Your Religion Is False

Nothing, if you believe the RIAA-scripted talking points regurgitated by our friends at Everyday Christian:

Under current copyright legislation, downloading music for free is definitely theft under letter of the law.

Although I really shouldn’t expect someone writing on a site called “Everyday Christian” to be able to accurately describe the world, I can’t resist pointing out that his post would be truer if he’d said “Under current copyright legislation, downloading copyrighted music for free is possibly theft under letter of the law.

However, accuracy is not really on the agenda:

One credible analysis by the Institute for Policy Innovation concludes that global music piracy causes $12.5 billion of economic losses every year, 71,060 U.S. jobs lost, a loss of $2.7 billion in workers’ earnings, and a loss of $422 million in tax revenues, $291 million in personal income tax and $131 million in lost corporate income and production taxes.

I think he means this analysis, which is credible on the subject in much the same way that the Discovery Institute is credible on evolution and science.

Now where on earth would a Christian learn to be so trusting of leaders making self-serving, apocalyptic predictions? Where would he get the idea that regurgitating their press releases was an intelligent form of discourse? I have no idea.

Piracy is never going to end. Although our kids rarely listen, we must continue to teach them that digital theft is indeed theft, in our law and in God’s law.

Really? In god’s law? Because I’m pretty familiar with the Bible, and I think I’d remember if god ever mentioned copyright. I remember him mentioning genocide and widow impregnation and genital mutilation. But not copyright or downloading or digital music.

Or perhaps he justs mean that because “current copyright legislation” supports it, that the “Render unto Caesar” principle makes it god’s law. That would be kind of awesome, as it would imply that god’s law also prohibits

• public showings of the Super Bowl on televisions larger than 55 inches
• singing Happy Birthday in public without paying royalties
• listening to the radio at work loud enough that customers might hear it
• singing campfire songs without paying the proper fees
• publishing Best Buy’s sale prices on the internet

It is tough to understand why god would care about all these things. Then again, it’s tough to understand why he would care about whether your clothing is made of mixed fibers either.

Anyway, most likely god just wants strong copyright laws to promote the “progress of useful arts” like Carman music videos:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nicbAjzcRrQ&hl=en&fs=1]

Tags: carman, copyright, discovery institute, god, god's law, music, piracy, riaa