Piracy

[SLK021]

With knowledge comes power.

If you use linux you are probably pissed off at M$, our monopolistic world and you like your freedom served open-sourced. You use your computer and internet the way you want. You could get and find anything you want, its a matter of time and right keywords in search.

What are your thoughts on piracy?

We all do it, morally its wrong but the web and hard drives are ours. Why not share? But I'm not in a position where my salary depends on a software that I designed in my sleepless nights. How ever the crime is big or small its a part of our lives. Where will it end? Total freedom, court or "what do you care what I share"?

[brucecadieux]

No we all don't do it.

In fact I use open source software because I don't participate in piracy and don't want to.

My theory is this.

If a company chooses to charge money for it's software and you don't think it is worth "paying for" then it isn't worth using.

[swerdna]

I think piracy breaks a social contract that we need to keep as part of a society we understand and support.

I don't agree with a lot of things but I go with many of those things because the society that I live in and get sustenance and comfort from, that society want those things to be the way that they are.

Piracy is wrong and we don't support it here.

[caf4926]

Soapbox or not. We don't want to see this thread develop in to a HowTo on the subject!

FYI:

morally its wrong

More Importantly. I think you will find Legally it is wrong.

[j_xavier]

i suspect that the tried and true "make it about morality" instead of what it really is about will continue.

it's about money, pure and simple.

the media companies will be happy if we pay for a seperate copy of <insert your favorite> for our home entertainment center, ipod, cellphone, car video player, laptop, xbox, etc.... as long as it's only the purchaser that watches/listens... nobody else.. they have to get their own.

they are attempting to re-define the product, and it's disturbing.

i wonder if calligraphers had lawyers when the printing press was made.

[CloudLion_ca]

Originally Posted by SLK021

With knowledge comes power.

What are your thoughts on piracy?

We all do it, morally its wrong but the web and hard drives are ours. Why not share?

Forget "my" thoughts on Piracy... ask Microsoft's pie-cutting marketing teams what they "use" to think about piracy when they leveraged aggressive guerilla-penetration programs directed at students, teachers, young professionals, and high profile industry figure-heads.

Microsoft Exec Admits That Company Benefits From Piracy - Vista Forums

Back when 5 speed bicycles were considered a posh way to get around as a middle manager in China. Way back when monsters owned and operated Romania and it wasn't run secretly by a bunch of under-paid over qualified evil-super-geniuses; some of us remember GW Basic. That was a Microsoft product which didn't require IBM hardware. The great news about that product: It ran on any old half baked 8086 or 286. I seem to remember it got around the west coast and east coast really fast at colleges, universities, high schools, and community computer clubs. I remember a friend who ported some game called Santa Pavaria, or something along those lines, from a Radio Shack TRS-80 to a PC written in GW Basic. He didn't buy GW Basic; but he is a successful programmer and he subscribes to MS's super-hero packages. If you want the real story on how Corel, Borland, and a few others bought the farm; ask Microsoft's guerilla-marketing experts.

The "Patriots" wouldn't have won the American Revolution if Microsoft had of lent the British two or three of those guerilla-marketing gurus. Microsoft would have invented the tea-bag on a string. The patriots would have been tossing IBM's tea into the sea and been stung up, and out, on the MS brand three years later.

Linux isn't about piracy it's about an idea to introduce a level playing field for innovation and opportunity for everyone now. Everyone can include the big players and little players. Eventually MS might get off it's ass and introduce it's own variant of Linux into the playing field. The good news is it will be open source. We all might benefit and MS can sell us MS Windows for Linux along with MS Office for Linux. I'll be happy to give Microsoft 25 or 30 dollars if it's better than everything else I'm using. I'm assuming the DOJ won't break up Microsoft and that Microsoft won't manage to pull a "Gibson" on us all to end up taking over the world. If Microsoft takes over the world it can change the name of Redmond into Microsoftopia or Los Vista. Piracy... Bah... the issue isn't really about piracy... piracy is just another way to gain market share. Piracy is a marketing channel where a company doesn't have to waste money to make stupid TV commercials that sell lies to the public. Piracy works for the entertainment industry also. I know a math professor who didn't know anything about Jazz music until he started downloading mp3 samples. The old fart has more Blue Note DVDs than I care to try counting and he pays for online music subscriptions. He is now doing the same with Blue Grass music. In reality I'd wager long-term bets that the everyone wins with a bit of freebooting; here and there. Thank God Apple isn't trying to give away samples of OS X! That might be the beginning of the end of the world as we know it.

> What are your thoughts on piracy? We all do it

huh? we all do not.

