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The Pirate Bay's Peter Sunde: It's evolution, stupid

wired.co.uk

21–30 of 89 posts

Re: The Pirate Bay's Peter Sunde: It's evolution, stupid

#21
The question of intellectual property is moot. It is impossible to adequately police teh intertubes without outlawing encryption.

Why do the media companies insist on continuing to attempt the impossible, instead of cutting their losses and investing in distribution infrastructure? By pursuing the kind of ham-fisted, extra-legal "piracy fighting" that the article describes, they are doing themselves a huge disservice. Strong-arming internet users, interfering with judicial processes, and pushing unpopular bills doesn't do a whole lot to stop piracy, but it does promote the view of the media industry as a mafia.

"The minister (illegally) told the prosecutor what had happened which forced him to raid TPB -- only a few weeks after sending out that memo about how legal it was." [Article]

Every time something like this happens, more people who in-principle support the idea of intellectual property become hostile towards media lobbies and companies they represent. Instead of trying to win the "hearts and minds" of internet users, they are turning "convenience pirates" ideological and legitimizing the very fears that push internet rights-activists in the same camp as the "ideological pirates".

Re: The Pirate Bay's Peter Sunde: It's evolution, stupid

#22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Purchasing and downloading apps could not be easier. I wouldn't be so fast here. The app store limits availability by country. For example, you cannot legally buy games here in Brazil on the app store [1]. Which is a huge market. I pirate a lot of stuff, and almost all of it I couldn't possibly have legally acquired. If pirating didn't exist, I would have never listened to Weird Al Yankovic's songs (I spent months w…

>I pirate a lot of stuff, and almost all of it I couldn't possibly have legally acquired. If pirating didn't exist, I would have never listened to weird al's songs, nor watched movies banned in my country for political reasons. This still isn't a good argument. Justifying the means by which you acquired content still doesn't make it morally right or legal. "But I can't get it without piracy!" still doesn't give you a…

I think you are missing the point.

You are not seeing the global issue, rather the individual one.

Pirating is already a reality, that you can not change (much like drugs) and the entertainment music is the only one that is missing out by not being able to adapt.

In today's reality, if the only possibility you give people to not pirate is abstain, well then you are begging for more piracy.

Re: The Pirate Bay's Peter Sunde: It's evolution, stupid

#23
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While your assertion may very well be true, the link you provided is not, in any way, any kind of proof. There's nothing in there - at all - to support your claim that "app store piracy is a huge problem". Do we have any actual figures to support this claim? I highly doubt its validity, you see.

I would also like to see some proof that piracy is a huge problem. Files being available and free for download on the 'black market' does not mean that people who would pirate said files would otherwise pay for those files. It would be nice if someone did a scientific study...

You're in luck:

https://torrentfreak.com/bittorrent-piracy-doesnt-affect-us-... news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3577076

Re: The Pirate Bay's Peter Sunde: It's evolution, stupid

#24

The question of intellectual property is moot. It is impossible to adequately police teh intertubes without outlawing encryption. Why do the media companies insist on continuing to attempt the impossible, instead of cutting their losses and investing in distribution infrastructure? By pursuing the kind of ham-fisted, extra-legal "piracy fighting" that the article describes, they are doing themselves a huge disservice…

They seeks to maximize profit, not become the best distributor on the planet.

Re: The Pirate Bay's Peter Sunde: It's evolution, stupid

#25

The question of intellectual property is moot. It is impossible to adequately police teh intertubes without outlawing encryption. Why do the media companies insist on continuing to attempt the impossible, instead of cutting their losses and investing in distribution infrastructure? By pursuing the kind of ham-fisted, extra-legal "piracy fighting" that the article describes, they are doing themselves a huge disservice…

They seeks to maximize profit, not become the best distributor on the planet.

Re: The Pirate Bay's Peter Sunde: It's evolution, stupid

#26
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would also like to see some proof that piracy is a huge problem. Files being available and free for download on the 'black market' does not mean that people who would pirate said files would otherwise pay for those files. It would be nice if someone did a scientific study...

You really need scientific study? Just look at Napster. When something is easily available for free, the masses will choose it over paying for the exact same thing. Wouldn't you?

Do you?

You are demonstrably incorrect. If you were right, there would be almost zero purchases of anything available on Pirate Bay. As it is, Hollywood is raking in cash.

Re: The Pirate Bay's Peter Sunde: It's evolution, stupid

#27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do people always resort to the same argument ("stop buying") as if it were a solution? Isn't it obvious by now that it's not a solution and it's not going to happen? Voting with your wallet works when you can stop paying one company and go to its competitor. But if they all get together and decide that you have to do it their way or you're screwed, then guess what's going to happen? The majority will find the bes…

"Why do people always resort to the same argument ("stop buying") as if it were a solution? Isn't it obvious by now that it's not a solution and it's not going to happen?" Whenever we have discussions about companies violating the GNU and people say "just don't use GNU software", I say the same thing. But the funny thing is, the same people that are fine with pirating are against essentially the same thing with the G…

> But the funny thing is, the same people that are fine with pirating are against essentially the same thing with the GNU license.

