Am I the only guy that doesn't see anything wrong with illegal downloading?

[palbert]

I just go in and shoplift the CD's, DVD's and everything I can get my hands on from the stores.

Same thing isn't it?

I do that with groceries at the supermarket. Just wheel the cart out the door.

 

[csb999]

you are STEALING nothing ever . The word is COPYING . The whole point of shoplifting or theft is something must be taken nothing every is . Ever . The crime is infringing legal rights of an individual not removing an object . Not a single thing is ever reduced ever .

 

[gsdx]

You have a misapprehension of the word "illegal."

I've been going through the posts to see if anyone else had picked up on this word. 'Illegal' means 'not legal'. What is legal about illegal behaviour? Theft is theft. Just because 'everybody' does it doesn't mean it's right.

 

[csb999]

watching tv is illegally downloading . Do try to forget , have some respect for your legal system .

 

[csb999]

Theft or stealing implies taking something . You are never taking a single thing .

 

[blackbeltninja]

This is a messy topic. Stealing is wrong, sure.

But so is the annoying practice of releasing half an item and expecting people to go find the other half a la "if you buy this disc, you get an online code to use for rare material." And then you buy the disc, and after a while, the online material is removed and the links go dead. Or the famous "sorry, this is not available for viewers outside the US." I still paid extra for the disc with the bonus material, and now I can't use it? Fuck you, studio moguls - once bitten, twice shy. I've made the effort to get the stuff legally, and I'm not going to jump through more hoops to enjoy it. I wouldn't put up with this kind of service from a retailer or restaurant; why on earth do you think I'll put up with it from you?

Games in particular - you buy the software, and then when it installs it tells you that it needs a massive patch downloaded before you can use it. We're not all on super-fast 40mbps lines with limitless data, actually; some of us would end up paying 2-3x the cost of the software in the first place to download the patch which makes it work. I understand this is an antipiracy measure, but hey - I didn't pirate the material; I bought it and I object to having to download 4gigs of additional fixing which will take days to come down (literally; our interwebs are not fast in the 3rd world) and cost a ton of extra money. I bought the fucking thing and I expect to be able to use it out of the box. When I buy a car, I don't have to wait for the wheels to arrive afterwards. It should be ready to go because THAT'S WHAT I PAID FOR.

So fuck you too, gaming houses, you're screwing over the wrong people and so I'm not buying the games anymore. I am playing them though... yay for piracy!

Short version: these industries need to rethink their strategies, and quit biting the hands that feed them. I got tired of being the sap who paid the money and was forced to put up with the bullshit, so now I just don't. Those of you who make a living out of it and who are now starving because I refuse to get screwed over... sorry. But hey - put some pressure on your employers for me and I'll happily revert to being a paying customer.

-d-

 

[xbuzzerx]

Let's criminalize youtube'ers who put songs on repeat cause they aint paying a single cent either.

Yup to me that really begs the question:

what is the difference between saving an .mp3 of a song on youtube vs. bookmarking a youtube of a song and pulling it up whenever you want to hear it?

So far in this discussion-- doing the first is stealing and horribly wrong. Yet I see no difference between it and the 2nd.

 

[PreTTy PeTe]

I only stream but never download movies.

is that stealing?

*runs away before stacy bitch slaps him hard*

 

[Harke the Boeotarch]

If it's stealing when you copy a movie, is it giving something back if you accidentally break the dvd-r you it recorded on?

 

[blackbeltninja]

Wait a sec, but I need to get this straight. Don't artists have contracts with the record studios? They earn money anyways, not depending on the sells their cd make, right? So downloading music is not affecting artists in the slightest.
Plus internet makes you x100 times more popular, people like Justin Bieber and One Direction wouldn't even be that famous without illegal downloading.

They get royalties, eventually. A fee for the recording, which varies depending on how popular you are - not everyone becomes an overnight insta150millionaire like Bieber, that's for sure - and then a percentage of sales. I presume once you get to the U2/Metallica/Stones level of respect, that initial fee is quite substantial.

Likewise with books - I read somewhere that unless the first few books are multimillion-copy uber-bestsellers, most regularly-publishing authors don't start earning an appreciable amount from writing until about book number four or five gets published.

So the more copies of either the book or the album sold, the more bonus for the artist or author.

-d-

 

[Audio Tech]

This is a messy topic. Stealing is wrong, sure.

