I find myself unable to Pirate

[MammothBlade]

Being a poor bastard for the better part of 8 months put's a serious handicap on my music buying abilities. But today I found out that my brother has brought the album I seek, but is currently living elsewhere, so I can't iTunes the disc. Being the cunning fellow that I am I think "I could download it!"
After spending twenty minutes figuring out how to download music, I find myself unable to hit the "Download Torrent" button. For some reason I am unable to do it, even though (I believe) that I am doing nothing wrong seeings as I am half paying for the physical media when I scrounge up enough poo change off the ground.
The question i pose to you is this odd at all?

Somewhat. If the argument makes sense in your head, and you promise to "make up" for it you should be able to do the deed.

It doesn't mean you have stronger morals or anything, it just means you're more afraid of the potential consequences and prone to guilt.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Not really as I don't download stuff due to pay my repect for the said media and showing my support by buying the dvd, games and CD etc.
Also it's teh fact that I'm terrify at the off chance that I get caught for doing so since I don't believe "other people download stuff all the time and don't get caught" to be a justify excuse.

 

[bluepilot]

Being a poor bastard for the better part of 8 months put's a serious handicap on my music buying abilities. But today I found out that my brother has brought the album I seek, but is currently living elsewhere, so I can't iTunes the disc. Being the cunning fellow that I am I think "I could download it!"
After spending twenty minutes figuring out how to download music, I find myself unable to hit the "Download Torrent" button. For some reason I am unable to do it, even though (I believe) that I am doing nothing wrong seeings as I am half paying for the physical media when I scrounge up enough poo change off the ground.
The question i pose to you is this odd at all?

I understand

Downloading things is scary. I have not even downloaded something from itunes

I like my hardcopies (yes, that is my pile of videos in the corner). Everyone makes fun of my because I still buy DVDs

 

[DoPo]

I used to be a pirate, but repeated injuries caused by stray bullets as we and my Somalian brethren commandeered ships and slaughtered their crew had forced me to quit my dangerous habit of stealing plunder from merchant ships and holding tourists hostages. Then I immigrated to Israel and now I'm living a good, pirate free life as a student.

Eh, you got off easy. I was in similar situation as the OP - I told my mates to rise the Jolly Roger as we saw the other ship but then. I don't know, I just couldn't. I Threw off my eye patch and my sword, set the parrot free and said "Sorry lads, I just can't do it. Yarr." - I really couldn't go aboard that vessel and plunder it for booty.

My crew wasn't amused, though, it turned out they could, and they wanted to. The fools. I tried to persuade them not to but they didn't listen. Well, I did manage to let the other ship escape, though, I stalled them that far. And a mutiny broke out. I had three loyal men join up with me but everybody else attacked us. And since I had thrown away my sword, I had to use my wooden leg for a weapon. Do you know how uncomfortable it is to hop around on one leg in a sword fight? While you're wielding just a piece of wood? In a hook? My answer - not very. Not at all. But I managed to hold my own for a while.

After an hour and a half of fighting (although we did a ten minute break, because we ran out of rum, so we had to haul some more from the cargo hold) John - one of those loyal to me fell, down killed by a sneaky backstab. That shifty bugger, Ronald did it. It turns out he had taken multi-classed as a rogue. Actually, that got him killed - we all turned on him. We all knew it - a rogue is just a plainer version of the ninja. And he probably planned to take levels in ninja later on.

After he died, we had a round of rum and resumed our fight. Then the second of my loyalists fell down dead - Peter. Well, nobody cared about him, and I actually hated him, not to mention that I still owed him some money. I think most people there owed him money. That damn scurvy dog had a terrible luck in cards. I think he was cheating. Now that I think about it, maybe he didn't really join me, only the rest attacked him to get out of their debts. Anyway, whatever the case, he died and he wasn't missed.

At sundown the last of the comrades that took my side died - Big Jim. He was shot with a cannon. Several times. The last one caught him in the left eye. He was a dear friend of mine and owed me money. His last words were "I'm sorry cap'n... I wanted to... repay my debt... but... I gave my life. I guess... that should... count for something. Please... deduct it from what I owe you... goodbye... my friend... Tell Molly I loved her... and to take care of... little Mary" And just like that he perished. Well, at least I think that's what he said - he was on the other end of the ship and everybody was shouting, not to mention that he had blood running out of his mouth like a fountain. But I'm pretty sure that's what he would have said. Even though I don't know who the hell Molly was and I am confident he didn't have any little girls named Mary. In fact, on reflection, I don't know why he'd say any of that, since Big Jim was a dog. It was the just some mutt we had picked some time ago for a laugh and the cook started feeding it leftovers, so we kept it around.

