Intellectual Property

As an artist I think a lot about "intellectual property" and copyrights.

Under God's Law you could travel through your neighbors field and eat what you could but you could not take anything. Under man's law that might get you arrested.

I use that example to point to the fact that God's Law and man's law are very different on the issue of stealing.

Does God's Law cover the concept of intellectual property?
 

serpentdove

BANNED
Banned
...Under God's Law you could travel through your neighbors field and eat what you could...

Do you mean the corners?

And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest.

And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger: I am the LORD your God [Lev. 19:9–10].


"This was God’s marvelous provision for the poor. God did not put anyone on charity. He never let anyone sit down and do nothing and receive a welfare check. The poor were taken care of by being given the opportunity to work. This was a marvelous balance between heartless capitalism and godless socialism. Whatever a farmer did not reap his first time around must be left for the poor. The ancient method of harvesting by hand left 10 percent to 20 percent of the grain in the field. The same law applied to their vineyards. I was at a meeting in Turlock, California, and a man told me to go out to the vineyard and help myself to the grapes because he knew how I loved grapes. It was after the harvest and the pickers were all gone. I could have filled a truck with grapes if I had had one there. That night at the meeting I told the folk that I had been out gleaning. That is the way God took care of His people. His method of dealing with poverty enabled both rich and poor to acknowledge the good hand of God." McGee, J. V. (1991). Thru the Bible commentary: The Law (Leviticus 15-27) (electronic ed., Vol. 7, pp. 65–66). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

Dorothy Apple Tree
 
No, but that example will do. Try that today you will be arrested for stealing and trespassing. You cannot even, in some jurisdictions
 
...take another man's trash. Trespassing, dumpster diving, and probably loitering, are some of the charges that may be brought against you.
 
Here's the text to which I referred.

If you go into your neighbor's standing grain, you may pluck the ears with your hand, but you shall not put a sickle to your neighbor's standing grain. Dr 23:25
 

Nick M

Black Rifles Matter
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Does God's Law cover the concept of intellectual property?

No such thing. God's law cover's stealing. If you see your neighbor put a roof on his house and he doesn't get rained on, you can do it too. In the US, you have to pay your neighbor to put a roof on your house.

What you should not be able to do is build a car and call it the Toyota Camry when it already exists. You can build it the exact same way and compete, but you have to call it something else. That is moral. That is what does not happen in the US, and it is getting worse.
 
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