> One of the many pressing issues is that people believe that ownership of content should be absolute, that hammer makers should be able to dictate what is made with hammers they sell.

You’re conflating and confusing two different concepts. “Content” is not a tool. Content is like a meal, it’s a finished product meant to be consumed; a tool, like a hammer, is used to create something else, the content which will then be consumed. You’re comparing a JPEG to Photoshop.

You can remix content, but to do that you use a tool and the result is related but different content.

> Content belongs to everyone.

Even if we conceded that point, that still wouldn’t excuse the way in which these companies are going about getting the content, hammering every page of every website with badly-behaved scrapers. They are bringing websites down and increasing costs for their maintainers, meaning other people have limited or no access to it. If “content belongs to everyone”, then they don’t have the right to prevent everyone else from accessing it.

I agree current copyright law is toxic and harmful to culture and society, but that doesn’t make what these companies are doing acceptable. The way to counter a bad system is not to shit on it from a different angle.

To extended your metaphor, we don't get annoyed an a neighbor knocking on our door to ask us a question, but we absolutely do not want some random stranger that's trying to get rich from knocking on our door as asking questions when they're doing it over and over and over all hours of the day and night.

>Even if we conceded that point, that still wouldn’t excuse the way in which these companies are going about getting the content

Unrelated point that I wouldnt even defend. Block em. Its cool with me.

>You’re conflating and confusing two different concepts. “Content” is not a tool. Content is like a meal, it’s a finished product meant to be consumed; a tool, like a hammer, is used to create something else, the content which will then be consumed. You’re comparing a JPEG to Photoshop.

Eh I see what you are trying to say but a hammer is also a finished good thats sold as a finished good. I can also modify the hammer if I like. And after modification I can sell the hammer. JPEGs can also be inputs to things like collage.