Same thing happens in Argentina, I tried some times to buy certain games online, but for some weird reason for digital content, the purchased is limited to the US and Mexico. Why does this limitation even exist for digital content?
Why I get my entertainment via BitTorrent
121–130 of 191 posts
Re: Why I get my entertainment via BitTorrent
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
Which is a form of theft (cf http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theft_of_services ). There's no point in rehashing the semantic argument; it's still theft in the eyes of the law, and while renaming it may help assuage your conscience, it doesn't really add much to the argument.
The law was written way before there was possible to make an exact copy of something while leaving the original intact and way before the cost of such act is so close to zero than even those who have no money to buy original still are able to make the copy. One can apply the same laws, but doing so is stretching them too much. Consider the possibility of you making exact copy of a car just by pressing a button on som…
"The law was written way before there was possible to make an exact copy of something while leaving the original intact and way before the cost of such act is so close to zero than even those who have no money to buy original still are able to make the copy."
Piracy is a form of counterfeiting, not stealing.
"and to top all that I also buy a DVD? How about now, is it still the theft?"
Because most people who pirate don't do this.
"My point is: there is a real difference between an illegal copy and a theft, not just some semantics."
Well, it still has destroyed these industries. Over time, with more and more piracy available, people are going to feel that they should be getting this content for free. The market value will go down, and it will become increasingly difficult to make any money at all. With no money in an industry, that industry will most likely die.
The value of most digital goods are in the minds of the people that want to purchase it (similar to currency or a service). When this is devalued because of piracy, I don't know if I would necessarily call it 'theft', but it's still in the same family. The owners are losing money because of your actions. It's worse than theft because it's not like you can just buy another one. It devalues the entire product, forever.
"If I torrent something "getting for free" is never the reason to do that. The reasons are either availability or convenience. If there was a way to buy movies in digital format (I cannot even buy music on iTunes in my country, only apps) I'd spend a lot more money on them. App Store and Mac App store are the good indicator of that."
Right. Just like music? I've heard all these excuses before. 10 years ago, when Napster came out, the people that were justifying piracy came up with all these excuses too: They wanted to be able to "try before buying", cheap music, and to put a stop to "artists getting screwed".
Now, there are services like last.fm and pandora, music is cheap (99c or less is pretty damn cheap for a song), and artists don't need to be on a label to succeed (social networking FTW). Has piracy stopped? No, there are a new set of excuses and piracy is worse than ever.
I don't think it will ever stop. There will always be a new set of excuses to legitimize selfishness.
Re: Why I get my entertainment via BitTorrent
#123As someone with money who enjoys a lot of American TV, I'm not really interested in excuses why these services are not available worldwide. Quit making excuses and make it happen. The torrenters don't seem to have any trouble building a global distribution network, and they are hiding from the law while simultaneously kicking your butt. If you don't want to make it happen, quit whining about losing money. I have mone…
Thank you for putting forth this sentiment in a succinct and direct way. If it can be done while being borderline illegal why in the world would the stakeholders not want to profit from this revenue stream?
Re: Why I get my entertainment via BitTorrent
#124There is no need to rationalize why you use Bittorrent, there is no argument to win and nothing to defend. It's not stealing, it's not not stealing it's just a fact that people will continue to use bittorrents as long as there is too much friction to get it legally. Bittorrent will be around as long as the content owners insist on localizing copyright and not offering their content to a globally oriented customer bas…
Meh; right or wrong it is looking increasingly like sharing of content for free is inevitable. More interesting are the consequences of this change. 1. The resources that were spent on these products will be invested alternatively. 2. With a lower margin for performance, continued (live) performance becomes the only way to make a living. 3. Production-on-demand as opposed to production, followed by marketing for dema…
It's inevitable because the producers of the content are stuck to an old model they refuse to give up. About a year ago I abandoned DirecTV. I was paying about US$80/mo for a fairly basic package that included the few stations that I watched. I tried to get it lower, but it turned out the 1000's of stations I didn't want and the few I did want.. always came out to the same monthly fee. I would pay a much smaller fee for those few stations (that contain the shows I really want to watch).
Until then, I'll torrent those TV shows, and use my Netflix subscription to watch movies.
And, I would love to torrent the TV shows from the official TV site. I'd do it even if they included a reasonable amount of commercials. Reasonable is hard to define, but if they became annoying, I'd go back to what I have. If they setup their own tracker, then they'd be able to count the downloaders, which is no different than counting people that have their DVR record a show. Well, it's a little different in that they can't spy on your watching habits like TiVo and the others apparently do.
