> If you release a song with a catchy melody stolen from another song...
Copied. Not stolen. Copied.
Of course I know what you meant, but it's sad that this phrasing has entered the language. In all the tensions around limits of IP protection, this one was probably the most effective trick media companies pulled. Equating copyright violation with theft (and, through implication, their moral weights), even though one has nothing to do with the other.
> If you release a song with a catchy melody stolen from another song...
Copied. Not stolen. Copied.
Of course I know what you meant, but it's sad that this phrasing has entered the language. In all the tensions around limits of IP protection, this one was probably the most effective trick media companies pulled. Equating copyright violation with theft (and, through implication, their moral weights), even though one has nothing to do with the other.