Stealing someone else’s property is heartless

Re: “Forget Hamilton: Canada needs its own hit history musical,” column, Oct. 23.

I understand that Marc and Craig Kielburger do a lot of good work, especially with younger Canadians.

But their comment referring to ceaseand-desist letters and heartless intellectual-property lawyers really missed the mark.

First, lawyers simply represent their clients’ interests, and gratuitous insults are never funny.

Second, and more fundamentally, there is a reason why it’s called intellectual property. It’s not cool to break into a cabinetmaker’s shop and steal a handmade table. Similarly, it’s not cool to rip off the fruits of one’s intellectual, rather than physical, labour.

I’ve witnessed a sad trend in recent years whereby many people think it’s absolutely fine to steal intellectual property such as movies or music by downloading the digital content from some website. But theft is theft; and it’s no less theft when the product is the result of intellectual rather than physical labour.

All labourers should be entitled to profit from their work and, in the case at hand, maybe it’s not the lawyers who are heartless, but rather the individuals who apparently think it’s fine to steal someone else’s property.

Ken Thornicroft Professor of law and employment relations University of Victoria