Re: Property

Dick.Gray@bull.com
Mon, 14 Dec 1998 10:07:05 -0700

"Samael" <Samael@dial.pipex.com> has a problem with semantics:

>An object starts off as unowned. Everyone could use it. Then somneone
>comes along and claims it. Now only they can use it. How is this not
>theft?

It can't be theft because the idea of theft presupposes the idea of property: specifically, it is the wrongful taking of someone else's property. Where there's no property, there can't be theft.

You may not like property rights, but equating property with theft is a nonsensical contradiction.

Dick