But so is the annoying practice of releasing half an item and expecting people to go find the other half a la "if you buy this disc, you get an online code to use for rare material." And then you buy the disc, and after a while, the online material is removed and the links go dead. Or the famous "sorry, this is not available for viewers outside the US." I still paid extra for the disc with the bonus material, and now I can't use it? Fuck you, studio moguls - once bitten, twice shy. I've made the effort to get the stuff legally, and I'm not going to jump through more hoops to enjoy it. I wouldn't put up with this kind of service from a retailer or restaurant; why on earth do you think I'll put up with it from you?

Games in particular - you buy the software, and then when it installs it tells you that it needs a massive patch downloaded before you can use it. We're not all on super-fast 40mbps lines with limitless data, actually; some of us would end up paying 2-3x the cost of the software in the first place to download the patch which makes it work. I understand this is an antipiracy measure, but hey - I didn't pirate the material; I bought it and I object to having to download 4gigs of additional fixing which will take days to come down (literally; our interwebs are not fast in the 3rd world) and cost a ton of extra money. I bought the fucking thing and I expect to be able to use it out of the box. When I buy a car, I don't have to wait for the wheels to arrive afterwards. It should be ready to go because THAT'S WHAT I PAID FOR.

So fuck you too, gaming houses, you're screwing over the wrong people and so I'm not buying the games anymore. I am playing them though... yay for piracy!

Short version: these industries need to rethink their strategies, and quit biting the hands that feed them. I got tired of being the sap who paid the money and was forced to put up with the bullshit, so now I just don't. Those of you who make a living out of it and who are now starving because I refuse to get screwed over... sorry. But hey - put some pressure on your employers for me and I'll happily revert to being a paying customer.

-d-

I sorta agree with this post. I am so sick and tired of buying something only to discover AFTER I open the package that I need patches, firmware downloads (bluray), get a root kit (thanks, SONY), Install an entire 400 gig game on my fast ass computer only to have it crippled and crashed by copy protection schemes that demand to read the DVD every 8 seconds, etc.
Then my movie experience is ruined in my own house because Disney and others FORCE me to sit through half an hour of garbage before I am "Allowed" to see the movie I bought and paid for. And that's ONLY if my device is deemed worthy, hooked up to the internet and has successfully downloaded it's latest crippleware. All these companies KNOW this because there are no returns on crap media!

I still buy content, because I want the full bit quality of the original. But I rip ALL of it to my server so I can actually PAINLESSLY USE IT. I support indie producers and the like, but this big corporate BS with countless DRM and copy protection has gotten out of hand for the HONEST consumer. It is literally FASTER and simpler to rip content in order to actually use it. SO while I DO indeed buy my content, the content providers have made me a pirate just so I can USE what I bought without their fingers and malware in my business.

Nowadays I don't buy a damn thing until I find out for certain what copy protection it has on it, does it require on-line activation, does it require for the original to remain in the drive. And if I can circumvent ALL of that. I want to purchase something and just PLAY it, and in the case of PC games... install it and put the original on the shelf.

So that's another side of big content and why it's less hassle to pirate some things than to own them legally. Content providers need to re-think these BS strategies. Even Apple has proven that more people BUY DRM free music than all this encrypted garbage.

I watch Doctor Who on BBC. I pay for cable. But I download the episode anyway (illegally) just so I can enjoy it without commercials..... but most of all without that F***ing Logo and various ads on my screen!

And the more annoying they get, the more I'll just download what I want. THANKS, Big Content! It may not be right, but neither are YOU!

 

[gsdx]

Games in particular - you buy the software, and then when it installs it tells you that it needs a massive patch downloaded before you can use it.

My roommate bought Diablo 3 last summer. He still hasn't been able to install it.

 

[xbuzzerx]

My roommate bought Diablo 3 last summer. He still hasn't been able to install it.

Did he keep his receipt? It's a terrible game anyway.

 

[blackbeltninja]

My roommate bought Diablo 3 last summer. He still hasn't been able to install it.

Exactly.

And no, it doesn't make pirating the stuff right, of course it doesn't. But piracy still exists, even while those of us who tried the legal route are all puppets on a string, so how is this useful?

-d-

 

[xbuzzerx]

Exactly.

And no, it doesn't make pirating the stuff right, of course it doesn't. But piracy still exists, even while those of us who tried the legal route are all puppets on a string, so how is this useful?

