A conversation between an author and a pirate

PIRATE: […] Permit me to point out a fundamental error in your thinking: a text is not a physical object, so it cannot be stolen. Ownership of such an agglomeration of symbols (since ‘unity’ here is inapplicable) is an impossibility. The best you can do is _claim_ ownership – but anyone else can do that too. There is no legislation that can successfully govern the ether, thank heavens.I make my living, partly, as a librarian, but I don’t claim ownership of my catalogue. It is there – it exists, but it is not my property. If anything, it is everyone’s property – as are your texts. If you turn this over to the bottom-feeders, you will not hear from me again on this subject.

More at Nancy Kress’s blog.