HOWEVER… I do believe that allowing free/cheap, unlimited access to ip protected stuff can possibly (NOT definitely) set a precedent that everything should be available in two varieties – genuine and counterfeit. This is where things get murky, and I run out of semi-literate things to say.

Let me demonstrate:

“When all is said and done, the realm of eating meat is fairly benign. Yes, you’re taking lives, but in the big scheme of things, is it really hurting the planet? Most would say no, but that can be a mistake. Would you feel so blasé about the whole issue if you found out that some of your neighbors were making your prize poodle Fifi into a dogburger? Or that the tasty steak you enjoyed last night came from Beijing toddler?”

Even without having an opinion on intellectual property infringement (the word “theft” is a misnomer for several reasons), it seems like simple ad hominem to me — lump file sharers and pirated software users in with actual killers.

In other words, it’s bad if you disobey copyright law because someone somewhere wants to profit off of hurting and killing sick people. Why didn’t they tell us all sooner!?

The truth is, the law isn’t in line with the public moral compass on this one. File sharing is on the rise, because people are having trouble justifying obedience to laws that award 1.92 million dollar settlements to record companies, because some mom’s kids shared a couple dozen songs. Among a million other reasons.

There are many separate issues. I’m actually not an intellectual property outlaw (even though “property” is also a misnomer, if you examine its typical legal definition). I don’t believe in lumping it all into one group. It benefits those whose moral highground is extremely dubious, like the RIAA and MPAA, to do so.

It all comes down to economics and business models in my book. If you don’t already, you should really read Michael Masnick (and company) over at TechDirt.com, my favorite blog that regularly covers issues on the shamefully anti-consumer, anti-creativity, anti-innovation, anti-progress, pro-corporate-welfare intellectual property nonsense of our day. The system is in bad need of reform, but the public has less sway with its elected representatives than the deep pockets of a small number of corporations.

My opinions are a bit of a jumble too, though. As seen in this comment. Heh. 😛

The whole medicines industry gives me the shits – For big pharma its clearly all about profits & return on investment, thats fine for normal consumer goods, IMO life saving medicines should not be in that class.

There needs to be a wake up regarding how the medical drugs industry is financed as the big pharma model fails for all except for the richest few percent of the worlds population.

I’ve actually been working on some media projects involving public education campaigns (PSAs) on counterfeit meds in SE Asia. Primarily, however, I work with postmarket lab surveillance of medicines in the field, which is how we detect counterfeits.

(I recall a crash that took place due to faulty parts years back.. or was that a movie? Life overlaps sometimes…)

But I sat up and took more notice in the second half of your blog, and this combined with the comments from someone directly involved in combating the counterfeiting of drugs, well that’s very worrying indeed. It’s something that needs more publicising – I knew about the fake medicines, but it’s one of those concerns that gets superseded by apparently more pressing ones in the mind’s list of priorities.

If Chris reads this again, I would be interested in hearing more about the situation from a man (or woman) in the know, with a view to do a blog on this myself.

“In Germany, they came first for the Communists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist;

And then they came for the trade unionists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist;

And then they came for the Jews, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew;

And then… they came for me… And by that time there was no one left to speak up.”

Clearly, I’m not comparing counterfeit CDs or Viagra to the Holocaust, but it’s a sobering thought.