-d-

I think a lot of people unfamiliar with the videogame industry don't know how bad it's gotten--- so many developers basically operate under the assumption that you, the legitimate purchaser, are a thief or pirate about to go distribute the game, and put insane restrictions and installation limits on the DVD or whatever else. And all that EVER does is punish the legitimate user, it doesn't stop pirating (pirates have absolutely no problem getting around those lockouts and ripping the game code from a dvd and then just distributing it digitally) and so then when you run into any problems from patches, glitches, bugs, etc., almost the first advice you get is "try reinstalling." How are you supposed to do that, especially in this day and age of constant unwanted patch updates and such that may make your game screw up, if the DVD has like, a DRM limit of 3 installs on it or whatever?

It just screws the end user. The legitimate purchaser.

 

[bankside]

This is a messy topic. Stealing is wrong, sure.

But so is the annoying practice of releasing half an item and expecting people to go find the other half a la "if you buy this disc, you get an online code to use for rare material." And then you buy the disc, and after a while, the online material is removed and the links go dead. Or the famous "sorry, this is not available for viewers outside the US." I still paid extra for the disc with the bonus material, and now I can't use it? Fuck you, studio moguls - once bitten, twice shy. I've made the effort to get the stuff legally, and I'm not going to jump through more hoops to enjoy it. I wouldn't put up with this kind of service from a retailer or restaurant; why on earth do you think I'll put up with it from you?

Games in particular - you buy the software, and then when it installs it tells you that it needs a massive patch downloaded before you can use it. We're not all on super-fast 40mbps lines with limitless data, actually; some of us would end up paying 2-3x the cost of the software in the first place to download the patch which makes it work. I understand this is an antipiracy measure, but hey - I didn't pirate the material; I bought it and I object to having to download 4gigs of additional fixing which will take days to come down (literally; our interwebs are not fast in the 3rd world) and cost a ton of extra money. I bought the fucking thing and I expect to be able to use it out of the box. When I buy a car, I don't have to wait for the wheels to arrive afterwards. It should be ready to go because THAT'S WHAT I PAID FOR.

So fuck you too, gaming houses, you're screwing over the wrong people and so I'm not buying the games anymore. I am playing them though... yay for piracy!

Short version: these industries need to rethink their strategies, and quit biting the hands that feed them. I got tired of being the sap who paid the money and was forced to put up with the bullshit, so now I just don't. Those of you who make a living out of it and who are now starving because I refuse to get screwed over... sorry. But hey - put some pressure on your employers for me and I'll happily revert to being a paying customer.

-d-

This.


I'm willing to pay for anything I download. Sometimes, with their stupid sticky web of contents rights management and geocoding and distribution agreements, I find that no one is willing to take my money. In those circumstances, people are going to watch what they want to watch anyway.

 

[geloge]

In Spain when you buy an empty cd you have to pay a percentage because you may use it to record pirate stuff, when you buy a memory card you pay a percentage because you may use it to record pirate stuff, when you buy an external memory drive you pay a percentage because you may use it to record pirate stuff, when you are buying a computer you pay a percentage because you may use it to download and record pirate stuff... If I have paid the fine what stop me from commit the crime?

I still pay for the original thing if I'm very interested in the article and from time to time I find music CDs that doesn't play in a computer so you can't copy it or a software that doesn't run correctly. Also some people inside entertainment industry have recognized the price of the products have become abusive and they have been silenced if they wanted to keep in the distribution circuits.

 

[blackbeltninja]

Sometimes, with their stupid sticky web of contents rights management and geocoding and distribution agreements, I find that no one is willing to take my money.

We have that issue all the time. After many many years, iTunes finally opened their doors to the .za consumers in the 1st week of December 2012. But we still can't download music from most legal US or European online music retailers.

-d-

 

[Nishin]

Anything I download, I wouldn't buy it anyway. Anything I want to own, I'll buy because I want the best quality available (no shitty mp3 or divx encoding).
I do download, mainly tv shows and porn.
Is it legal or illegal? As some other said above what's the difference between bookmarking a youtube and downloading the file?

In my country too (^^), when you buy an electronic device (computer, usb key, raw CDs etc) you do pay a tax that goes to those companies that manage and redistribute royalties to copyrights owners... I'm not sure how effective this measure is or not...

If these companies don't want their content online to be downloaded for free, they need to either not put them online or use technology that prevents copying, or find a business model that satisfy both the user and the creators/producers/distributors...

 

[G-Lexington]

Do you remember the outcry a few months ago, when it appeared the new Instagram settings allowed the company to use any of the pictures people posted for commercial purposes? As one person pointed out, "Oh I see - when it's YOUR work that somebody is going to use without permission or financial compensation, THEN it's a problem."

Lex