Moneybox: Loaves, Fishes, and a Nice Marinara

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Moneybox Loaves, Fishes, and a Nice Marinara I'm still not convinced Matt Yglesias is right about copyright. By Caleb Crain Posted Thursday, Feb 02, 2012, at 12:15 PM ET Matt Yglesias says he's having trouble seeing how he and I disagree about copyright. Fortuitously, then, I bring not peace but a sword. Let's get Jesus out of the way first. Yglesias compares online intellectual piracy to Jesus' miracle of the loaves and the fishes. But whether gratuitous multiplication is a boon depends on what's being multiplied. Bread and fish, fine. But if a deity were to appear in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. and start miraculously duplicating Oxycontin prescriptions, few would approve. In my initial salvo, I pointed out that Yglesias had minimized the harm of copyright infringement with a rationale that could extenuate theft of any kind. Yglesias repeats the error in his reply. He describes copyright holders as monopolists who set high prices in order to maximize profits, thereby pricing some consumers out of the market, and he argues that There are customers who would derive some non-zero benefit from using the product, but the benefit would be smaller than the profit-maximizing sale price. To the extent that unauthorized copying helps such people get their hands on works, so-called "piracy" is socially beneficial. But nearly all companies try to maximize profits when they set prices, and every price higher than zero excludes somebody. Suppose that Savor of the Savior tomato sauce sells for $4.99 a jar and I feel that eating it is only worth two bucks. Theft would help me get my hands on it. Would theft therefore be socially beneficial? Am I justified ... To continue reading, click here. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate "I'm Not Concerned About the Very Poor": Will It Be Romney's "Guns and Religion"? Why Do I Have 60,000 Followers on Facebook? And Why Do They Post Such Cheesy Come-ons? The Artist Who Throws Herself at Men. Literally.	Advertisement
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