Obama administration: "Piracy is flat, unadulterated theft"
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Obama administration: "Piracy is flat, unadulterated theft"
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Re: Obama administration: "Piracy is flat, unadulterated theft"
#2I knew that this was the position the administration would have once chose Joe Biden as VP. Frankly I'm amazed that they haven't attempted more to date with copyright enforcement.
See http://www.betanews.com/article/Where-does-Joe-Biden-stand-o... for a quick overview of Biden's background on copyright issues.
Re: Obama administration: "Piracy is flat, unadulterated theft"
#3> No one walking out of a Walmart with a stack of Richard Marx discs under his arm would be subject to such penalties.
Penalties are higher because piracy is easier to get away with?
Re: Obama administration: "Piracy is flat, unadulterated theft"
#4ok, yes, but that is not the main point of the debate, though. What are the proper ways to deter and punish the crime? Up til now, the main weapon wielding by RIAA is to sue petty theft with gigantic financial penalties, which most people don't have the means to defend themselves against. It gets so bad that law firms are now basically blackmail people into submission, eg. "the Hurt Locker" case. This only infuriates others and aggravate the problems.
Re: Obama administration: "Piracy is flat, unadulterated theft"
#5I keep telling myself, this has to be better than if we'd elected McCain -- right?
Re: Obama administration: "Piracy is flat, unadulterated theft"
#6ok, yes, but that is not the main point of the debate, though. What are the proper ways to deter and punish the crime? Up til now, the main weapon wielding by RIAA is to sue petty theft with gigantic financial penalties, which most people don't have the means to defend themselves against. It gets so bad that law firms are now basically blackmail people into submission, eg. "the Hurt Locker" case. This only infuriates…
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Re: Obama administration: "Piracy is flat, unadulterated theft"
#7I knew that this was the position the administration would have once chose Joe Biden as VP. Frankly I'm amazed that they haven't attempted more to date with copyright enforcement. See http://www.betanews.com/article/Where-does-Joe-Biden-stand-o... for a quick overview of Biden's background on copyright issues.
Biden was one of the few Senators I knew by name before he was VP. I was also concerned about how his views on copyright would affect the stance of the current Administration.
Here's more on the history of Biden's pro-copyright campaign.
Re: Obama administration: "Piracy is flat, unadulterated theft"
#8I keep telling myself, this has to be better than if we'd elected McCain -- right?
Lesser of two evils! Woo hoo!
Re: Obama administration: "Piracy is flat, unadulterated theft"
#9From the article:
Locke then lamented the fate of songwriters. "Recently, I've had a chance to read letters from award winning writers and artists whose livelihoods have been destroyed by music piracy. One letter that stuck out for me was a guy who said the songwriting royalties he had depended on to 'be a golden parachute to fund his retirement had turned out to be a lead balloon.' This just isn't right."
I don't believe the assumption that every download is a lost sale is remotely true. It's also possible that many downloads led to increased sales or that the downloader already owned a copy of or access to the media and was just getting it in digital form for convenience.
If I download the mp3 copy of a CD I own a physical copy of, am I a criminal? Did I steal from the artist?
Re: Obama administration: "Piracy is flat, unadulterated theft"
#10It's funny how the word Piracy is used. One has to wonder what kind of pirates we are talking about.
The "Pirates of the Caribbean" type of pirates did loot ships, but what they stole where often goods produced by slavery and itself stolen from the colonies.
Piracy or as I prefer to call it – copying is the result of a disconnect between price and cost.
When you steal you take something away from others so it's not there anymore, but copying isn't stealing it's copying by using an internet connection you pay for yourself, onto a computer you have paid for yourself. In other words the only one who have any real cost is the one who copies.
There is absolutely nothing that states that it's fair for musicians or other artist to make millions by mass producing and distributing at almost zero cost.
And now that we are on the subject of newspeak anyway. If you produce an album with the purpose of selling it, you aren't really an artist anymore, you are a businessman and your product is a commodity.
Deal!