Sneaking past a paywall is stealing

If I steal your car, you don't have a car anymore. It's a physical object. We can't both have it at the same time.

Everybody realizes that's wrong.

But if I make a copy of some digital music you've purchased, you still have it. So have I wronged you?

I may or may not have wronged you, but here are some of the things that I have definitely done.

1. I've violated the rights of the copyright owner. It's up to him to determine who has access to that content.

2. I've deprived the copyright owner of the income he should have received from my ownership of that material.

3. I've undermined the whole social contract and legal framework surrounding intellectual property. Intellectual property laws protect creators precisely so that they're incentivized to innovate and create new content. By stealing a digital object, I'm taking away some of that incentive and I’m making it less likely there will be new, innovative things in the future.

I recently saw a tweet where someone complained that some artist can't sing for crap. The artist replied, "you're right. I sing for money."

Some people will argue that nobody can claim rights to something that has no production cost. It costs essentially nothing to make a copy of a digital recording.

That's true, but it doesn't change any of the things I said previously.

Others will argue that the current system protects corporations and the rich against the rights of the public. But since when does the public have some inherent right to someone else's property?

Some will even say that they're doing the copyright owner a favor by getting a free sample so they can decide if they want to purchase it. Further, in the case of music they're giving the artist more market exposure. Isn't that good?

That’s not a decision for the consumer to make. It's up to the owner to decide when and if and under what terms they want to offer a free sample.

Here's the kicker. All the things that I've said about copying music apply equally well to content behind a paywall.

Sneaking past a paywall is stealing, and publishers need to make that case.