Making piracy right

[RCBH928]

interesting input .

I thought most people would be highly against piracy . I do not pirate because I am broke , I pirate because its more convenient for me.

1)TV here does not put on the shows/movies I want, there is no Tivo or the like. You want the show you go buy it , or rent it (which is usually pirated any way). Thats it. If I buy it I believe I am over paying as it is very easy to reach $30 per season or more. So if I wanted to watch Desperate Housewives , it will cost me $240 for the full show. Is this fair?

2) I am not allowed to sign on Netflix, Amazon instant video, or Hulu because I am NOT in the USA. My only option is iTunes, while I did say the rent thing works, but other times you might as well buy the physical DVD because its the same price. I will have to add that iTunes forces you to buy Apple TV to able to watch the show on your TV. Another disadvantage.

3) Purchasing the retro games costs too much in shipping for me and takes time until it gets here. Sometimes I do not own the console for it , so it just does not make sense. Also I am not looking to keep it as part of my collection.

You see all those points and more proves that pirating is just more convenient . On the other hand, I do pay for GOG and Steam. Now this is better than pirating, why?

Your games are guaranteed to work, I am allowed to buy off them without regional restrictions, prices are really fair , it is legal , no shipping fees and no time waiting for your entertainment to be here. It is there the minute you pay for it.

Of course this is only a discussion and no one should feel upset or angered by it. I just wanted to hear from others what do they think.

@Ivo
I agree that buying used supports the developer this is my idea. IF I see a game/movie for $20 and I know that down the road I can sel it for $15 , I am more likely to buy it than pay same price and there is no used market for it. I will pay $20 today and in 3 months it will be worth $3 , no use. Same idea is applied in purchasing a car, a lot of people will not buy a bmw(at least in this part of the world) because after 3 years it will lose something like 50% of its value. So if it was $60k , it is only $30k in 3 years , and goes lower after another year. My toyota was bought almost 11 years ago, I still can get 30-40% of its price on it.

[Zing]

I have never pirated my games or music, other than for demo purposes. Whenever I downloaded a CD or a game and it was enjoyable within the first day, I would go out and buy it. If it was trash, I would, well, trash it!

Movies and TV, I download at will. It is not a matter of money. It is a matter of most content barely being worth the time to watch, along with the extreme ease of tapping a few buttons and having the shows go from usenet to my TV in mere minutes. Factor in all downloaded TV is commercial-free and I honestly can't believe anyone pays for commerical television these days.

If suddenly everyone were to stop paying for satellite and cable, the industry would not disappear. They would figure out a more convenient and cheaper method of distribution. You wouldn't have bullshit like people with cable in North America just now getting the latest season of Downton Abbey when I downloaded and watched 1080p encodes of that season last September.

[Hobie-wan]

Is this fair?

Hmm, there's a phrase kicking around somewhere in my head. If only I could remember what it was. Hmmmm.

[Gamerforlife]

I pirate stuff, and I really don't care. I've long since stopped wasting my time obsessing over the right and wrong of such trivial things. Most people who are computer savvy engage in some form of piracy whether they admit or not. People still debate the legality of roms and isos and I know people on this forum have downloaded and played some. Most of us have PSPs with custom firmware

And besides, I spend tons of money every year on various forms of entertainment. Pirating lets me enjoy stuff that just doesn't fit into my entertainment budget, and I don't have a problem with that. The entertainment industry and economy get enough of my money as it is. I've downloaded a bunch of digital comic books for free off the internet in the past year or so, I also just spend eighty dollars on comic books today at my local shop. So no one can say the comic book industry is suffering because of me. I just pirate whatever I can't fit in my monthly comic spending budget. The stuff I REALLY like I spend money on, stuff I'm just mildly interested in or curious about I pirate. Most of the music I listen to is pirated. With the amount of money I spend on video games, comic books, the occasional movie or wrestling pay per view, there's no money left to spend on music. I'm not going to deny myself the luxury of enjoying music because of that. Maybe that's a selfish or self centered view, but I don't lose sleep over it.

[ninjainspandex]

i always laugh at the prices of new movies on blueray $25-$30! wtf why? thats way more than it costs to see the movie in the theater including soda popcorn and candy.

[flex wood]

Well alright I'll be honest I have no trouble pirating music since I go to see the artists I like and want to support live at shows. That way I know the artist is getting way more money then they would if I bought an album (I still buy albums though, just not as much.) I mean seriously how much money is someone on a major label getting if I buy an album? At most what like 5 bucks? I go see them live they are usually getting at least 15 to 20. I have no problem with how that works when I know for a fact the last show I went to ghost face left with 10 grand and that was at a fairly small venue.

[AppleQueso]

My philosophy is simple: if something is worth my time, it's worth my money. Pretty much the only time I'll pirate will be if I have no legitimate way of checking out that media. (Something being long out of print for example. If it comes back into print however I'll do my best to pick up the new version.)

[Erik_Twice]

So if I wanted to watch Desperate Housewives , it will cost me $240 for the full show. Is this fair?

You are not entitled to someone's else work. If he wants to price it at one thousand dollars, it's his right. If he wants to give it for free, it's his right.

You don't have a say in the matter because it's not yours. Who are you to tell anyone how much to work for, much less an artist?

Do you work Kingmohd84? Would you let me set your salary at my whim? Do it for half a price, third of a price, free?

[Ivo]

So if I wanted to watch Desperate Housewives , it will cost me $240 for the full show. Is this fair?

You are not entitled to someone's else work. If he wants to price it at one thousand dollars, it's his right. If he wants to give it for free, it's his right.

You don't have a say in the matter because it's not yours. Who are you to tell anyone how much to work for, much less an artist?

Do you work Kingmohd84? Would you let me set your salary at my whim? Do it for half a price, third of a price, free?

Your comparison(s) here suck. Your main point is correct, that the author has the right to set the price. But as usual with issues of copyright, the fact that pirating does not remove the product from sale simply can not be neglected (this is in stark contrast with stealing, or in this specific case, with setting the ssalary of someone on a fixed wage). If you pass by a street performer and don't tip him, you are not setting his salary to zero.

In the case of TV shows it gets tricky as the price is effectively different for different customers, and I'm not just talking about exchange rates. Some people basically get the show for free ("sponsored" / paid by advertising), and with the right hardware you could easily record it and skip the commercials - provided it is aired on your area. How different is that from someone in a different country pirating it and skipping the commercials? In particular, how different is that from the point of view of the artist (which in either case gets an additional viewer but no additional income from the viewer)?

Same thing goes for music aired commercially in radios. In fact many artists (at least musicians) acknowledge this and are happy to be exposed to more "customers" which will potentially contribute in the future (an example would be to go watch them perform live, as mentioned earlier in the thread).

Ivo.

[Erik_Twice]

Your comparison(s) here suck. [...]If you pass by a street performer and don't tip him, you are not setting his salary to zero.

I beg your pardon?

Whether piracy removes the item or not from sale has no bearing on whether you are entitled to the work without the owner's permission, which you aren't.

If you have consent, great. You may get that consent for free, by a fee or not at any cost at the owner's behalf. That there are many ways of getting that consent doesn't make consent invalid.

What matters is that you are not the rightful owner so you can only access the commodity if and when he wishes to.

It's that simple.