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> But stealing food from a grocery store isn't perfectly analogous to stealing IP.

IP violations are usually more like trespass than theft, but trespass is a crime you can go to jail for, too.



Not for any other IP violation. I could steal a Marvel movie and make millions of dollars illegally showing it in theaters, and I would only get fined. I could copy the formula of a patented drug and produce it illicitly, undercutting the patent owner, and I would only get fined. I could start a fast food business called "McDonalds" in blatant violation of a trademark, and I would only get fined. Trade secrets are the only intellectual property you can be thrown in prison for violating (and they are the only type of intellectual property that lets you keep an legally untouchable monopoly for all eternity).


> . Trade secrets are the only intellectual property you can be thrown in prison for violating

Wrong.

Both copyright and trademark infringement can result in prison.




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