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Why I get my entertainment via BitTorrent

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151–160 of 191 posts

Re: Why I get my entertainment via BitTorrent

#151

I try to explain this type of thing to people who are ardently anti-piracy: You can never, ever, expect people to miss out on the culture that's happening during their lives. If money, or geography, or whatever is preventing it, they'll still do the best they can to make sure they don't miss anything.

I think another way to say this is that you can be a human being and still lack many things: political freedom, money, love, etc. But -- you cannot be a human being without culture and there exists a strong feeling (whether it is correct or incorrect) that the more culture you gain, the more human you are. The desire to engage in your culture is just the same as the desire to be human, and that desire will trump any other factor, which is why -- and I understand that this may be contentious -- the objections to piracy can only be made in very specific circumstances and that in the general case it is an entirely ethical and justifiable form of acquisition.

Re: Why I get my entertainment via BitTorrent

#152
post #103

I try to explain this type of thing to people who are ardently anti-piracy: You can never, ever, expect people to miss out on the culture that's happening during their lives. If money, or geography, or whatever is preventing it, they'll still do the best they can to make sure they don't miss anything.

This is so true, and I reckon people in the US have no idea how crippled online access to entertainment is abroad. Moreover, culture is going global, which should be an opportunity, but in reality exacerbates the problem. Recently, while in Germany, I found Youtube content to be highly restricted. I could not view music videos that I can view in Ireland, and I find this arbitrary restriction oppressive. I would imagi…

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Re: Why I get my entertainment via BitTorrent

#153
post #103

I try to explain this type of thing to people who are ardently anti-piracy: You can never, ever, expect people to miss out on the culture that's happening during their lives. If money, or geography, or whatever is preventing it, they'll still do the best they can to make sure they don't miss anything.

This is so true, and I reckon people in the US have no idea how crippled online access to entertainment is abroad. Moreover, culture is going global, which should be an opportunity, but in reality exacerbates the problem. Recently, while in Germany, I found Youtube content to be highly restricted. I could not view music videos that I can view in Ireland, and I find this arbitrary restriction oppressive. I would imagi…

This is very annoying, especially in situations when it's not a music video, but the video has some background music not available in my county.

Re: Why I get my entertainment via BitTorrent

#154
post #74

As 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…

What a silly argument. "Just make it happen!" What do you do in the case where a show is shown on ABC in the US and Channel 4 in the UK, and they both have online streaming? How do you just make that happen? Who is going to give up their rights to broadcast online? Are you just going to wish the contracts away? Yes, the torrenters have no problem avoiding the legal limits because they are illegal, that's not an answe…

Excuses, excuses...

(Okay, I'll answer.)

Make a new territory called "Internet" which charges viewers directly. If a UK broadcaster wants the UK rights, that would still be available separately. People who would pay a premium aren't really in the same market as people who watch free-with-ads channels.

I know channel 4 etc won't like having a competitor with the same shows on their turf, but they do already - torrenters. At least this way, the competitor will just be one that charges a premium that will only be used by big fans of a show. The casual viewer will remain with the free-with-ads channel.

Re: Why I get my entertainment via BitTorrent

#155
post #137

Last I checked, Estonia can use Android Market. Although maybe that's one of the "new" additions?

Only free apps work.

They announced yesterday that they added 99 new countries for paid apps. See: https://market.android.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=1437... (previous list, not translated yet as of now)

https://market.android.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=1437... (new list)

Re: Why I get my entertainment via BitTorrent

#156
post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The morality is quite different to physical goods. Infringement is a malum prohibitum not a malum in se . Copying is not immoral in itself. Quite the opposite: it is something we would want to encourage. It can only really be immoral in so far as the law is moral . And the law is only moral in that it serves an economic purpose -- that is, to be clear, it serves us overall. The law is not there to 'protect' or benefi…

Not sure I agree. The two mala can overlap; in the realm of unauthorized copying, I think that they sometimes, but not always, do. It's complicated. What's clear, though, and where I'm pretty sure we'd agree, is that rhetoric conflating unauthorized copying with traditional forms of stealing doesn't stand up to much scrutiny. It isn't at all like taking somebody's food or jumping out of a taxi without paying.

> The two mala can overlap; in the realm of unauthorized copying, I think that they sometimes, but not always, do

How?

You are taking a more cautious view than me, which is maybe more prudent and respectable. But I would be interested to hear how copying can be intrinsically harmful . . . the basic problem is that it is by definition physically separate, so for there to be any effect communicated at all requires some other system. Is there a good counter-argument or -example?

Re: Why I get my entertainment via BitTorrent

#157
post #74

As 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…

The cost of hiding from the law must be less than the cost of abiding by the law.

Re: Why I get my entertainment via BitTorrent

#158
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is true - it doesn't make it right (necessarily) but it is true. The other thing I'd say though is that most people will still operate within their own moral code. In the UK technically platform shifting (transferring music from CD to MP3 for instance) is illegal but that doesn't stop anyone as people see it as a historic oddity and not something which is even remotely morally wrong. It's not uncommon that the s…

Honestly if there is no chance that I ever buy something (say because it is not available for sale) what does it matter if I download it? I can see the argument for torrent over buy, but not really torrent over nothing.

Or, better question, why is it considered piracy to torrent a television show that is sent over the air to anyone with antenna?

Re: Why I get my entertainment via BitTorrent

#159

Well, this is just rationalizing. Stealing something (or obtaining it illegally) just because someone doesn't want to sell it to you (or give it to you for free) is still stealing (or obtaining it illegally), regardless of the fact that you want it so bad. As long as you own something, you have the right to choose if you want to sell it to some country, give it for free or do whatever else.

Are peoples lives that much worse if don't have access to certain TV Show/Albums/Movies? People can be so entitled sometimes.

Re: Why I get my entertainment via BitTorrent

#160
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, and a 250k Lamborghini is also a huge budget hit for me in the West. Which is why I drive a shitty Citroen. I'm sick and tired of the entitled whining. Nobody owes you the right to listen to the latest album of whoever is at the top of the charts; in fact, nobody owes you anything but what they agreed on. The proposition is very clear: there are people who create something. They give it to you, on the conditio…

I am a utilitarian. If someone cannot afford a movie, downloading does not equate to a lost sale. It does not hurt any person involved with the creation of that movie. It can possibly make the downloader a bit happier. Therefore I think that, in this case, downloading perfectly moral.

Is stealing a bike not immoral until the owner of the bike notices it? Or until he misses it? Let's say he has a bike that he never uses, and never will. Is it not immoral to steal that bike?

If you really mean what you say and understand the implications, I am disturbed by your ethics. I'm usually disturbed by utilitarians - they're the ones who end up saying 'torturing a couple of terrorists is morally OK when it means that we can save the lives of 50 innocent civilians'.

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