Re:Inventor stumped by 43-year patent delay
by sillysaurus3 on Sunday March 02, 2014 @03:40PM
(#7330658)
Could it be a confusion of definition? Some would define stealing as, "You have no right to be enjoying my work unless you have paid me what I ask. It's your right to choose not to pay me and look for a different product."
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Re:Inventor stumped by 43-year patent delay
by nate_meurer on Sunday March 02, 2014 @04:44PM
(#7330902)
Sure, you can make up your own definitions for words as much as you want. If you want, you can conflate the definitions of all kinds of criminal labels -- theft, rape, terrorism[1], etc. It's a time-honored tactic of those who seek to demagogue positions they oppose. But it makes a mockery of the serious crimes that those terms describe, and it does nothing to help you effectively communicate your own point of view.
[1] - Note that there is currently a concerted effort by many to connect IP infringement to "terrorism".
It could be, but the problem there is its a different concept being implemented as the same english word stealing.
One has a legal definition implying loss of a tangible good, the other a rather different definition implying you haven't paid to use a thing.
Both are correct grammatically, but they aren't the same thing in the end.