There's No Theft Online

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The internet is a public park. It has no doors no keys: Photo credit: online pic.

There is no theft online, except for hackers that crack a bank’s security system and siphon off money. Not only banks. In 2018, they hacked a British Airways data system and stole vital passenger information especially credit card numbers.

Hackers are specialized thieves, but generally there is no break and enter online because we provide information on our own free will. The internet is a house with no doors, windows or special elevators.

We don’t carry around a bunch of keys clipped to our belts like building maintenance guys. You’re wrong, you say. We have passwords to keep thieves out. Yes, passwords to enter the internet open house and drop off things we give out for free. 

There is no theft online because we give away tweets, blogs, opinion, photographs, ideas, and other ‘content.’ Let’s admit it. There has been instances where we feel we have been robbed.

It happens to all of us: a tweet that was not LIKED or RETWEETED, but suddenly has a new owner. A whole blog paragraph re-engineered. We don’t sweat. It is pathetic, shows the thief has a pea brain, but is it stealing?

The reality is: before you decide to join the online family, you must understand that it is open house. It has no doors, no ratepayers. You cannot accuse anybody of stealing or plagiarizing when the door was not locked in the first place.

What am I talking about? The internet has no door. Period. 

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang. 

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