Opinions on Piracy?

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I'm perfectly fine with it.... in fact I love it!! !
The advert before films is very misleading!
What are your opinions?

I prefer to buy an actual copy of a DVD/video game, because piracy doesn't help their industries. Each of these companies need money to survive in this economic recession, and the internet bill isn't going to them. I actually think that's why there are so many crappy movies/games that try too hard to meet expectations instead of exceeding them. The developers are too scared of losing their mainstream audience (the ones who actually pay to enjoy their work), and their means of actually earning money. Plus, I just HAVE to own all of my favorites in physical condition.

Well, I can only speak to the Music Industry, whose squealing and whining about peer-to-peer 'piracy' are hypocritical and disingenuous. They've spent decades gouging the consumer and ripping off their own talent pool and they want us to commiserate with them because profits have dropped from 20 billion to 17 billion? Boo f**kin' hoo.

The mechanics may be different now, with so much music being sold online, but here's how it worked during the 70s and 80s:

Most of their artists don't get a dime off their first two albums, no matter how successful they are, because the record company charges them for absolutely everything involved in the production, promotion and distribution of said record. If the artists make any money off the success of the first couple of albums, its in concert ticket sales. Only a handful of pop artists even make it to the release of a third album, so it's very easy to be a huge hit for a year or more and still end up homeless just a short time later.

Of course, those performers who do last long enough to make it really big, do get really rich, and you'll notice when the word 'piracy' was first tossed about in reference to online downloading, the loudest, nastiest accusers were folks like Metallica and Madonna, whom, as far as I'm concerned, ought to be on their knees every day thanking whatever higher power they believe in that there are actually people out there who want to hear the crap they turn out , instead of attacking their own fans for enthusiastically trading their work amongst themselves.

Back in the mid sixties, the record companies threw a fit when recordable cassette tapes were first introduced to the market, claiming that if people could easily and conveniently record their favorite LPs by borrowing a copy from a friend, the recording industry would be put out of business! They actually filed court injunctions to stop the sale of blank cassettes, and this was before cassette recorders could even record in full stereo. In the 70s, they went ballistic again, when FM radio stations began a trend of filling overnight programming hours by tracking entire albums on the air. Again, the claim was if you could record the whole album right off the airwaves, you'd never buy another record again. A columnist in an industry trade magazine at the time said that was like saying "If you build libraries, people will stop buying books."

Whether people can trade music online or not, they will still buy - the trick is and has always been in the marketing. At least they figured out pretty quickly that good marketing did not include having your potential consumers arrested for enjoying your product. I for one have no sympathy for their "Woe is us, the sky is falling!" hysterics every time something takes a tiny bite out of their profit margin. I can only assume that Hollywoods' posturing over 'piracy' is just as greedy. James Cameron just made well over a Billion dollars (and climbing) on one film. If the Chinese sell ten million bootleg DvDs of Avatar, you suppose he's gonna miss a meal?

Copyright law is obscene. Sure, I agree that authors should be paid for their work. But, here's an example of what the current setup is:

I'm writing a musical at the moment. Now, If I finish it and it is published by the time I'm 20, then yay for me. If I die when I'm 70, that will mean that it will have been under copyright for 120 years before it's copyright expires. Life of the author plus 70 years is ludicrous. Combine that with the fact that most of the money goes into the record associations. Paying for intellectual property doesn't look that good any more, does it?

I mean, I'll happily support indie groups - the game "world of goo" is one example of this, and I wouldn't rob them of the sale. Now, if it was published by EA or someone than it would be different.

there is a thread about this half way down the page, and is 8 pages long
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt99300.html

Arrrrgh!!

I thought about it for a while, and I think that video streaming websites can be viewed as both a good thing and a bad thing. Sometimes I will watch the first episode of an anime on a streaming site as a preview for the series(not often though, because I hate watching streamed episodes of shows due to quality reasons) . If I like it, I'll buy the DVDs. However, the problem with streaming sites is that people are less likely to buy the DVDs now, which could end up screwing the companies over.

Other than for marketing reasons, I just LOVE having a little library of anime DVDs and video games for top notch quality, and to just look at them on my shelf in physical condition (data on a computer is just not the same to me).

record companies are similar to corporate banks to me. they are way too big and powerful, and don't understand the real world. and most "indie" companies are actually owned by the bigger companies. the way i see music and other media is i bought it, i own it, i can do what i want with it short of reselling it. thus, i can rip it to my computer, upload it to a p2p, or give it to my friends. according to the record companies i break the law with the last two actions. in my opinion they couldn't be more wrong. i believe bands own their music and record companies are only tools to release it. as such, when asked most bands will reply they don't care about their music being spread virally, because they know that if someone really likes it, that person will buy the album and probably future albums. unfortunately, corporations aren't regulated the way the should be as they buy politicians votes, and copyright laws haven't been updated in about 35 years. until that happens, we're all screwed.

You know there was another thread about this right?

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt99300.html

I love the sound of the ocean.
The sound of waves is very relaxing.
But I don't want to go in.
It's full of sharks and whales and sea monsters.
I might get sea-sick.
I might get robbed by piRIAAtes!

piRIAAte troll thread alert! Getting PINGed.
So glad I don't have a hard drive on this terminal!

firefox + get Add-ons + downloadhelper + fireuploader. + youtube / dailymotion / etc with others

Don't forget filezilla.

Linux Windows whatever, its all good ! !

Any questions?

If it's a small group or something publishing something I'll pay for it. But I think the industries really like to rip people off and the creators (artists, bands, writers, etc) don't make much money off of my buying CD's and DVD's. They make money off of their performances or a one-time lump sum from the completion of the thing, not much off of royalties. I still buy those things sometimes. I guess I have more moral issues with the RIAA than with the people who download.

Actually, by putting stuff on youtube, many people are exposed to things that they would never find in a store. Through the free exchange of media and codecs, artists get one huge subsidy in terms of free advertising. Freedom solves problems better then repression does.

I think piracy is bad and is basically stealing from whoever made the real thing. But I cracked up when I saw an anti-piracy ad before the movie on my Pirates of the Caribbean Blu-Ray.

I think some piracy is ok, because it will get some people to buy whatever it is they're downloading. I'd buy music if I had the money solely for the higher quality files.

I mostly download top gear and fifth gear episodes because they don't sell either shows in america.