Avast ye! piracy and its justifications
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I don't think piracy is right and I shouldn't do it, I would never steal something "real" in a store even if I knew I would get away with it, but I do it anyway. *shame*
It's easy to catch people pirating music, movies, games, or books. The challenge that companies face is that it's not feasible to prosecute everybody; what they have done is target a few random people in the hope that it would deter the masses if the cases were highly publicized. It's worked up to a point, but I would say that a large percentage of internet traffic is from piracy. I believe that when the pirate bay was shutdown, they claimed that around 70% of European internet traffic suddenly stopped.
What companies claim is that piracy hurts their sales and profits. This is true up to a point, but not to the degree that they suggest; a lot of people who download stuff online would never actually pay for the product if they couldn't get it for free. The numbers they produce for money "lost" through piracy are grossly inflated. What I've found is that a majority of people who download a lot of illegal things tend to be younger with limited income. As people get older, get a job and start earning money, they start to download less and pay for more.
Is it wrong to do? Sure. You're stealing, and there's no other way to put it. It's illegal and if companies actually had the time and money to go after the millions of people who do it there is no doubt that they would. If you want to "try" some music, movie or game then you are supposed to download the demo/trailer, not the whole thing. It's certainly not hard to find legitimate ways of previewing things online.
What companies claim is that piracy hurts their sales and profits. This is true up to a point, but not to the degree that they suggest; a lot of people who download stuff online would never actually pay for the product if they couldn't get it for free. The numbers they produce for money "lost" through piracy are grossly inflated. What I've found is that a majority of people who download a lot of illegal things tend to be younger with limited income. As people get older, get a job and start earning money, they start to download less and pay for more.
Is it wrong to do? Sure. You're stealing, and there's no other way to put it. It's illegal and if companies actually had the time and money to go after the millions of people who do it there is no doubt that they would. If you want to "try" some music, movie or game then you are supposed to download the demo/trailer, not the whole thing. It's certainly not hard to find legitimate ways of previewing things online.
It is not stealing. It isn't even copyright infringement. It's downloading for personal use. Copyright infringement is distributing without the copyright holder's consent. Nobody has ever been successfully sued for downloading for personal use, all the cases have been for distribution.PsychoBunny said:
yeah but the courts and the eff both agree they need proof for their casesCalobi said:
actually even downloading it is considered copyright infringement, even if you own a copy of it. under the copyright law you are able to make personal copies for yourself, if you are canadian you can legally borrow your friend's cd or movie and make a copy for yourself because we pay a tariff on all recordable mediaAnniko said:
and actually yes they have sued for downloading, cause you upload at the same time you download, so you are distributing it
do you ever have anything constructive and useful to say?shatnershaman said:
I don't download music but I do download TV shows, I figure that I wouldn't have to pay to watch them anyway and this way I get to see them early. If the show is good enough I'll buy it when the DVD comes out anyway. As for movies, well I'll only download them if I assume that they're gonna be crap.
seconded.TheNecroswanson said:
As for Music, that is the main source of the artists income. The reason that the are so rich is because lots of people buy their music, and the money goes to them. Therefore, if no-one is paying for music, artists go broke (the ones that aren't already incredibly rich, or don't have income from elsewhere), and CD prices go up *more*.
Personally, I'm just against stealing.
found it pretty easilyFraser.J.A said:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005JLHF/imdb-button/
even came up #1 on a google search, might want to brush up on your google skills
wrong, it's touring where they make most of their moneyLewsTherin said:
most artists maybe make $ 0.10 on a cd, some more popular ones MIGHT make $1 per cd but they are few and far between
most of the cost of a ticket goes to the band and not to mention merchandise as well. i'd be surprised to know that after the first show or two that they aren't making 100% profit off the merch they sell.
You held my attention with "Avast Ye!"
I'm not a fan of piracy. If you are doing it on a small scale, then it's not OK but it's better than the big-time. Large-scale piracy (any number of Russian-based mp3 sites) is what gets my goat and grinds my gears.
I'm not a fan of piracy. If you are doing it on a small scale, then it's not OK but it's better than the big-time. Large-scale piracy (any number of Russian-based mp3 sites) is what gets my goat and grinds my gears.
Stealing is stealing. Certainly stealing a little is better than stealing a lot, but it's still theft. Piracy is no different than stealing someone's car on the grounds that insurance will pay him back and he'll be out nothing, or shoplifting on the grounds that stores already figure a certain percentage of theft into their prices.
I always find it interesting when people think up moral or economic justifications for stealing. What you think about piracy is hardly going to be an issue.
Would you be any less peeved if someone was taking one dollar out of your wallet as opposed to ten? What if they start telling their friends to steal out of your wallet? Companies are, no matter how you feel about piracy, going to hate you for it.
Its been around since we were little cells in a pool of goo and it'll be around when we're long gone. I wouldn't worry too much about the "why" part.
Would you be any less peeved if someone was taking one dollar out of your wallet as opposed to ten? What if they start telling their friends to steal out of your wallet? Companies are, no matter how you feel about piracy, going to hate you for it.
Its been around since we were little cells in a pool of goo and it'll be around when we're long gone. I wouldn't worry too much about the "why" part.
I generally don't agree with piracy. There have been a couple of occasions in the past where I've heard a song from an album, and downloaded a couple of other tracks from the album to see if I like the rest of the band's stuff. Upon hearing the other stuff and liking it, I went out and bought albums anyway. Now, thanks to the mediums of Myspace and Amazon listing snippets of tracks, I don't have to do that to see if I'm wasting my hard earned cash or not.
And to be fair, quite a lot of stores now will pop on an album for you to have a quick listen to a couple of tracks before you buy anyway.
As far as other mediums go, there's a shedload of trailers out there for different movies, and with Xbox Live there's a tonne of game demos to download too (or whichever console you happen to have). So not really any need for piracy!
Economic justifications should not enter into it at all. If you were skint, and cast your roving eye over a lovely piece of jewellery, or a new controller for your console...would you just pick it up and take it, and justify it by saying you just couldn't afford it this month? I doubt it.
And to be fair, quite a lot of stores now will pop on an album for you to have a quick listen to a couple of tracks before you buy anyway.
As far as other mediums go, there's a shedload of trailers out there for different movies, and with Xbox Live there's a tonne of game demos to download too (or whichever console you happen to have). So not really any need for piracy!
Economic justifications should not enter into it at all. If you were skint, and cast your roving eye over a lovely piece of jewellery, or a new controller for your console...would you just pick it up and take it, and justify it by saying you just couldn't afford it this month? I doubt it.
They were sued because they were distributing, not because they were downloading it.cleverlymadeup said:
You can download stuff without uploading it through a variety of sites and usenet groups, nobody has ever been sued for downloading. What they have been sued for is uploading/distributing without permission, which is done automatically through the bittorrent protocol.
actually no they were sued for downloading and users have been sued for getting stuff off of usenet beforeAnniko said: