Why I'm a Pirate • Hacker News Board

Re: Why I'm a Pirate

#171

Post by bmelton » Wed, Jan 18, 2012, 2:08 PM UTC

edw519 wrote: post #143

OP, if this is just a whine about how unfair the world is and how special you are, then fine. But if it's an attempt to make something happen (stop SOPA), then it's not working and is in fact counterproductive, so please just STFU. You are offsetting the good hard work of so many others trying to make the right things happen. Make no mistake about it, we have reached the point where the best course of action is proba…

"Pirating is not right. Most people would agree with that, too."

The biggest problem I see today is that there are so many people who aren't even bothering to justify pirating, and instead insist that it is natural, good and just -- not just as a means to get access to content they otherwise wouldn't be able to, but for everything.

To draw my line in the sand, I have no problems with people pirating works they simply don't have any other access to. American shows that aren't broadcast overseas, for example; pirate away.

I don't personally do it, but I don't have any problems with those that do. Others, however, simply incur piracy as a matter of course. Looking for a new album to listen to? Limewire. Looking for a movie? Pirate Bay.

While I don't mind downvotes, that I repeatedly get voted down while suggesting that yes, even though copyright is wrong, it is the law, and people should either respect it or engage in civil disobedience (which is a public affair) instead of just casually pirating every piece of content they consume, it is telling of the more and more common mentality (or at least is becoming more common on HN.)

Re: Why I'm a Pirate

#172

Post by thomasgerbe » Wed, Jan 18, 2012, 2:09 PM UTC

cientifico wrote: post #24

I wan't to buy "How I Meet your Mother" on English with spanish subtitles. I am from Spain and live on Germany. The only option to get the content I am looking for is through megavideo/piratebay. With the films, happen the same. If I use my iTunes spanish account, the content is delayed 6 months, no tv shows and all of them in spanish. If I use a German account, I only get German content. I pay spotify premium since…

Or you could just not watch it? It's not like your life would be worse off or there aren't alternative culture you could consume.

Re: Why I'm a Pirate

#173

Post by hxa7241 » Wed, Jan 18, 2012, 2:09 PM UTC

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…

If one rejects copyright, there is no 'stealing' of things of value, there is only copying -- since the work to produce things would be paid for through other means than restrictions.

If someone argues against copyright, you cannot defend it by invoking 'stealing'. The 'stealing' here is not removing of anything in any normal sense. It is infringement of, or disobedience of, copyright -- which of course would not exist if there were no copyright. There is no basic harm.

You might say it would be difficult to pay for production with other economic arrangements. But that is a matter of comparing economic efficiency; it has nothing to do with stealing.

Re: Why I'm a Pirate

#174

Post by ThomPete » Wed, Jan 18, 2012, 2:11 PM UTC

technoslut wrote: post #167

ThomPete wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well then they have a god given right to not digitalize it.

You're right but do you really want to return to the 90s when CDs cost $20 each and you had to carry around a 100 CDs instead of an mp3 player? Or to the 80s when we used lo-fi tapes instead? The labels would love this. It shouldn't be required of just the RIAA to use technology properly but everyone. If someone makes music you like, and they're not attempting to rob, respect them. $1 is not much for a song you enjoy…

I don't care what the labels do. If they fell they cant make money that way then they should probably stay out of the digital business model.

But the truth of course is that they saw huge benefits throughout the years as it became cheaper and cheaper for them to produce and distribute the music.

Where is your sympathy for all the truckers, records store people etc. that lost their jobs because of digitalization?

I personally have more sympathy for them, the musicians will always have the music. Whether they will be able to live from it is another thing.

The smart ones will.

Re: Why I'm a Pirate

#175

Post by Tyrannosaurs » Wed, Jan 18, 2012, 2:11 PM UTC

alextgordon wrote: post #153

city41 wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they are not willing to pay for it, then they have no right to enjoy it. In the end, it always boils down to pirates being spoiled. People never pirate to make ends meet. There is no digital content that is essential to anyone's life. People pirate because they want to be entertained but they don't want to pay for it.

