[X] My Assistant

[Chrona]

Most people see it as stealing, intellectual theft, etc. Almost everyone does it, though most people don't try to justify their actions. So I thought, why not play devil's advocate?




First of all -

When you buy a CD, you bought the CD and the music on it. I don't see why you shouldn't be able to do what you want with it - If you hack your game consoles it nulls the warranty, but Sony can't take you to court for having a CFW PSP. By that same logic, why should the music companies be able to sue if you decided to share the music *you* bought with other people?

It's buying a CD, not renting it.



Second -

Loss of potential profit does not mean loss of profit. Odds are most of the people who download music or games wouldn't be buying them in the first place. You can't charge a menstruating woman for murder each time she has her period just because the thing might have turned into a child eventually, and by that same logic you can't put a price on potential profit.

Any counter-arguments? I have more realistic ones too, but we'll see how the thread plays out :p

[PeachyMomo]

I agree with both those stances. Some companies actually want ripping CDs on your computer and things like iPods to be outlawed, because they fear people will put them on the internet and the illegal downloading will commence. But one major issue, I think, is how they market music. Sometimes you can't buy a single song but you have to buy the whole album, even if you don't want it. And it's less of a hassle and of course, free, to just download something.

It's true that I probably wouldn't be buying CDs much anyway, although if there was no way to download I wouldn't have much of a choice.

[Icarus]

There are people that don't pirate?

[Infinite]

There are people that don't pirate?

Rofl. Seriously.
I haven't purchased a CD in ... years >.>

[Sofa King]

There are people that don't pirate?

Rofl. Seriously.
I haven't purchased a CD in ... years >.>

Heh. Mostly I just buy CD's for my family members' birthdays and such.

I'm too poor to afford my own stuff, *whimper*

Also.. I'm just gonna plead the 5^th on the whole piracy issue.. *whistles nonchalantly*

[StarShinePachiri...]

I believe that once you purchase the software or CD, that you should have the right to share it and use it however you like, so long as you don't attempt to turn a profit off of it by modifying, and selling it, or by copying and selling it.

[Suschan]

I believe that once you purchase the software or CD, that you should have the right to share it and use it however you like, so long as you don't attempt to turn a profit off of it by modifying, and selling it, or by copying and selling it.

I agree with this with the factor of not gaining profit and so on.

But the truth is that piracy is a horribly gray area in question. The companies can't stop it! And the fact that some companies take advantage of it.
I believe as long as you don't say that somebody else's creation or profit material is yours or that you are trying to profit from something you have ripped from the internet and claim that it's yours when you clearly know it's not. (I'm confusing myself here abit, I hope I ain't just going in a circle or giving the wrong idea)


Youtube is a good example, it profits from things that aren't even in their ownage. (sorry I just giggled at the word here)

[Tiamat]

I fully admit to being a dirty pirate. I download games and music to try them out, and if I don't like it, I can just delete it. I don't see the harm. I play ROMs to try games out, or to play games I can't find in the real world. That, and it's easier to try out hacks/glitches/ect. (I do, in fact, buy some games--it's easier to carry around a DS then a laptop--and I find Nintendo controllers to be extremely comfortable, and easier to use then a keyboard.)

[Tenshinchigi]

I steal software, but that shit is EXPENSIVE. There is no way I could afford it. I plan on buying it someday, but art programs like Adobe are ridiculously over priced. I mean thousands of dollars for an art program! It's insane!

[Tiamat]

Adobe Photoshop is roughly one thousand dollars. You would have been better off saying hundreds, although it's still stupidly expensive. :/ Please be accurate with this.

[PsygnosDoraemon]

I'm pretty much neutral-sided.

I still buy CD's, but I have a bunch of ROMs on my computer, from Commodore 64 to Gameboy Color.

Yes, I've myself been tempted to pirate Adobe Photoshop. Such a useful program with tons of potential, and it's hundreds of dollars. Jesus, Adobe.