They could be against it because it hinders sharing, not because it violates copyright.

Re: The Pirate Bay's Peter Sunde: It's evolution, stupid

#28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do people always resort to the same argument ("stop buying") as if it were a solution? Isn't it obvious by now that it's not a solution and it's not going to happen? Voting with your wallet works when you can stop paying one company and go to its competitor. But if they all get together and decide that you have to do it their way or you're screwed, then guess what's going to happen? The majority will find the bes…

"Why do people always resort to the same argument ("stop buying") as if it were a solution? Isn't it obvious by now that it's not a solution and it's not going to happen?" Whenever we have discussions about companies violating the GNU and people say "just don't use GNU software", I say the same thing. But the funny thing is, the same people that are fine with pirating are against essentially the same thing with the G…

Quote: "But the funny thing is, the same people that are fine with pirating are against essentially the same thing with the GNU license"

You probably have cause and effect reversed. I'd wager that one of the biggest reasons for their wanting an enforcement of the terms of the GNU license is to show the big companies what it feels like to be in a situation where your choice is limited to one of (a) stick to the terms, or (b) don't use

Re: The Pirate Bay's Peter Sunde: It's evolution, stupid

#29
post #3

It is often claimed that piracy is the entertainment industry's own fault--that they need to evolve to embrace digital media, and because they haven't, people are forced to turn to piracy. There may be a bit of truth to that argument, but if you look at the Apple App Store, you'll find a damning rebuttal. The App Store has embraced digital distribution. Purchasing and downloading apps could not be easier. It's certai…

I don't think it's that simple.

Time and reliability are strong factors as well.

If the paid service saves you time, then yeah, it'll get lots of use. What's $2 compared the time you might spend to track it down elsewhere? Let alone a clean version of it. Piracy just isn't that reliable over a long period of time. Your sources could be shut down at any moment, or even lead to unintended consequences if you're using some of the more shady websites out there.

I'd happily pay for content to get those stronger guarantees. To immediately find that thing that was recommended to me. To not have to question its integrity. And to continue to do the same thing for the next few years without needing to learn something new when I'm not ready to.

Unless you're bored / want a challenge. Boredom is a reason people pirate that's probably not really worth solving.

Re: The Pirate Bay's Peter Sunde: It's evolution, stupid

#30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do people always resort to the same argument ("stop buying") as if it were a solution? Isn't it obvious by now that it's not a solution and it's not going to happen? Voting with your wallet works when you can stop paying one company and go to its competitor. But if they all get together and decide that you have to do it their way or you're screwed, then guess what's going to happen? The majority will find the bes…

"Why do people always resort to the same argument ("stop buying") as if it were a solution? Isn't it obvious by now that it's not a solution and it's not going to happen?" Whenever we have discussions about companies violating the GNU and people say "just don't use GNU software", I say the same thing. But the funny thing is, the same people that are fine with pirating are against essentially the same thing with the G…

You don't need music or movies to live. If they all decide to do it, just stop buying all together.

Correction: you don't need them to survive. They are, however, a part of everyone's lives nowadays. We all grew up listening to music and watching movies. It would require tremendous external pressure (such as war or plague) to change that. Maslow's Pyramid and all that jazz.

Music is so cheap. All of the original demands 10 years ago have been met. Guess what? piracy is worse than ever. It reminds me why you never negotiate with terrorists.

I'm not sure what demands were made 10 years ago, but I can tell you that I, as a customer, am far from satisfied. I want to be able to

1) buy digital music (MP3, OGG, I don't care) in an online store

2) access that store via HTTP(S) using my browser, not some proprietary bloatware

3) find a variety of songs in the store, have lots of stuff to choose

4) download that music to any device I have, as many times as I want

5) be able to play that music without being connected to the Internet

6) do all of the above regardless of the fact that I don't live in US, UK or Germany, to name a few favorite countries

When those conditions are met, you'll have people like me -- people who want to try buying the content instead of pirating -- try to switch to these new services. The piracy will start declining, albeit very, very slowly.

People have had a freaking decade to get used to getting stuff for free, because the industry refused to adapt. Worse, the industry is still resisting the change and refusing to evolve. These things have their own momentum and inertia. It would be extreme optimism to expect a change to happen overnight, once good alternatives are available. As things stand, it's beyond extreme optimism to expect that change -- it's completely ridiculous.

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