You know that little blip at the start of a movie that says "You wouldn't steal a car...Buying Pirated Movies is Stealing." The question I have to ask is this -- If you could quickly, easily, copy the car you wanted from your neighbor and at the same time didn't deprive your neighbor of the vehicle or any functionality, have you stolen anything? More importantly, if your neighbor came out and saw you coping the car and said, "Hey, I paid good money for that car, stop copying it." Would you care? I'd probably look at my neighbor and think he was a fool for spending so much money on something that is so readily available and copyable. How much would you pay for a blade of grass?
I have been told that I'm drawing an arbitrary moral boundary. I think that if I can pull TV off an antenna and watch my show at any time, I can also take a copy of that show, and hand it off to my neighbor. And further more, my neighbor should be able to take the copy received from me and give it to another neighbor. I should identify that I think "antenna" is a broad term. I don't mean just off the roof top, but also over cable, or satellite, or even ethernet/WiFi.
Now, I have heard the argument that this is stealing from some company here or there, but what has been deprive to them? Money? They broadcast it over the air waves, so what if you got it off cable or satellite?
In fact, they should be paying you money because you have given a copy of their show to someone who might not otherwise have even seen their presentation.
Now, you might think I condone taking something/anything without permission. I do not. My point is simple. In our current economy I think it is vitally important that we re-evaluate what is important and how much we are willing to pay for "things." As a society we will pay billions of dollars for things we don't need, and at the same time we complain that our roads are poor, our gas costs too much, there isn't enough time in the day, etc. Do you think the $60 a month you are paying for television is worth it? Market demands that you stop being stupid, and you evaluate the value of your television (or other crap you spend your money on besides food and shelter,) and demand that price be reasonable and affordable.
Capitalism without conscience is simply greed.
Everybody loves Robin Hood, and he was a pirate.
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2 comments:
go chris! good points!
Your bio says you work in technology so your response surprises me some.
If someone creates intellectual property that can be copied easily, then why would folks pay money if there were no rammifications. In China, some of the figures show a 90% piracy rate because it's not really enforced. So someone and/or a group creates something that took man-years and someone can just copy it for free, then the person who made it just loses that? Piracy discounts everything - time, education, talent, and money - that goes into making a product.
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