The Theft of Knowledge In A Digital World

What is stealing?

Webster tells us that it is “the felonious taking and removing of personal property with intent to deprive the rightful owner of it.”

This seems straight forward enough. But the whole nature of ownership and, consequently, theft becomes blurrier when you move out of the physical world into ideas, that is to say, Intellectual Property (IP). Are an individual’s thoughts his or her property?

Rabbinic tradition tells us yes. Ge-nai-vat da’at, the theft of knowledge, is a serious offense.

Rabbi Leonard Gordon directed me to the following text from Teaching Students to Cheat or Not to Cheat by Norman Amse, which said “Many students who cheat would never think of stealing, but the Tosefta says that cheating is the worst form of stealing, and implies that it is worse to cheat than to rob a bank.”

It’s an Issur (prohibition) from the Torah to deceive even an ovaid avoda zara (idolater) or a nachri (foreigner).

Leviticuss 25:14 says “If you sell anything to your neighbor or buy anything from your neighbor, you shall not wrong one another.” Similarly Maimonides wrote that “It is forbidden to cheat people in buying and selling, or to deceive them.”

Rabbi Gordon said about the above quote “The passage from Maimonides has broad implications. For example, if a person walks into a store looking like they are about to make a purchase and talks to a salesperson and takes the sales person’s time, but does not really intend to make a purchase, that is theft under the rules of geneivat daat.”

How far does the 8th Commandment, ‘Thou shall not steal,’ extend? Does it encourage Fair Trade or prohibit against deception? Where does fair use fit into this?

The precedent for citing sources goes back to Esther 2:22: “Mordecai learned of [a plot to kill the King] and told it to Queen Esther, and Esther reported it to the king in Mordecai’s name.” Esther gave credit where it was due. Unlike, say, sites that use JPS content without giving JPS recognition, and in most cases remuneration.

In the wild wild west of the Internet, some say that content is king, but when that content is dubiously appropriated, the king has no clothes.