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Why I'm a Pirate

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Re: Why I'm a Pirate

#131

Post by cturner »

rytis wrote: post #121
cturner wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recommend you think about this: where does property come from? Is something ours because the government says it's ours or does it have a deeper meaning that transcends government? I'd argue that property exists because things (apples, cars, gym equipment) have limitations on their use. If I eat an apple, you can't. If you grow a crop on this property, you can't. While he uses this gym equipment, they can't. Even in…

You raise a good point here about what property actually is. I'd like to extend on this concept and add ownership into equation. In the example with an apple. I own it, therefore only I can eat it. It is my property. Now what happens if I give the apple to somebody else? It's their property now, so you would naturally assume they own it? And therefore they can eat it. Alas, it's not the case with music/etc. I bought…

Yes. I think the key point here is that property is treated in law as a right, but copyright functions as an anti-right.

I'll try to explain what I mean by anti-right though I'm unpracticed here.

(1) Society is oriented around a presumption of live-and-let-live. Most laws give rights that state the boundary of live-and-let live, and these are positive rights.

(2) In the case of copyright, only the creator has the ability to live-and-let-live in the context of the protected thing: everyone else is restricted from it. Hence, this is a negative right, or "anti-right".

When rights and anti-rights clash, you get nasty situations develop where they can't all be true at the same time.

i.e. in order to make IP anti-rights work, the laws need to inhibit 'real' property rights.

i.e. I am not allowed to do things with magnetic signals in the privacy of my own home because that impedes an anti-right that the government has granted to someone else.

If you build complex software with a permissions model that contains both positive and negative permissions (i.e. where a user has a permission that is "can't see" something rather than being a positive right), you'll find similar nasty situations develop.

Re: Why I'm a Pirate

#132

Post by pinaceae »

others have pointed out the problem of global availability vs. artificial rights barriers.

i'd like to add one more thing, in regards of music:

why should i pay for digital music reproduction?

1., radio is free

2., internet radio covers so much, i can listen to anything, for free (more channels than ever)

3., on demand is solved by youtube, which is already the biggest music platform bar none. some music video have 100+ million playcounts!

4., a lot of those youtube videos are legal by now, put up there by the industry themselves. they price their own content as ZERO.

and then there are the specialty sites, like soundcloud, 8tracks, wearehunted,... all that music, on demand, for free. mainstream stuff, not some basement bands.

the industry is pricing their content as free in a lot of channels already. so, sorry, hard to see that saving a youtube vid as an mp3 is actual piracy.

Re: Why I'm a Pirate

#133

Post by ThomPete »

citricsquid wrote: post #8

This is such bullshit, I really wish I could downvote this sort of post. If you don't agree with the methods used by companies to sell their products DON'T then take it anyway, you're showing people WANT the product but aren't willing to pay, so what's the best solution? Make it harder to pirate / try to block pirating. This guy and everyone else who refuses to just not consume media they can't get on terms they and…

This argument could obviously easily be reversed.

If Rihanna and others don't want their music to be pirated they shouldn't make it digital.

It is not a naturally given right you know to create an album once and then sell it in millions. It's an opportunity.

Re: Why I'm a Pirate

#134

Post by dagw »

true_religion wrote: post #29

I've always wondered what odd confusion of emotions could make someone say they are a thief and proud of it. I can understand those who claim that what they are doing isn't thievery. I can understand those that don't accept the idea of intellectual property in general. But for you to both buy into the philosophy that what you are taking is valuable, and ought to be protected---then still steal it proudly..... that is…

Aren't people supposed to want to be good?

Many people believe that punishing people whom in their eyes are doing wrong is a good and righteous act, irregardless of any local law. In the legend of Robin Hood, Robin is generally seen as a "good person" and the hero in most tellings, despite being a thief and a criminal.

Re: Why I'm a Pirate

#135

Post by ThomPete »

dorian-graph wrote: post #63
citricsquid wrote: post #8

This is such bullshit, I really wish I could downvote this sort of post. If you don't agree with the methods used by companies to sell their products DON'T then take it anyway, you're showing people WANT the product but aren't willing to pay, so what's the best solution? Make it harder to pirate / try to block pirating. This guy and everyone else who refuses to just not consume media they can't get on terms they and…

I agree with you so much. To this person and all the others you don't have some God given right to the content they produce/deliver. Instead of pirating go without. Will life stop if you don't watch the latest episode of Community? Probably. Give it a go. If you die I have dibs on your $2000 Macbook Pro, $800 iPhone, $250 Sennheiser headphones, etc. The very phrase 'Because you are messing with my life' in this conte…

And the artists don't have a god given right to produce it once and sell it many times.