[Gati]

What you're talking about is known as peer to peer file sharing. And I do not consider it "piracy", that is just a word that the fucking big companies bribing the U.S's and other countries' government to make this NEW generation of media illegal.

The U.S. already tried to incarcerate people on doing such thing in the late 90's and early 2000, they fail because obviously it is utterly impossible and plain out stupid to do. The assholes (the big companies) have sued against MANY things that they thought they were losing profit and all that horse shit, such as the VHS, the first mp3 player (way before the iPod), cable TV, and so on. And now those companies that experience in those type of media are now among the wealthiest of companies.

File sharing is actually expanding culture, most notable that I have seen, is the expansion on Japanese media. More animes and mangas are being shared, and by non-profit fans that just make the subs. In this new generation, music is free, if you're a good singer, if you make a good movie, you will not starved. But if really like something that I downloaded, I am willing to buy it, not so much to support them, but because I think that the original will always be better.

I recommend to go to this site, scroll down, and download the documentary Steal This Film.

"When the winds of change are blowing, some people are building shelters, and others are building windmills." - Chinese proverb.

[Tiamat]

Yes, I've myself been tempted to pirate Adobe Photoshop. Such a useful program with tons of potential, and it's hundreds of dollars. Jesus, Adobe.

We're not pirating... we're rescuing them from selkies.

[mutePenguin]

As has already been discussed, a lot of people wouldn't buy the CD anyway, so it's really no loss of profit for the big corporations... We had this discussion in class a few months ago, and we discussed this one artist (I can't remember who) who broke away from his or her label and just had a website where people could download his or her music, and this artist made more from the donation button than he or she had from being with the label.

But like with music, for example, file sharing introduces new listeners to artists they otherwise might never have heard of, so the artists get more followers.

And as an aside, most of the stuff I download I have not been able to find anywhere else at all. I tried to buy it, but no...

[Mangoheart]

Well when it comes to music and anime I can't get in my country anyway...

[ChibiTora]

I'll fully admit to being a pirate. I will actually go to Bestbuy or Wal*Mart and stand looking at computer games for a half hour only to go home and download them.
But it's not like I'm downloading a full game everyday, or even every week. And sometimes, I go six or seven months without downloading anything.

I wholly agree with Chrona.

If any of you have ever been to an anime convention and been down artists alley, you'd see piracy out the wazoo. I mean, none of them own the the likeness of Hitsugaya or Snorlax, yet they sell their depictions of them; whether it be an actual drawing or a plushie, they sell with no fear of lawsuit (Unless of course it's a Disney character :/)

Also, I remember when the second Switchfoot album came out (Yeah, waaayyy before I was a pirate ) Sony had it encrypted so it couldn't be ripped at all. The band wasn't very happy about that at all.

Why should the companies tell us what we can do with our stuff? They don't own it after we've paid.

[Annakyoyama358]

If the software is outrageously expensive, pirate it. $10 game? Buy it.
Simple. I'm not paying 1000+ for photoshop. I will pay 100 for sims 2 and shitloads of expansions.

[Reyo]

How have I missed this thread for so long!?

Anyway, I got in an "argument" at church about how not buying music is "unethical" to which I responded with the fact that the artists only see pennies (if that) of every CD sold. If you really support the band, go to the concerts and buy the merchandise.

Besides, if I were to buy all of my music, my already $150 mp3 player would be about $80-$100 more expensive.

[Gati]

This thread kinda reminds me at the most hilarious YouTube comment I ever read; "the reason why I don't feel bad when I download music.. MTV cribs"

[monkfishlover]

The biggest problem with pirating computer programs is that they tend to have nasty viruses in them. And I believe that the only reason companies don't want you to share your music cds with your friends is because they know that if they say that, it will intimidate some of those people into buying instead of borrowing, when they shouldn't even have to buy it in the first place. In essence, the companies are only being greedy and they will do anything to get money.