is clearly to deprive them of payment for their work, which would be stealing. But then the question arises, are the royalties that people continuously profit from different in nature from the one-time pay of a carpenter to build a chair. Would it be different if the carpenter was paid a certain amount each and every time I sat in the chair? Does the consumer have a right to sit in the chair and examine it before he buys it? Does he have the same right to listen to the CD or watch the movie before he decides to pay for the personal rights to own the movie?

Early theologians held the view that a person's thoughts or reflections did not belong to him. Augustine argued that the truth can belong to no one, and since all theological efforts were pointing to God, then what man can lay claim to his own theological contribution? In the same way, if all musicians (ideally) are in pursuit of making good music and contributing that music to the betterment of society, then how can they withhold the contribution they've intended to make for society. Have we so capitalized our own thoughts that we are no longer willing to contribute freely to society without expectation and even demand of ongoing payment? Do we really participate in a religion where the most widely used translations of our ancient, sacred, "God-breathed" texts are bound by intellectual copyrights, with continuous royalties amounting to millions are consistently being paid to those who translated it?

The so-called "Hacker Ethic" of pirates is one of Open Source. It says that all information should be free information, and that anyone should be able to contribute to the betterment of that information so we can literally work together to make the best of all that we do in society. It says that less fences makes for better neighbors, because once you take the fence away, then you have a bigger lawn; get a few more neighbors, and soon you've got a park. Sure, that sounds a bit Marxist and overly idealist, but what higher calling is there than to hopeful idealism? There's already a huge draw toward ad-supported services that pay royalties through advertising revenues, while remaining monetarily cost-free to the consumer (albeit the consumer opts to expose himself to a few more ads, but what's that on top of the 5,000 that the average American is exposed to everyday, right?)

I don't see a reason why a theology of breaking down walls and sharing everything in common shouldn't extend to intellectual property, especially if we're to serve God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength... (is it possible that we only serve our wallet with our mind?). This should be especially true in Christian circles when it comes to works of theology, Bible translations, and even/especially teaching curricula. Would these resources really cease to exist if we didn't capitalize them? My guess is that we would see a huge jump in the quality and a substantial reduction in quantity, because the number of people who contribute for recognition and financial gain would cease to hog the spotlight, and the people who contribute out of sheer conviction and service to God and society would flourish.

Anyways, there's my two cents, free of charge, of course ;)

(Also, I think that if I ever do publish a book in the distant future, I'll probably waive my copyrights allow for the honeypot distribution where people will pay if they want to... I like that idea)