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natural_pilot

[Siminin]

I support piracy. If there wasn't piracy i probably wouldn't have heard all the bands I like. I would have ended up with 2-3 albums in my PC and not interested in music.
Well if it wasn't for piracy windows wouldn't have gotten the market share it has. But then again i don't care about market share - I care about how good is linux. On my linux installs i also don't have pirated stuff because i use opensource apps.
Oh, and I don't fell like selling my kidney to buy the overprised Microsoft, Adobe, antivirus and etc. software

[Chrysantine]

Originally Posted by caf4926

FYI: More Importantly. I think you will find Legally it is wrong.

Actually no, piracy for personal use is not illegal here. However you can still be sued in civil courts for breach of copyright - this however is not a criminal case as such (as opposed to being tried as a criminal case (violence, drunk driving etc.))

Naturally this varies from country-to-country.

As for piracy, I accept piracy when it's for educational purposes - for example people pirating Photoshop to learn how to use it, then apply this knowledge to get a job or perhaps improve their skills at home. As long as the business buys the software and you do not make money out of your Photoshop work (selling it) I find it completely acceptable.

Of course selling pirated software is a big no-no and it should always illegal.

[JohanAR]

I think redistribution of digital products, aka piracy, is quite a complex question.

Can't really agree that it's "morally wrong". Moral is very subjective and governed by culture. Well, yes, if you want a certain CD, you like the band/label and you can afford it, it's probably morally wrong in most cultures to avoid paying by downloading it off the web instead.


Either way, no need to pirate music now that there's Spotify (though last.fm becoming a pay-service was a bit of a disappointment)

What really bothers me with movies is that I have to pay in advance and there's no way in hell I can get a refund if the movie turns out to be ****. A film can seem really cool when you watch the trailer, start out well but halfway you realize "oh my god did I just pay to see this ****?". Legally they're of course allowed to do whatever they want, but morally I think it's more like them stealing from me. I mean, if I go to a restaurant and order something off the menu that sounds good but instead they serve me a **** sandwich, at least I can say "go cook me something edible or I'm outta here, because I'm not paying to eat this ****"

Computer games isn't much of a problem for me now that I'm using Linux hehe. I can admit that I occasionally downloaded a new computer game when I used Windows, played for a few hours and then uninstalled it as soon as I got bored. Morally, I don't consider that much different from playing a demo or open beta.

But the worst of them all (from my perspective) is being forced to pay for Windows. I don't want Windows, I've never liked it, but to play aforementioned games or use Photoshop (sorry, but OSS doesn't even compare to Photoshop+Camera Raw+Bridge) I have been forced to use it. Luckily I've been a student at a technological university so Microsoft have been providing me with free copies of all their OS:es and developer products so I didn't have to pay for it

And to my defense, I might add that I did purchase a lot of games too. I still rent movies, buy DVDs or go to the cinema at least 80% of the times I watch something, and the remaining 20% is mostly old or foreign movies/series that I can't buy here anyway (or movies I suspected would suck. So even if I'm technically a pirate I don't think I'm doing anything too morally wrong.

Things used to be different though. I used to be a poor student and could barely afford food at the end of the month. The only options I had was either piracy no movies/music/games at all. Someone who hasn't been in that situation might argue that I would have to go with the latter, but then we start going into philosophical / politic grounds. Personally I think all people have the rights to a place to live, food to eat, personal safety and social inclusion. Now if everybody could have some entertainment, even though some might not afford the prices, I would say that's a good thing. If I could virtually costless duplicate a loaf of bread, I'd be happy because I could end starvation rather than feel sorry for the bakers. But I suppose that's just me..


To sum things up, I'm all for the kind of piracy where someone downloads a product they wouldn't otherwise pay for. I'm of the belief that if someone thinks that they to some degree wants a certain product, but they can't afford it or it's simply not worth the asking price, then downloading a pirate copy of it does not cause monetary loss to the producers. Therefore I think it's somewhat ridiculous to compare digital piracy with stealing and when RIAA claims 1 download = 1 lost sale I can't help but laugh at them.


On the other hand, I think that the problem with piracy is that people are rarely capable of deciding accurately when it's justifiable to download and when they ought to open their wallets. Even if you convince yourself that you want to support good musicians, authors of programs you use daily and talented movie makers it might be too tempting to get the "free" version. It's the same thing with organic food and other environmentally friendly things.. Even though a lot of people know it's stupid to destroy the environment, they'll continue contributing towards it as long as the alternative includes some kind of sacrifice (for example by being more expensive)


Sorry for the wall of text, but once I begun writing I couldn't really stop halfway I wanted to go into other subtopics but I doubt many have got even this far..