They could deal a death blow to piracy very swiftly, if they wanted. But they don't. They want the current system, at all costs.
Re: Why I get my entertainment via BitTorrent
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
Meh; right or wrong it is looking increasingly like sharing of content for free is inevitable. More interesting are the consequences of this change. 1. The resources that were spent on these products will be invested alternatively. 2. With a lower margin for performance, continued (live) performance becomes the only way to make a living. 3. Production-on-demand as opposed to production, followed by marketing for dema…
Oh I agree. Why should the music and movie industry be the only industries being allowed to keep the middle men when the value they provide is almost nill. The reality is that the bands coming out today have no problem being both good with marketing, technology and doing music. There is nothing that says that it's a right of a musician to record an album for almost nothing, reproduce and distribute it litterally for…
> Why should the music and movie industry be the only industries being allowed to keep the middle men when the value they provide is almost nill.
I think it has been clear (specially to musicians) for a long time that the middle men have been providing negative value all along.
Re: Why I get my entertainment via BitTorrent
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
> the German GEMA Another thing that should be against the law... Even if I only have an internet access at my home, no TV and no radio, I still have to pay a quarterly "licence fee" (see http://www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/licencefee/ ) because certain public stations have a website and could offer certain TV or radio programs on their website.
Are you sure you have to pay the license fee? http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/topics/wh... seems to suggest otherwise.
Sorry, this was mis-leading... I was actually talking about the German GEMA rules and only used the BBC website as an example for "license fee" since I am not sure this is the correct translation for what the German GEMA and that "tax on radio and tv" is all about and I doubt anything like that exists in the USA.
Re: Why I get my entertainment via BitTorrent
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
iPlayer isn't a commercial service, it's funded by the UK tax payer though the license fee. I agree that this is something the BBC should look at making available more widely as a revenue generator to fund it's operations but it's not a priority for them.
What's the TV license at now? 180 pounds or ~275 US? If it came with access to iPlayer, 4oD & iTVoD I'd probably be willing to pay for a UK TV license. (I'm in Canada)
Heck - I'd pay that for BBC Formula 1 coverage alone!
Re: Why I get my entertainment via BitTorrent
#128As an English speaker in Germany I was particularly interested in using things like iTunes (which is available here) to access TV. What do you know, it is exclusively German language content. And it is also only released when it airs in Germany rather than when it first airs in the US or the UK. Where is the logic there? If I wanted to get German language TV when it airs on TV, I would just watch TV. The whole system…
The whole system makes eminent sense. Content that has been permitted by the owner is released in your country, when the owner permits. If you are resort to piracy because of this, you are still stealing.
Yes, it's "stealing" something that has zero marginal cost and is not for sale. I think the world has more important problems than this, for instance, teaching ants to respect traffic rules ;-)
Re: Why I get my entertainment via BitTorrent
#129As an English speaker in Germany I was particularly interested in using things like iTunes (which is available here) to access TV. What do you know, it is exclusively German language content. And it is also only released when it airs in Germany rather than when it first airs in the US or the UK. Where is the logic there? If I wanted to get German language TV when it airs on TV, I would just watch TV. The whole system…
I'm from germany too and I don't mind spending money on movies, TV shows and music at all. However my requirements are that the film is in english and music is lossless. Turns out you need a lot of patience if you don't want to use bittorrent.
I'm sorry but waiting for the international bluray release is not an option - i probably forgot about the movie by the time. Lossless audio stores with a good selection are even harder to find - I ran across several albums that "weren't available in your country". Really? Do you really want me to turn to my what.cd account? This is by far the most convenient "music store" and that fact should be a shame to the music industry. Recently i noticed a french store named Qobuz, with a great selection of formats (flac, alac, aiff, 24 or 16 bit) and music (indie and popular) - Unfortunately they are not allowed to sell any album in any country either, but you might get lucky there. And those are just stores that sell music - Don't get me started on streaming and locker solutions.
So please, dear content industry, as long as a private torrent tracker run by a handful of enthusiasts is, in terms of selection, audio quality, compatibility, availability and even catalog management or recommandations, a better experience than official and legit stores, don't complain to me about piracy.
Re: Why I get my entertainment via BitTorrent
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ah, didn't realize that. Maybe gifting or something would work.
The better alternative is iTunes. You don't need a VPN, since Apple is not blocking based on IP address. You'll only need a US address (I am at Starbucks pretty much all day) and a US iTunes gift card (easy to get by), and you are settled. It's a grey area, but MAFIAA should prefer it over piracy ;).
It is illegal in pretty much every country (US included) to give fake information.
If you don't own/rent a place in the US, you shouldn't inform it.