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"Why should child porn be illegal? It's just a pattern of bits on a computer!"

Describing a reasonable legal principle in terms of physics phenomena does not make it unreasonable.

You're missing the point. Ownership implies the resource is scarce. If the resource is a pattern, which cannot be physically owned and my usage of the pattern doesn't prevent others from using the pattern, it's nonsensical to say it can be owned by anybody.

If you make, say, a webcomic, a big publisher is not allowed to collect and print your comic, or republish it on their ad-riddled website, unless they get your permission and offer whatever compensation you demand. They also can't copy your characters exactly and publish new stories about them, even if all the art and writing is original.

This is a good thing, even though your comic is nothing but a bunch of JPGs--digital patterns--that can be copied infinitely without depriving anyone.

Voice-reproduction rights can get complicated in the AI age, and I don't claim to have the objective moral truth. But there are very good reasons to give legal protection to the creators of digital patterns, as a general principle.

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