Piracy/ Intelectual Property

[elclandestino]

If downloading content was "stealing" you would have a point. I find amusing that many people do not understand the difference between stealing something and illegally downloading content

The way to do business is what Louis C.K. did with his last special. He said that you could do whatever you wanted with the file containing his show, even you could torrent it, but if you felt like it was good content you should give him 5 bucks through PayPal. Lo and behold, the payments reached 1 million USD in something like twelve days, but half a million in the very first days, covering all costs and wages for the production company, theater, etc.

I finally came to agree with you, boludo

 

[Fabe]

Stealing is stealing . Period. You are rationalizing it . If the person from who you steal from can afford it , then its ok to steal from them ? , I cant follow that.

 

[notebook.fix]

Respectfully but very firmly, I totally disagree with this comment.

Stealing is stealing . Period. You are rationalizing it . If the person from who you steal from can afford it , then its ok to steal from them ? , I cant follow that.

Seeing that this discussion is centered more around software programs rather than music & movies, pls allow me to make an opinion.

I dare say, lets look at the bigger picture;

Using the case of Microsoft as an example, the REAL stealing started YEARS AGO when the old Monopoly was allowed to break the law in insidious ways - shutting down innovation by taking out software patents, stealing code from programmers, suffocating & killing small tech businesses with years frivolous law suits, FUD campaigns, downright fraud & misinformation about Linux.

Anyone who has a sense of true history in the information tech industry will know what I'm referring to. Years ago when Microsoft the 'anti-trust violator' first started up business in China Bill Gates was famously caught saying :

"As long as they are going to steal it, we want them to steal ours. They'll get sort of addicted, and then we'll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade.
—Bill Gates"

As harsh as it sounds it is sheer ignorance to state that piracy is STEALING when we take into account just how desperately these OLD giant tech companies try to hold on to an old & outdated business model... buying & bribing politicians & legislators, buying into news media, lobby groups...etc etc just so that they can keep alive the old dinosaur model- boxed software. How did we come to be at this juncture where a programmer is NOT allowed to program unless he has a lawyers? Why is this question never asked?

Back in 2003 Micro$oft secretly & indirectly paid around $50 million to a Unix company through Baystar Intenational to try to shut down Linux.
This Unix company was called SCO & they claimed that Linux had stolen UNIX code...well...SCO is now dead & after all the discovery process was finished - NO UNIX CODE was ever found in Linux as claimed by SCO- totally clean...but M$ kept feeding the fire for years in a desperate attempt to slow down the open source development model & SCO went so far as to send threatening legal letters to ANYONE who used Linux , to scare them with litigation. While at the same time M$ embarked on a 'FUD' & misinformation campaign (fear, uncertainty & doubt) against the open source movement.

I for one would prefer that Governments would come down hard & stamp out ALL SOFTWARE PIRACY so that the TRUE cost of the software monopolies can be felt by the general public...not to shield these multi-billion dollar software mafias from true free market capitalism.

"Wikileaks and Other Leakers Help Expose Microsoft Corruption, Cause Officials to Backtrack"
http://techrights.org/2011/09/06/corruptible-officials-feel-the-heat/

The open source movement represents a major shift in the business of software development... it is dynamic & is far more responsive to today's constantly evolving tech world and yet is not centralized & controlled by any one Software company.

Open source development is not 'Communism' as painted by M$'s Bill & Balmer ..it is simply a superior software business model IF it is allowed to develop & grow.,...now if some developers can't live with this newer commercial system then they should stand aside & cease trying to confuse & distort the the truth to the general public. It may serve their own self interest to side with the old Monopoly mafia & their dirty tactics but it's certainly not in the interest of the rest of the world.

Freedom doesn't always come free.

 

[elclandestino]

Word! Agreed a million!

 

[bebero]

To all of you so shocked by piracy, what's your suggestion? What should we do instead?
Movie theaters play 10% of the movies that come out, same thing with dvd's, Netflix offers "little miss sunshine" as a new movie, iTunes store (which just opened about a week ago) charges 40 pesos for a movie... so? what's the answer?

 

[bebero]

Easy.

Pay what the seller is offering it for sale for or go without!

Rather simple if you ask me.

Or the second option...become a thief and get what you by stealing it.

so you basically stopped watching movies when you came to BA? I feel bad for you.

I think it's quite funny that people get like this when we're talking big studios making hundreds of millions of dollars.

And if someone can't see the difference between stealing (when somethings STOPS being available to the owner) and piracy then I think that person has one chromosome too many.

 

[jp]

I think it's quite funny that people get like this when we're talking big studios making hundreds of millions of dollars.

Big studios do fine. Even if their films get pirated from the second of release, they have lucrative merchandising, product placement and other commercial opportunities they can exploit.

They can factor in piracy into their model. Just like supermarkets factor in shoplifting into their model. Doesn't justify shoplifting though. And whilst shoplifting isn't such a huge problem for huge retailers, its crippling for small independents.

Same goes for piracy. Piracy makes it hard for smaller players to put a product out. They either have to beg for funding (invariably comes with strings attached), or they have to resort to making commercially appealing garbage in order to guarantee some form of revenue. Beg or sell out.

Ever wonder why so much content is insipid, uninspired commercial dross? Its because thats the model you fall back on when people decide they don't have to pay for quality content any more. People who just want to make a living off their ideas have to give up. All thats left are altruistic hobbyists and commercial crap, with precious little in between.

Have no solutions, and not trying to preachy. Just a shame really.