"I was in the pub last night, and a guy asked me for a light for his cigarette. I suddenly realised that there was a demand here and money to be made, and so I agreed to light his cigarette for 10 pence, but I didn't actually give him a light, I sold him a license to burn his cigarette. My fire-license restricted him from giving the light to anybody else, after all, that fire was my property. He was drunk, and dismissing me as a loony, but accepted my fire (and by implication the licence which governed its use) anyway. Of course in a matter of minutes I noticed a friend of his asking him for a light and to my outrage he gave his cigarette to his friend and pirated my fire! I was furious, I started to make my way over to that side of the bar but to my added horror his friend then started to light other people's cigarettes left, right, and centre! Before long that whole side of the bar was enjoying MY fire without paying me anything. Enraged I went from person to person grabbing their cigarettes from their hands, throwing them to the ground, and stamping on them. Strangely the door staff exhibited no respect for my property rights as they threw me out the door."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Imported from EN Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Copyright
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Copyright
15 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Copyright →
Related Quotes
"Only one thing is impossible for God: to find any sense in any copyright law on the planet."
"Things have been going in the wrong direction -- more surveillance, more control of everything we do on the net and a…"
"Copyright law cases typically involve multifactorial analyses and lots of nuance. I would not assume that a commercia…"
"Copyright is monopoly, and produces all the effects which the general voice of mankind attributes to monopoly [...] I…"
"Those who invade copyright are regarded as knaves who take the bread out of the mouths of deserving men. Everybody is…"
"If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thin…"
"If creativity is the field, copyright is the fence"
"The corporations that hold these copyrights are media companies that also control most of the new media that comes ou…"
"Mimi: Silencing you because I don’t like what you say is censorship. Silencing you because I can make more money that…"
"In ten years I think the [copyright] laws are going to be worse and I also think they are going to be less relevant. …"