Asteya (Non-Stealing)

Asteya (Non-Stealing) is the 3rd of the "Yamas" or abstentions, the 1st limb of Ashtanga Yoga.

I struggle with this one, probably more than any of the other Yamas.  It seems straightforward enough, don't take what it not rightfully yours, but today, in our world, the lines are quite blurred.

Take the movie "The Social Network" for example.  Because Mark Zuckerberg grew Facebook into a huge success, even early on, the gentlemen who claimed he "stole their idea" eventually took him to court and settled for a huge amount of money.  Hmmm, ideas.  Ideas are not to be stolen, I guess so.  So, if we were to talk about an idea, and you "took it" from me, made a ton of money without compensating me, it would be in my right to sue you for that.  Wow, it's a tough one for me to figure out.  I could see if we were both in a company, you hired me, you had me sign papers acknowledging that any "intellectual property" is owned by the company, since you're paying me and compensating me for my ideas.  But, if we just sat down one day, brainstormed a bit, and you ran off with the end products of a brainstorm, worked hard, and put something together?  That's stealing?  Man, again, I struggle with that concept.

Intellectual property nowadays is available to everyone, in so many forms, and delivered in so many ways.  It's really amazing how easy it is to find an idea, or IP by simply typing a few letters on a computer and hitting return.  And to 'take' that information and do something with it, Heaven forbid, make money with it ... is what tons of people are doing right now.  I guess it's so easy to consume and procure IP unconsciously, given our world and the technology available today.

Okay, so maybe my rant about Asteya is more about IP in our digital world more than anything else, or some 'ideas' that people have in a discussion.  There's so much more to it, of course, and we chatted about this in class for a few minutes a while back.  Some people mentioned stealing another person's time or energy or happiness, using resources that don't belong to you, being wasteful, and the like.  I can see that, and how stealing things both tangible and intangible can have an effect on you.

I guess this is one I need to ponder more...