I crew die and the rest of my crew turn against me. The situation seemed hopeless, I was out manned, out matched and outweaponed. Not to mention out armed and outlegged. And the stinking bilge-rats even had more booze than me. I was doomed. Doomed to walk the plank. Or worse. A single tear rolled down my face. And then it downed on me "That's right!" I thought "I threw off my eye patch!". That gave me some hope. I downed a whole keg of rum and then just let loose - I fired my eye laser at them. I mowed the traitors down by the dozens. I stabbed them with my beard. I tore off their heads from their shoulders with my one good arm.

I stood there among corpses on a ship soaking with crimson. Literally soaking - the damn wood was even getting a red hue. I was stranded in the middle of the ocean with nobody to move my ship and no help in sight. The worst part was that the sharks smelled the blood and were coming to eat my ship. Well, they couldn't but that doesn't mean they couldn't try. They took bites of it and water rushed in the lower decks. I didn't have a choice - it was me or them - either they sank the ship and ate me or I stopped them. I was on a tight spot. There were a lot of sharks - makes sense, since there was so much blood. But quick thinking saved me - I rushed to my quarters and took my pet grizzly bear - Finn.

So me and Finn rode off to face the sharks. They were a slimy bunch but Finn had claws so he could hold on. But other than claws, he had several university degrees and was working on his PhD at the moment (literally - he was writing down notes as things went along). The smell of blood may have attracted the lawyers but they had no ground to stand on, well being sea and all, but also no legal ground to stand on. Finn found several loopholes and dismissed their claims. I was just amazed - I knew Finn was smart but he was like fire in the courtroom. When we exited and we shook hands...well a paw and a hook, only then I realised we weren't at sea any more. Turns out that in addition to having a law degree, he also had a degree in physics, so he found out a loophole in space-time continuum, too. And that was what he was doing a PhD in.

He thanked me for the good time and my acceptance and took off to finish his degree. And that was the end of my pirating days.

 

[Signa]

I used to be a pirate, but repeated injuries caused by stray bullets as we and my Somalian brethren commandeered ships and slaughtered their crew had forced me to quit my dangerous habit of stealing plunder from merchant ships and holding tourists hostages. Then I immigrated to Israel and now I'm living a good, pirate free life as a student.

Admissions of piracy are punishable on this forum.

 

[Latinidiot]

Is it weird? Well yes. If you already have the CD but not where you are at the moment, I see no problem downloading it. But the part about your refusal to pirate isn't weird at all. I have a deal with myself; For every CD I buy, I get to download one from a band I already have a bought cd from. I find it works pretty well.

 

[manic_depressive13]

Except that's a load of crap. By saying that, you're implying that all pirates are immoral. Being immoral means doing something you know is wrong. Many pirates don't think what they're doing is wrong. They have different morals. By saying that it all comes down to morality, you're invalidating any value of discussing the issue because hey, pirates are immoral and evil, why should be listen to anything they have to say?

Being immoral means doing something the person accusing you of immorality knows is wrong. Otherwise you would have to agree that a mass murderer isn't immoral if he doesn't believe murder is wrong.

 

[Sectan]

I've never bought music. If you feel that strongly about it find the artist's channel on youtube and make sure you have ads enabled. Free music without "stealing."

 

[DoPo]

Though I find it fascinating that the guy that said he pirated 90% of all his media got a warning, but the very next poster admitted to pirating 95% and didn't get a scratch!

What's up with that?

Not any more. I don't think it's a double standard, if that's what you're suggesting.

 

[Mr F.]

Well, I personally find it strange.

Although I do not directly pirate things myself, I have no idea about my music collection. Most of it is stuff friends have given me, you get the idea. I, personally, have nothing wrong with this. Humans share everything, from books to games to music (Primarily in my experience, Music).

I consider TPB to simply be an extension of the essential human urge to share things, from pirated games to music that at some point, many years ago, some bloke bought. In some cases it is only through sharing that these things still exist and, in some cases (Despite money) things are impossible to find bar through sharing.

So... With regards to music and books, I see nothing wrong with "Piracy". My love of Terry Pratchet was fueled by my school library and my friends (And my parents friends) having incredibly large Pratchett collections. I went to my first gig cause I was shown Frank Turners music on Youtube, my second gig because I was shown Reel Big Fish on youtube, my third gig cause I played Guitar Hero (Through the Fire and Flames was fucking awesome live, although one of the supporting bands outdid them massively.)

My essential point here is that with regards to music there should be no guilt. Musicians make most of their money through gigs and syndication in games/movies and whatnot, not through people physically buying their CD's. As for books and audiobooks, I apply the same logic. With regards to Non-Fiction, knowledge should be free. Information should be shared to the maximum amount of people. Without one of my fellow students downloading a library of psychology books, most of us would have failed the course we were doing (The college library was a pile of crap and the books on the USB came in at roughly 15,000 pounds. Cambridge University Press overcharges people to the nth degree). As for fiction, well, there is less of a market in pirated fiction on the internet cause it is a luxury that comes in so much cheaper.