So then, what if I am willing to pay for it? I would very much like to watch US TV shows. Preferably on a computer, since I don't have a TV (but on TV would be a good effort too!) Unfortunately, somebody has decided that I am not allowed to. If try to buy Hulu Plus, I am greeted with a nice message telling me to fuck off back to where I came from. Same with Netflix. Hell, I can't even watch a 2 minute clip of the Dai…

To me this - the market is not meeting the demand - is the single best argument.

If something is available legally and at a reasonable price (by which I mean not only available second hand for £100 as a collectable, rather than "99p for an MP3, that's outrageous" etc...) I either buy it or accept I won't have it.

If it's not available I have no real issue with getting it illegally.

Frankly if the media companies adopted day and date releases worldwide for content and worked to make their back catalogues widely available through convenient means (by which iTunes, Amazon, Netflix and so on count) a lot of the best arguments in favour of piracy dry up.

Re: Why I'm a Pirate

#176

Post by pingswept » Wed, Jan 18, 2012, 2:12 PM UTC

loup-vaillant wrote: post #48

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…

> you're stealing something of value that someone worked hard to produce. What exactly is stolen? Certainly not the piece of music, film, or knowledge: unlike spaghetti, those are abundant, non-conflicting goods. Nor the exclusivity, for it is only destroyed. Nor secrecy or privacy, for the piece of knowledge or art is public already. This is not theft. This is infringing a state granted monopoly. It doesn't make it…

"infringing a state granted monopoly" is the best description I've heard yet. Thanks for that.

Re: Why I'm a Pirate

#177

Post by route66 » Wed, Jan 18, 2012, 2:14 PM UTC

ThomPete wrote: post #135

dorian-graph wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I see that you are the maker of FinalTouch. Where do you offer the free downloads?

Re: Why I'm a Pirate

#178

Post by city41 » Wed, Jan 18, 2012, 2:16 PM UTC

alextgordon wrote: post #153

city41 wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they are not willing to pay for it, then they have no right to enjoy it. In the end, it always boils down to pirates being spoiled. People never pirate to make ends meet. There is no digital content that is essential to anyone's life. People pirate because they want to be entertained but they don't want to pay for it.

So then, what if I am willing to pay for it? I would very much like to watch US TV shows. Preferably on a computer, since I don't have a TV (but on TV would be a good effort too!) Unfortunately, somebody has decided that I am not allowed to. If try to buy Hulu Plus, I am greeted with a nice message telling me to fuck off back to where I came from. Same with Netflix. Hell, I can't even watch a 2 minute clip of the Dai…

Content creators have rights around their content. One of those rights is how it is distributed, and who gets to use it. Pirating a TV show because you feel it should be available in your country is no different from say violating the GPL. Often GPL'ed software is misguided and would serve everyone better under a different license, but it still remains the author's right to choose the GPL.

Why do you seek out and watch the content made by people you violently despise?

Re: Why I'm a Pirate

#179

Post by drstrangevibes » Wed, Jan 18, 2012, 2:16 PM UTC

A lot of the pro copyright guys dont know what the purpose of copyright IS. So before you argue please research what you are arguing in favour of. In short copyright originated with the statute of Anne 1709 to protect authors from the publishers profiting from their work, the statute main purpose was to promote learning by allowing creators to recoup the expensive cost of publishing a) the publishers are now ripping off creators, b) publishing is not longer expensive c) placing easily accessible SCIENCE papers under DRM prohibits learning

Re: Why I'm a Pirate

#180

Post by rdtsc » Wed, Jan 18, 2012, 2:17 PM UTC

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.

> be willing to pay something more than nothing to hear the music.

In this case $0 or even a negative value amount is what you can plug into something. Why? Think about artists that tried pay-what-you-want model. A lot of people pay $0. Some pay $0.10. But a lot pay $0.

However, what they pay with is with their time and attention.

I used to know someone who managed a movie theater. He would sneak us into movies quite often. Good and bad. And quite often after coming out of the movie I felt like wanting "my free back".

Let's say an artist is unknown and I am a customer that has quite a few connection ( a blog with a large following perhaps ). Then what would make sense is for me to pay a negative amount ( the artist would pay me to spend my time listening to his new cool record in the hopes that I might spread the news about it ).