pirate software

[Agarash]

How do you guys feel about it? Mp3's, pirate DVD's, TV series, all kinds of things that are considered pirate. yay or nay.

 

[Quath]

I think that for the most part it is stealing but I also see some leeway in its use because it is such new technology.

For example, someone melts a tape I had bought back in the 1980's of Pink Floyd. Do I still own the songs? Can I download them and burn them to a CD to tplace my old tape?

I missed a TV movie on HBO that I subscribe to. Can I just download it off the net? Is that any different than owing TIVO?

I like watching the Simpsons, but I am very bad at keeping thee VCR scheduled to record it. Is it ok to download the show from the net? his one is more iffy than the previous one because a movie is commerical free on HBO. TV channels make money from commericals, so this one is closer to taking something without paying for it. It could be fixed if FOX offered the show over the internet and had it filled with commercials.

Quath

 

[Guest]

I like watching the Simpsons, but I am very bad at keeping thee VCR scheduled to record it. Is it ok to download the show from the net? his one is more iffy than the previous one because a movie is commerical free on HBO. TV channels make money from commericals, so this one is closer to taking something without paying for it. It could be fixed if FOX offered the show over the internet and had it filled with commercials.

Unless you're a Nielson family, they don't actually know whether you're watching a show or not. So downloading it doesn't actually lose them any money.

However, that's also like saying "if I were to steal something small from Wal-Mart, they wouldn't even notice, because they're such a big company." It's true, but is that really moral?

 

[Wertbag]

Computer software piracy numbers are some of the most over inflated numbers around. The industry claims multiple billions of dollars of lost sales, but they come to their number by counting the total number of pirated programs and multiply the value.
One main reason this doesn't work is that there are tons of people who would play a game for free, but either because they can't afford it (who can afford $100 a time for dozens of games?) or because the game itself isn't that interesting to them, they would never buy it. If it was impossible to pirate games then those people would simply not play.
I myself have a copy of a golf game on my PC. I don't even really like golf, but thought it would be a laugh to play around with for a few minutes. I would not be disappointed if I never got it, and definately would not have paid for it.

The people I do not like are the ones who try to turn a profit off piracy. The people burning off dozens of CDs and selling "collections" for $2 a disk. These people do it with DVDs, games, programs etc, and give often low quality versions that ruin the purchase.
Sounds like the majority are coming from the shopping destinations such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand and China. I believe if those sources were stopped then the industry would be well on its way to getting rid of the profit pirates.

 

[peace4all]

exactly.

If there was no way of getting all the free stuff i had, for free, I wouldnt pay money for it.

WHo is paying 69.99 for camtasia 2 when i use it once a month?

who is goign to pay hundreds for macromedia studio when i use it, 1 time a month? I mean cmon.

 

[Stejaka]

Sounds a lot like you're trying to rationalize the fault. If you do it, at least do it proudly. Pirating is great - especially when you're a poor college student with an Ethernet connection and hours upon hours to download whatever you want while you're studying. Pirating is great. Revel in it and it's wrongness. It truely is a victimless crime. Some say prostitution, I say pirating.

 

[Quath]

I think that piracy does show some missed marketing potential. For example, in peace4all's case, would he rent camtasia 2 or macromedia studio since he rarely uses it? Maybe, and that would be a way for the company to generate money.

I also think that the technology rights are not well defined. For example, a kid downloaded 4 movies to his grandfather's computer. The grandfather was asked to settle out of court for about $4000. He refused and is being sued for a lot (I think $200,000). He said that 3 of the 4 movies were movies they already owned on DVD.

Here is another problem. Say I bought a book. I read it and passed it to a friend. He reads it and passes it to a friend. Book owners do not have a problem with that because it is hard to police and because books do not pass around too fast. However, Amazon.com sells used books a few days after a new book comes out. Book sellers are complaining because they now sell fewer books and make a lot less money.

Now imagine this with music. I could set up a huge music library and let my friends play over the network so long as two people do not play the same sone at the same time. In this case, it is just like letting them borrow a song I bought. Yet it shows the problem of high speed sharing.

So this will have to be addressed at some point.

Quath

 

[cuiq]

I switched to linux because I no longer wanted to use a pirated copy of windows xp, and because I wanted better security, control, and in many many cases better software.

However I found this thought interesting. Why is it that if I download a television show from the internet I can be sued, but if I build my own DVR using MythTV I can record all of the shows I love for free (that is, without subscription fees, which is required with TiVO & others). Or simply use my VCR to do the same thing. These are shows that will eventually be offered as DVD Season X. Which you have to pay $20 just to get some extras you may only watch once if at all.

While I don't think people should pirate, I do think that the movie and music industry definitely needs to consider offering better content. Most people don't want the whole cd because most the songs usually suck, and why should I pay for a movie that even the industry knows was terrible (gigli or glitter...just to name a few of course insert your own most terrible movie here.)

Anyway while I have more thoughts on this subject I'll leave it here for the moment.



Peace