I'm sure they won't let that stop them from continuing to fund the erosion of civil rights worldwide. The assholes.
RIAA: Online Music Piracy Pales In Comparison to Offline Swapping
21–28 of 28 posts
Re: RIAA: Online Music Piracy Pales In Comparison to Offline Swapping
#22The sneakernet returns! I predict that this trend will only increase with time.
Re: RIAA: Online Music Piracy Pales In Comparison to Offline Swapping
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not sure exactly why, but we have a tendency to tie together three not necessarily connected issues. One is the question of whether there are viable alternative business models complimented by free distribution of traditionally copyright protected content. The second is whether we can sustain copyright in the digital age. The third is the moral questions. People are always mixing and matching from these. Objectin…
It can be relevant to answer the moral question with a business argument because the moral question often has economic underpinnings. The idea that copying is equivalent to theft is based on the idea that pirates would otherwise have bought the work, making piracy an indirect financial loss. Creating a new business model that accommodates piracy with equal or better returns resolves the fundamental moral issue. (Whet…
Sometimes, but very often it isn't.
If copying is equivalent to theft new business model that accommodates piracy with equal or better returns does not solve the moral problem. It solves the business problem.
If copying is equivalent to theft, the copyright owner has similar rights to property owners. Can a property owner have his stuff stolen if allowing it gives them some other financial advantage. What about the right to control how their work is sold? What about the right to stop selling? This isn't just theoretical. For example, Prince wants to exercise these rights.
Re: RIAA: Online Music Piracy Pales In Comparison to Offline Swapping
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
The reality is that the classical concept of copyright, where it is illegal to make a copy of a covered work without authorization from the rightsholder, cannot be enforced in a digital world. The further reality is that people are not motivated by the moral argument that consumer-facing copyright law is an intrinsic good that must be universally respected. Together, this means that no one is going to heed that aspec…
I'm not sure exactly why, but we have a tendency to tie together three not necessarily connected issues. One is the question of whether there are viable alternative business models complimented by free distribution of traditionally copyright protected content. The second is whether we can sustain copyright in the digital age. The third is the moral questions. People are always mixing and matching from these. Objectin…
>If new technology made rape much harder to prevent and prosecute, would we suggest women readjust their sexual expectations?
No, which is why I wrote:
>The further reality is that people are not motivated by the moral argument that consumer-facing copyright law is an intrinsic good that must be universally respected.
and discussed what happens when this collides with the impossibility of enforcement. In the case of rape, there would still be a widespread communal response to ostracize rapists, develop counter-technologies, etc., because normal people will not just sit idly by and accept the fact that they can't do anything about rapists. Somehow they just don't find the concept of lost sales as noble.
Copyright infringement is not the same as theft because theft forcibly removes a thing. Copyright protects against whole and independent copies that have no bearing on the physical item (whether a real, bound book or a string of digits stored on a disc). This is why people are charge with "copyright infringement" instead of "burglary" when they violate copyright law.
You're right that I didn't address each point independently and consistently. I didn't believe this is necessary; my post wasn't about the moral implications of copyright adherence or copyright violation or why some people believe it's theft, but about the practicalities and futility of Big Media's "fight against piracy". I think it's a legitimate mashup. The only moral argument I referenced was simply that people do not believe copyright should prevent them from downloading content, and that was only a sentence or so.
Re: RIAA: Online Music Piracy Pales In Comparison to Offline Swapping
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
It can be relevant to answer the moral question with a business argument because the moral question often has economic underpinnings. The idea that copying is equivalent to theft is based on the idea that pirates would otherwise have bought the work, making piracy an indirect financial loss. Creating a new business model that accommodates piracy with equal or better returns resolves the fundamental moral issue. (Whet…
Sometimes, but very often it isn't. If copying is equivalent to theft new business model that accommodates piracy with equal or better returns does not solve the moral problem. It solves the business problem. If copying is equivalent to theft, the copyright owner has similar rights to property owners. Can a property owner have his stuff stolen if allowing it gives them some other financial advantage. What about the r…
OK, but I don't understand where you're going with this. Some people think digital piracy is bad, maybe even "equivalent to theft" of real world artifacts. Most people familiar with technology don't agree with them. As such, our society is not obliged to grant these unnatural monopolistic "rights". Do you want to argue that copyright is equivalent to theft, or do you just want to point out that people who hold an alternate view of copyright are going to be upset when the laws inevitably catch up with society? Of course, there are some people who are going to be unhappy no matter what happens.
I recognize your point that even though the artists feel they are making equivalent or more money than previously, they can still feel wronged when something that is contrary to their concept of copyright occurs. But like I said, I'm not really sure where you intend to go from there.
Re: RIAA: Online Music Piracy Pales In Comparison to Offline Swapping
#26The sneakernet returns! I predict that this trend will only increase with time.
I'm pretty sure it's been the main conduit for viruses for a while now.
Re: RIAA: Online Music Piracy Pales In Comparison to Offline Swapping
#27While I take anything the RIAA says with a brick of salt, I am very curious how they know hard drive swapping is a bigger source of piracy than P2P. This boggles my mind. Is there some underground network of hard drives that I'm not aware of?
This type of piracy is pretty prevalent in military bases around the world. Someone has a flash drive or external hard drive full of movies/music/etc and they trade it amongst themselves.
Re: RIAA: Online Music Piracy Pales In Comparison to Offline Swapping
#28They seemed to have misplaced the "burning/ripping from others" section. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_copying_levy
In the US (where the RIAA operates), the levy only applies to CD-Rs that are labeled as being for "Music." Standard CD-Rs and DVD+/-Rs, and so forth aren't covered.