Piracy

[borg69unimatrix]

^^^

While you're at it, does iPhone really need to come out with a newer and greater as often as it does???

 

[altlover85]

Right now it's a dollar a song, but when she comes out with an Album, then what? She's already working on another song. Rebecca Black isn't the only talentless person out there making big bucks.

Well, who knows what will happen with the album.

I am aware she isn't the only talentless person out there, but your definition of talent may be different than mine.

My finger isn't only pointed at the music industry either. When you take into consideration the thousands of remakes we've had in the past years, the really dull and plotless movies (Sucker punch comes to mind), the movie industry is also at fault of disappointing most of the audience.

I think prices are too inflated. Personally, there's always a few movies I'd really like to see, but very few that I actually go see simply because I don't want to spend the money.

I suppose that could mean the quality of movies are lower, but I think it means the theaters are asking for too much money period.

Same with software. Adobe Creative Suite 5 came out a year ago. Just a few days ago, Adobe released Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 (Not even a fully fledged version), which they are making people pay FULL PRICE for (Creative Suites run about $1200). Keeping in mind CS1 was introduced in 2003, CS2 in 2005, CS3 in 2007, CS4 in 2008 and CS5 in 2009. It's Ridiculous!

Yes, I hate the price of software, but thankfully I don't buy it often.

 

[blackbeltninja]

Out of all of the posts in this thread ^ this one stuck with me the most.

Because the product being pirated at the time has a current "market value."

That to me is the difference.

Who cares if it's shit?

I care.

If I pay a fortune for a meal or a bottle of wine in a restaurant and it's shit, I have a word with the manager and we make a plan. I phone up Stephen King and tell him "you owe me R140 ($20) because your new book was shit and I only found out after I bought it" he'll put the phone down in my ear.

That's what Pirates do. They don't take something from someone else and then keep it, usually they'll trade it for something else, or just give it away.

I don't trade - that's the difference between having stolen goods and fencing stolen goods.

I too have used libraries to access reference books that I only need the information out of, and in some cases don't care to own.

However, I don't own those books. The local library does, and the authors own the copyrighted content of those books.

I don't copy the books, just what I needed out of them.

The similarity here is that you take what you want/need WITHOUT buying the book. How different is that really to me taking 1 song without buying the album?

And I made sure that when writing something that the author of those books, and their titles were fully credited within my work so that others could find and purchase them later.

And if they also don't care to own the book?

I think any author would rather have a definite sale than a reference in your work. The only time your reference is likely to have massive impact is if you're writing for a massive publication like Time or something; if you're just small fry like me and your work reaches a microscopic audience, none of whom are likely to buy the book either, I think the author would rather have sold 1 copy to you than hope some other mug buys the damn thing.

I'm interested to hear your responses to this.

-d-

 

[altlover85]

bbn, the only difference as far as a library goes is that the author made a conscious choice to put his work there, whereas if you pirate something you are making the choice for him.

If I'm wrong and people have their books put into libraries without their consent, you can ignore this post.

 

[Centexfarmer]

I think any author would rather have a definite sale than a reference in your work. The only time your reference is likely to have massive impact is if you're writing for a massive publication like Time or something; if you're just small fry like me and your work reaches a microscopic audience, none of whom are likely to buy the book either, I think the author would rather have sold 1 copy to you than hope some other mug buys the damn thing.

I'm interested to hear your responses to this.

-d-

Well from what you've shared you're an author yourself.

You, like myself, have created a product.

Something tangible.


I don't know how the library gained a copy of my book.

Maybe I was so afraid that no one would read what I had to write, that I actually gave copies of my book for reference in hope that someone might actually read the damned thing.

You're still missing the point in my opinion.

Why would someone actually purchase what either of us have written, when they can get a free copy of it from someone that has "pirated" it from a source that was attempting to sale it so that we might profit from our own work?


Seriously, if you don't care about copyright laws, ethics, and artistic rights, and allow pirates to have free use of your property as an artist, then fuck those with corporate sponsorship.

I agree that "art should be free," but someone has to support the artist if what they do provides some value to the rest of us.

Wouldn't you agree?

 

[blackbeltninja]

Well from what you've shared you're an author yourself.

Seriously, if you don't care about copyright laws, ethics, and artistic rights, and allow pirates to have free use of your property as an artist, then fuck those with corporate sponsorship.

I agree that "art should be free," but someone has to support the artist if what they do provides some value to the rest of us.

Wouldn't you agree?

I'm not an author; I dabble a bit here and there but nothing of any commercial value.

Fact is, people are happy to borrow books from the library and take what they want for a fraction of the value of the book (some libraries don't even charge membership fees) and the same people panic about pirating films or music. It doesn't add up to me. I understand they serve different purposes and the library's function is specific, but when push comes to shove how different is it?

My other concern - and I know this probably isn't right - is the cost and the effort concerned. We here in .za can buy songs for our iPods, but it is such a massive rigmarole involving a dubious foreign 3rd party who may or may not play ball and things don't always arrive on time and sometimes the Apple shop bounces the foreign account realising it's an illegal workaround so they have to shut it down, and at the end of the day it is much less effort to just steal the damn thing.

Back in 2002 in my pre credit-card days I had to deal with a particularly dull-witted local retail giant trying to order a CD from the US, something I can now do in 10 seconds now with a credit card and Amazon. It took these clowns 14 weeks to organise the damn thing after ordering the wrong item twice (even though I'd sent them a barcode and catalogue number) and it was such a hassle because I could have said "fuck this shit" and just downloaded a pirate copy in 3 hours off our slow .za internet. As it is, I ripped the CD to MP3 anyway and I don't think I've opened the case since, so having just a pirate mp3 edition would have been no sweat off my back. I'm the consumer, here - it shouldn't be an ask for me to get hold of the product they want me to pay for. Otherwise I won't pay for it - either I'll just not bother and get something else, or I'll get it for free. I understand this is hideous and mercenary, but why should I put up with this bull?

Another issue is the stupid DVD zone/region regulations. You guys get stuff months before we do; you get better versions than we do (Collector's editions etc etc). I don't want the shitty Zone 2 cheap'n'nasty crap edition which is all I can buy legally, so if someone offers me the better one - the one I do actually want - you can bet your bottom dollar I'll take it. Again, why should I be forced to buy some inferior shit (for more than it costs you to buy the better version, as DeanDBN has pointed out)?

The old adage is "you get what you pay for." We're paying a fuckload for fuck-all down here, so they can all fuck off until they start to pull finger and make things worth our while.

-d-