YOUR thought on Piracy

[Smoke2much]

Piracy is theft.  Theft is wrong.  The thief may not assign value to that which he steals but the victim of the theft does.

[Hagar]

You might find this interesting. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/4318765.stm
[quote]Friday, 4 March, 2005
Music industry 'nails UK pirates'  

It was likely some parents settled for their children, the BPI said

The UK music industry has claimed victory in its first battle with illegal file-sharers after 23 people paid

[pete]

At the end of the day - we all say speeding is wrong, ... but we all do it.  99% of people speed.

At the end of the day the word 'piracy' is a grey area ....  

Who among us has never recorded a video on TV? YET - if you were to go into the minutii of the particular broadcast you would probably find a clause 'no unauthorised copying......'

Who - honestly - among us can say we have NEVER installed/used a copy of our friend's PC software ... or at the very least ... a copy of a music CD or cassette ?  

My own opinion is that the difference between what is simply reality (think Bill Gates never played a music cassette copy??)  & what is essentially WRONG is when it goes to blatant disrespect of copyright. For instance  - mass distribution of licenced software, music, literary works, etc.

It's a question of proportion & respect .....  ;)

[Hagar]

Please don't misunderstand me. I never pretended to be squeaky clean. Like most other people I've copied the occasional piece of music or software. I'm not proud of it & I know it's technically against the law & morally wrong. Some of my friends download music from the internet but I've never done that. As a musician I think it's wrong. The technology is freely available (freely might be the wrong word) & we all have the equipment to make it easy. Selling a VCR or DVD recorder is not illegal but using it for certain purposes possibly is. The onus is on the user & the temptation is always there.

What worries me is the modern "something for nothing" culture where nobody (a whole generation) can see anything wrong with it. Just because it's possible doesn't make it right.

[pete]

What worries me is the modern "something for nothing" culture where nobody (a whole generation) can see anything wrong with it. Just because it's possible doesn't make it right.

Nicely summarised Doug

[Saitek]

Piracy is piracy is Piracy. It is stealing/ theft/robbery and whatever else that can be used to describe it. It is a criminal offence and you are a criminal if you do it. There is no excuse and no reason for doing it. I don't own a single peice of payware. I can't afford it. I would never until the day I die take something that wasn't mine and steal it.

I don't know about the US Pete, but over here it is pefectly legal to record TV programs (so long as you have a license ). If it was illegal I would never do it.

I very much agree with Will's statement:

Piracy is theft.  Theft is wrong.  The thief may not assign value to that which he steals but the victim of the theft does.

It also applies to all crimes in a more general sense. Just because you don't like it or don't want it doesn not make it right or legal in the slightest.  What is your standard is not someone elses. To take it to the extreme - The rapist may believe he is like the wild animals and has a "right to do acording to nature" and the murderer; because of "survival of the fittest". They may think it is perfectly acceptable.

The point I am making is that if everyone takes the attitude Oh it is ok - just once - well I never would do it normally - hey I never knew it was a copy when I bought it etc and I think it is a silly law and the company is wealthy  and.... it gives someone else the leave to take up the same attitude about something else that could be worse.

Hey, someone has hit me on a sorepoint, please excuse the above!!

Ben

[Anti-Societys Snake]

Maybe put this thought in a sort of different context and see how it flies:

If you buy a car and you don't like it... you're stuck.  Once a new car is driven out of the showroom, the value drops like a rock.  So you go to a guy who specializes in stealing cars (service called Carzaaa  ;D), and have him/her rip off the car you think you like for you.  Then you test drive it for a while.  If you like it, you go to the dealer that was ripped off and pay for it.  If you don't like it, you just abandon it somewhere..... or better yet "torch it".

Your on the right track. Now, thew only difference is and mp3 does not phsicaly exist.. in the example you used, I would have to go and phisicaly steal the CD. Now the store is out a 10 buck CD, Wheres, if I get an mp3 and then delete it, the store, RIAA, artist and me gaain or lose anything. Moore like a test drive.


Now be aware that I am 100% against Downloading and keeping an mp3.

[Ben_M_K]

Nope, I'm 100% against Piracy. Always have been, I always try to tell my friend who downloads free music off the internet and he just laughfs at me... :-/ He just says some super lame exuse like, "why do you think they make CD burners?". It really ticks me off...

And my cousin, she downloads free stuff off the inernet and we got into an argument. And she was saying stuff like, "At least I did'nt kill anyone". And the worst part was that her dad was defending her, saying stuff like, "theres a lot of worse stuff she could be doing". I was so mad...

[Anti-Societys Snake]

Just because there are worse things, doesn't mean he/she can do any thing aslong as there is something worse.

[Ben_M_K]

Exactly.

[Scorpiоn]

I've never treated this as a critical issue.  In fact, there are very few issues I consider critical; I don't care what people do, as long as they leave me out of it.  I'm starting to see that most here that are purist anti-piracy almost want some sort of retribution against us "pirates."  Sorry if I must laugh that off.  There's a difference between someone who downloads music always in search of better music, and then buys it when they find it.  I've gone through some particular pains to acquire the music I like.  I doubt most people would have imported their music at near extorbant S&H fees all the way from Japan and Germany just to support and buy the music that's worth downloading.

I just feel a bit angered when I'm reduced to a con because I don't have the money to blow on anything I might like.  There are things called morality, but there's also something called reality.  Still in high school, unskilled labor is lucky to get anything above minimum wage (which I fortunately have) and there's this little thing called my future.  If I'm expected to blow all my money on music and sacrifice my savings because it's wrong to download music, this is akin to the communist states that starve themselves into poverty but maintain their dignity in self reliance.

Basically I feel like I'm being told to throw away my life and support everyone else and be perfect.

[Hagar]

I have to disagree with you there Skorp. It's a matter of priorities. Nobody should think they have the right to anything & everything they want exactly when they decide they want it. If you want something badly enough you'll find a way to get it legally. If this means waiting a while until you've saved for it, so much the better as you will enjoy it all the more when you do finally get it. Please don't come the hard luck stories to me as I worked hard all my life for what I have now. Some things I would have dearly loved when I was 18 I managed to get when I was 50. There are still things like that brand new PC I want now but that will have to wait a while longer. If you have everything you want now what are you going to aim at in life?

This is what I hate about this instant gratification society.

[Ben_M_K]

Just because you can't afford it doesn't mean you can steal it...

[Fozzer]

I very often post extracts of text and pictures on the Forum from various sources....
I always acknowlege the source of the information, even tho' it very clearly says..."(Copyright 2005 by The xxxx xxxx. All Rights Reserved.).

This is the area which concerns me the most...!

Cheers all...!

Paul

I think a "Link" to a site is probably OK, but an un-acknowleged extract from a site, publication, etc,

[Hagar]

I don't think there's a problem there Paul -  providing you state where you got the quote from & there aren't any specific conditions saying it's not permitted. I usually post a link to the page to be on the safe side. I can't see how anyone can object to that.