Re: Why I'm a Pirate

#136

Post by technoslut »

radu_floricica wrote: post #126
gavinballard wrote: post #16

This is a series of pretty poor arguments. The author seems to be looking for reasons to justify their own piracy and conflates anger at the approach of the "copyright industry" with infringement upon peoples' rights. One of the final lines of the article, in particular, is jarring: "If I'm a pirate, it's not to have some cheap music. It is because the time has come for you to fuck off." It's fine to be angry about t…

There's a subtle line this post is drawing: from the plain guilt of not paying the artists who created the art, to horror at realizing that if you pay them, you also give several times as much money to interest groups that go head on with your morals. Once you realize this line exists, paying for music is no longer "the right thing to do" but an evil act, at least as evil as supporting sweat shops and Amazon deforest…

So it is moral to rob artists of royalties of songs they made which you enjoy?

I'm willing to guarantee that most don't know the labels that most artists belong to. Some are indie and are not involved with the RIAA. Should they be punished as well?

You're not any different from from those you preach against.

Re: Why I'm a Pirate

#137

Post by egil »

olavk wrote: post #130
njs12345 wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the difference? In both cases the pirate is deriving an economic benefit without directly causing an economic cost.

If the pirate is enjoying the music, then clearly the pirate would be willing to pay something more than nothing to hear the music, if piracy were not easily avaliable.

Of course, but that implies that it is possible to pay for it. The copyright holders must adapt business models so potential customers can pay for a product they want, not some inferior DRM that hurts the customer. As long as piracy gives potential customers the best product, the incentive to pay is lost.

Re: Why I'm a Pirate

#138

Post by kamaal »

Ok,

Let me tell you why Piracy, it works most people who sell stuff them self want piracy to work.

To start with this let me tell you something. I didn't have genuine exposure to computers until I was 17, The first time I really worked with a computer seriously was in First semester engineering. Here in India it was not very easy to afford computers for guys like me. In the first semester I went to a friends home who had a PC. And he had Windows installed. I guess it was XP. Another friend said he is soon buying a PC and wanted the Win XP CD. I was flabbergasted to know how easy it was to just copy the CD and install the OS on an machine.

Only many days later did I learn, If Microsoft wanted they could stop piracy easily. But they don't! Why? Because they want people to be trained in it, right from college. So that when they get jobs their employers are forced to buy the OS they are trained to work in. Most of my friends also bought endless pirated game CD's. Here in Gandhinagar, Bangalore you can buy pirated CD's like peanuts on the footpath. Again, why don't they stop it? They can if they want! But why the hell don't they do it?

Now coming to Music and art piracy. Even here, upcoming musicians can't really expect people to shell out money for their work. Piracy acts as an easy distribution medium. Trust me piracy is a blessing in disguise for them.

Sorry to say, but you have all the power to stop this thing without stealing our liberties. But you don't.

Also expecting people to be morally upright and not get into Piracy is big BS according to me. Its like parking your Ferrari in a lonely street in the middle of the night, with the fuel tank full and keys inside. Its bound to be stolen, don't blame the world for it. You are to be blamed for not taking the right precautions when you actually could have!

If Microsoft bans Piracy in India. I assure you they will have to beg and plead with people to even make a single sale. People will be happy to buy a non OS installed computer and install Linux on it. They don't want that to happen, they know it, we know it.

This is why you can't end piracy.

Re: Why I'm a Pirate

#139

Post by matwood »

gavinballard wrote: post #16

This is a series of pretty poor arguments. The author seems to be looking for reasons to justify their own piracy and conflates anger at the approach of the "copyright industry" with infringement upon peoples' rights. One of the final lines of the article, in particular, is jarring: "If I'm a pirate, it's not to have some cheap music. It is because the time has come for you to fuck off." It's fine to be angry about t…

I agree with you. If you want to stick it to copyright holders and the industry then don't use those materials. Don't watch movies that are produced by the MPAA and don't listen to music that's produced by the RIAA.

Pirating only gives those on the other side the impression and ammunition to say 'we are creating great things that people steal we just need to force them pay.' Not using their works at all is the only way to win.

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