I guess I am trying to say that in my eyes there is nothing, morally, wrong with sharing music or books. It is something everyone does. I will state that I am a socialist though, I think my political affiliation does affect my moral compass.

 

[Athinira]

Being immoral means doing something the person accusing you of immorality knows is wrong. Otherwise you would have to agree that a mass murderer isn't immoral if he doesn't believe murder is wrong.

By that argument, you are immoral, because i believe that posting on a forum with a name containing "depressive" is immoral.

Morality differs for everyone and every part of the world. You can say you THINK (or believe) that a certain act is immoral, but there are bound to be people that disagree with that.

For example, you wouldn't need to look very far to find people at the same time says murder is wrong, but are also actively advocating that we bomb the entire middle east to get rid of all the rotten apples down there that is causing problems for us here in the western world - Or to use another example appropriate to the topic: people who advocate bombing Somalia to get rid of the pirates (completely ignoring the fact that bombing the villages the pirates live in also kills innocent women and children). These are people who advocate doing things they themself say consider to be immoral, but with the catchphrase "It's okay because [XXX]".

Are these people immoral? I'd like to think so.
Are they stupid and shortsighted? Again I'd say yes, although they would probably disagree.
Are they hypocrites? Absolutely )

 

[AnotherAvatar]

So, yeah, let me throw in my two cents as an musician and producer:
Pirating music is not only fine with most musicians, but occasionally is encouraged (Skrillex and a lot of other forward-thinking artists have suggested piracy as a way to get their their new albums on their personal blogs). You see, musicians rarely make any money on MP3/CD sales, most of that money actually goes to the company/companies involved in distributing the product (record companies, beatport, etc.), the way musicians make their money is usually through touring and merchandise, both of which only get funded if their music is popular enough.

Basically: Pirating and sharing music is great for the musician who makes it so long as you're sharing it around with all your friends. The only people who are likely to be hurt by music piracy are record companies, and to be quite frank they don't really deserve as much as they have gotten over the years, in fact we're really lucky that we live in an age with piracy so they can't just straight control the music industry anymore (however they still control television and radio).

So yeah, if I were you I wouldn't be so proud about the false moral compass that was sold to you by the film and music industry. Don't feel like piracy is leaving a musician starving somewhere, rather you should feel like paying for a song is making some record company dick, who had nothing to do with the composition or performance, richer.

If you want to support the artists save your money and spend it on seeing them live!

 

[chadachada123]

Being a poor bastard for the better part of 8 months put's a serious handicap on my music buying abilities. But today I found out that my brother has brought the album I seek, but is currently living elsewhere, so I can't iTunes the disc. Being the cunning fellow that I am I think "I could download it!"
After spending twenty minutes figuring out how to download music, I find myself unable to hit the "Download Torrent" button. For some reason I am unable to do it, even though (I believe) that I am doing nothing wrong seeings as I am half paying for the physical media when I scrounge up enough poo change off the ground.
The question i pose to you is this odd at all?

Depending on your location, it wouldn't necessarily be illegal for your brother to just send you the MP3s via e-mail or whatever.

Additionally, there is absolutely nothing illegal (to my knowledge) with using a service like DownloadHelper to download each song's Youtube video, and then use a converter to switch the video into an MP3/etc file for easy listening.

I'm only offering suggestions for listening now, before you get enough money to buy it for yourself.

This is an odd topic for me, since the vast majority of my music today consists of remixes that are downloadable for free, and yet I've given far more money to bands through shows then I EVER could through buying their music.

On the one hand, pirating is wrong. On the other, bands traditionally and still currently make the vast majority of their money through live shows, with most of the money from CD purchases going straight to the record company and not the actual artists.

Even pirated works are just free publicity: I know I never would have found out about Enter Shikari if my friend didn't pirate their album, and I never would have given them $50+ to see them live and get a T-shirt.

It reminds me of Nine Inch Nails and Trent Reznor. Citing issues with his record company, he released one of his albums for FREE, with the ability to donate any amount you wish (including none at all), and he made millions from it from sales alone, not even counting his next tour which also made millions.

Edit: Seriously ninja'd in the very previous post? Goddamn.

 

[Uncreation]

Eh, it is kinda weird to me, but i guess it's understandable. I mean, everyone is different. Me, if i want to pirate something, i pirate it, simple as that.

 

[manic_depressive13]

By that argument, you are immoral, because i believe that posting on a forum with a name containing "depressive" is immoral.

Yes, and therefore to you I am immoral. There is no objective morality. When someone calls something moral/immoral, they are merely saying 'I personally approve/disapprove of what you're doing'. Anyone who is under the illusion it means anything else is severely misled.