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Why I'm a Pirate

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Re: Why I'm a Pirate

#251

Post by sp332 »

wglb wrote: post #230
ensignavenger wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I have sole control over what is done with that which I create." Actually, the US Constitution only allows for limited control, not unlimited control. The Constitution requires Fair Use exceptions to your control of your created works.

While your conclusion is correct, isn't it other later case law that permitted Fair Use? I don't think that is actually in the constitution.

It's not in the constitution, but it is codified in law (Copyright Act of 1976, I think). But it was common law for a long time before that.

Re: Why I'm a Pirate

#252

Post by wwwtyro »

Spoom wrote: post #240
wwwtyro wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When people propose that copyright be abolished, they are saying, if effect, that anybody who produces a creative work immediately forfeits any right to control it and that any random person can come along and freely enjoy the benefits of that work and also freely reproduce and distribute that work. I could not disagree more. If someone creates a work of art, they only own the physical manifestation of that creatio…

While I realize that it can't happen any time soon due to the current businesses that rely on copyright protection, there have been alternatives proposed that work without it, like The Digital Art Auction ( http://tdaa.digitalproductions.co.uk/history/essay.htm ) and Street Performer Protocol ( http://www.schneier.com/paper-street-performer.html , blacked out due to SOPA as of writing). Vastly simplified, they descri…

I strongly approve, and I think they are probably part of the way things will be done in the future. Kickstarter is already making great forays into this field.

It's serendipitous that you bring this up, as I am currently working on a startup that uses this very method!

Re: Why I'm a Pirate

#253

Post by lemming »

grellas wrote: post #212

Creative effort - or at at least any that is truly worthy of the name - takes tears, and sweat, and blood. We can marvel at the output of an artist, or a writer, or a composer, or a film maker and yet fail to focus on the years of toil that often preceded that work. And I am not here speaking of some isolated genius. I still remember the days when I was so dissatisfied with my lack of writing skills that I decided to…

... I was so dissatisfied with my lack of writing skills ... only to wind up, in time, with some degree competence in that area ...

And a total mastery of the art of understatement, clearly. Thank you for your contributions to this community, I am humbled by your continued willingness to invest time to improve it and your success at doing so.

Re: Why I'm a Pirate

#254

Post by mikeash »

bmelton wrote: post #247
mikeash wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, let's look at the various outcomes. There are, I think, three possible actions to consider: A) taking and paying B) taking and not paying C) not taking. For a restaurant, we get: A) restaurant benefits B) restaurant loses C) restaurant suffers no effect either way. For piracy, we get: A) creator benefits B) creator suffers no effect either way C) creator suffers no effect either way. Consider what happens if I…

If piracy takes root as something that people 'should' do, then B) in your piracy example leads to the same outcome as B) in your restaurant example. It deprives them of any income, and removes the incentive and ability for them to produce further content as a means of living in the future. That deprives all of their future contributions and damages the commons. In summation, at scale , the outcome for both B) scenar…

(B) at scale only leads to the same outcome if a substantial number are converted from (A). If people are only converted from (C) then the outcomes are completely different.

In short, the effect of piracy depends entirely on whether the pirates are potential customers. The effect of dine-and-dash does not depend on that. This is, I believe, an extremely significant difference.

Re: Why I'm a Pirate

#255

Post by burgerbrain »

HeyImAlex wrote: post #188
rdtsc wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you're stealing something of value that someone worked hard to produce. How is it stealing if they can still have that something? You compose a song. I copy that song. You still have that song. If I'd taken away a recorder with your only master copy of it, then I would have stolen it.

>How is it stealing if they can still have that something? Because that's not a decision you should get to make. The cost associated with creating most things isn't in raw materials alone but man hours that went in to produce it, and the author is entitled to ask for whatever they think their hard work and their end product are worth. Is the benefit of getting that product not worth the price they're asking? Here's a…

As a free and sentient being, I reserve the right to make whatever decisions I please.

Re: Why I'm a Pirate

#256

Post by biot »

gnaritas wrote: post #241
biot wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have a right to eat food. You don't have a right to walk into a restaurant and eat without paying. I don't have the right to take your food. You have a right to exercise. You don't have the right to walk into Gold's Gym and use their facilities without paying. I don't have the right to enter your home and use the equipment in the basement. You have a right to have mutually consensual sex with someone else without…

You've confused physical property with intellectual property. Depriving someone of the physical immediately victimizes them, copying their intellectual property doesn't, it's not the same thing.

Please read my post in the context of the one I replied to.

Re: Why I'm a Pirate

#257

Post by billpatrianakos »

How about "how I just don't want to pay While trying to play it off like I have some moral/political agenda".

This post hurts the pro-copyright people, anti-copyright people, and all people with brains.

Edit: I think I was too harsh with that last line. But my point still stands that this article is doing more harm than good. There are a lot of people who write these rants but do it for the wrong reasons and try to play it off like they're some sort of freedom fighter.

Re: Why I'm a Pirate

#258

Post by ThomPete »

technoslut wrote: post #206
ThomPete wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 pe…

I'm trying to understand your point. Are you for digital music being available or not? >Where is your sympathy for all the truckers, records store people etc. that lost their jobs because of digitalization? Of course I do have sympathy for them but humanity has to move forward. We are living in a disruptive age – much like those in the beginning of the Industrial Age. Humanity will need to adjust. This really is anot…

So basically what you are saying is that the truckers should get with the times but the artist shouldn't?

We live as you say in a disruptive age and this applies in no small part to artists.

As with regards to the starving artists.

Let me remind you that the kind of artists that actually have spent many years becoming good have always been struggling and always needed to do live gigs.

They are very different than those the labels push to become big stars today.

What i mean with they will alway have art is this.

The trucker will loose their job and that's pretty much it. The artists will always be able to do art whether they get paid for it or not.

Re: Why I'm a Pirate

#259

Post by burgerbrain »

ZenPsycho wrote: post #78
NSMeta wrote: post #31

I bought all the albums of my favourite performer and don't want to scratch the CDs or waste my time to rip the music from CDs, hence I download them from the web. Does that count as piracy?

yes it does.

No it does not. He has a license for that media.

Re: Why I'm a Pirate

#260

Post by ThomPete »

hxa7241 wrote: post #234
grellas wrote: post #212

Creative effort - or at at least any that is truly worthy of the name - takes tears, and sweat, and blood. We can marvel at the output of an artist, or a writer, or a composer, or a film maker and yet fail to focus on the years of toil that often preceded that work. And I am not here speaking of some isolated genius. I still remember the days when I was so dissatisfied with my lack of writing skills that I decided to…

> The point is that this is my decision. Granting the creator such rights takes them away from everyone else. Why is that justified? Why should one person, the creator, be able to tell other people what they can and cannot do? > In that case, anybody can use it, replicate it, seek to profit from it, claim it as his own, or whatever, all without my having any say whatever in that process. This is a common approach, bu…

Exactly

you could also ask

What if the instrument creators started to license the use of their guitars, drums and people had to pay royalties.

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