Be H.I.P.

Inspired by a conversation with a churchmate today regarding intellectual property rights. Warning: serious ranting ahead. Please bear with me.

If anyone has bought any VCDs (licensed by Alliance) he would almost always catch this advertisement about honoring intellectual property rights. Basically the ad says things like:

You would not steal.
You would not rob a bank.

And then it goes on to say that piracy is actually the same as that above. (Piracy here includes blatant hard copying of discs, or even illegal downloading.) Thus be H.I.P: Honor Intellectual Property. It made me think of two things: First, that if Jesus is here today, this is likely the modern version of the Sermon of the Mount. For I say unto you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Does not the Sermon of the Mount teach us inward obedience to the ten commandments and not mere outward obedience to the letter of the law? Anyone who tries to argue 'it's not the same' will first have to justify that Jesus is wrong to equate murder with unreasonable bitterness/unforgiving spirit, and adultery with lust of the eyes. The principle is essentially the same.

Secondly, it goes to show how lacking Christians are in terms of morality. Can it be the case that the same person who says 'obey with your motives, thoughts and attitudes' is also the same person who disregard social law? (I will argue it is not only against social law, but also against the talents and efforts made by men, and a failure to recognise it. Would you dare disregard the gifts of God?) Simply put, if a secular organisation like Alliance can tell us what is the right thing to do (and with surprisingly biblical instruction), then Christians are the ones who ought to be ashamed. We are passively disobeying 'Thou shalt not steal' by simply refusing to pay up. If Jesus is here today, maybe he will call us 'thieves'.

Also, such an instruction is either for us to follow, or disregard. It is disturbing, to say the least, for those who sincerely care about obeying God and men (the laws). Let's face it: for each single song/movie/game that we download or watch for free, we are denying the studios/recording companies/game companies profits, which they deserve. We are also disregarding the immense talents (from God) and efforts (from men) put together to create that one piece of medium which we enjoy so much, but instead of recognising them, we slam the door on their faces in nonchalant fashion, not nearly half grateful. There are many arguments which I deem ignorant: for example, that the studios are earning too much money anyway, and one more person makes no difference. Or that if I am really satisfied with the download, I will definitely buy the real thing. Or there is a very small chance I will be caught (arguably the silliest, and most immoral reasoning.) Shall we now water down the godly principles of the Sermon of the Mount and resort to a pragmatic, never-hurt-the-others kind of morality? I feel that there is no way to justify downloading. Also face this: downloading is simply a new, (almost) invisible means to obtain illegal stuff (unlike one who would have resorted to buying pirated discs years ago, without the technology we enjoy today.) Are we any better than those who openly pirate goods? I don't think so.

One way to actually force people to think is to put yourself in the shoes of these wonderful creators. Imagine yourself as a film director (if you love movies) or a singer (if you love music). You do not want anyone to download things so easily off the net. Each time I tried explaining this, all I get is a gentle retreat from all discussion. It seems that we really wish to avoid this controversy, because there is no way to justify our actions. We wish others would not do the same thing to us if our positions are switched. What happened to 'do unto others as you would have them do unto you'?

It is easy to dismiss what I am saying. I know it is hard. Believe me, I have sometimes tried to stop listening to myself and to what is right. But if we claim to obey God, then I guess we have to bravely face all sorts of controversies.