leo Wrote:

naive Wrote:The only thing that ties you to your physical goods is the information of your ownership of them in the first place. If I have a device capable of cloning that information and taking that which you claim to own simpl because it is possible, you would would have little recourse in taking it back.

leo Wrote:Except you aren't taking it. You are copying it. And that magic machine? It's your computer. If you could copy physical property, I can't think of a single thing I own that I'd seriously mind someone copying.
Stealing information is different than copying. Like I said, if someone copied my car (if I had a car), I'd have no beef with them what so ever.

The thing is, you might be okay with people copying any of your private intellectual property/information, but most people, it seems, are not. Especially those who have invested a lot of time, money, and effort into their work. It appears that you are an exception.

Imagine that I was a professional inventor, and that creating innovative and useful things was solely responsible for my income. If someone took a patented (pretty much copywrited) idea from me (an idea which could have potentially generated me thousands of dollars), and used it for their own benefit, it's possible that I could instead receive a significantly smaller profit for something which I alone worked hard to produce. The consequences of this could be a decreased quality of life for myself, possibly due to an inability to adequately maintain a supply of decent food, whilst simultaneously having to pay bills.

silly Wrote:Happiness doesn't have value?

leo Wrote:Happiness is not quantitative.

silly Wrote:Peace of mind doesn't have value?

leo Wrote:Also not quantitative.

Levels of certain emotions can theoretically be determined by measuring the proportions of specific neurotransmitters (e.g. serotonin, dopamine, etc.) in the brain, as well as by analyzing brain activity with equipment such as the fMRI, or the PET scan. But regardless, why does it matter if something is or is not quantitative?

leo Wrote:Positive emotions are priceless. Anyway, this is getting more into the spectrum of philosophy than the topic at hand warrants.

You argued that only physical things are meaningful/have value, I simply responded to that. Now it seems that you have contradicted what you were saying before?

leo Wrote:

naive Wrote:If I copy your deed and start living in your house, all I have done is copy information in order to justify my access to your property without needing your consent.

This isn't a matter of copyright law, it's a matter of fraud.

A point that naive made is that in many cases information does have value. He gave you a clear example of it.