Piracy/ Intelectual Property

[Fabe]

Id like to thank all who participated in this debate . Some lost sight of the general ide a, some made personal attacks. Others opined taking into account their experiences. Some of the opinions were genuianly brilliant ( obviosly depending on what side of the fence you are on regarding this issue)
Im thankfull that it fullfilled my need to read people excersizing their right to opinion.

 

[Jano]

The pig is innocent. It's the person feeding it that's guilty.... An argy proverb that falls right into place in this discussion. Personally I think the only law that you can be sure will work in Argentina is the law of gravity. The general concept is: Whatever the cops don't see, it's legal. And what they see they will get a cut. I hope this helped.

 

[bebero]

So it strokes your ego that others "value" your work / intellectual property enough to reproduce / steal it...interesting.

I am sure that you would feel differently if you were unable to pay your rent or put food on the table to feel your family due to such reproduction of your "work" with you getting no compensation for it...but hey, it's nice that you don't.

Not everyone feels that way or has the luxury to do so either.

Can you provide any examples of such a thing happening? Someone unable to pay rent due to piracy??!!

 

[notebook.fix]

The problem here I see is that there are no simplistic answers.
The original poster I believe was hoping for a simple open/shut case of 'hang the pirates' conclusion & was not happy to hear alternate views...especially when we start questioning the very authoritarian anti competitive business model that big corporations insist we all stay with.

As I mentioned before, I would love it if there was a serious anti-piracy drive by the authorities, this would stop the free viral advertising that the Monopolistic software industry enjoys through piracy & in turn the general public would start to question why the software costs more than the computer itself.

Why is the netbook dead? Cause Microsoft has finally killed it.
http://technologizer.com/2009/07/06/the-war-against-netbooks-continues/
The War Against Netbooks Continues?
..."Netbooks make Intel and Microsoft nervous, since their low prices and high popularity threaten the market for costlier laptops that preserve a more generous profit margin for processors and operating systems. If I worked for either company, I’d be nervous, too. But trying to stifle netbook growth by making it tough for PC manufacturers to release appealing new models puts the companies on a collision course with consumers."

"Why netbooks are killing Microsoft"
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/333519/Why_Netbooks_Are_Killing_Microsoft

"Does Microsoft Want to Kill Netbooks?"
http://www.fool.com/investing/value/2009/04/21/does-microsoft-want-to-kill-netbooks.aspx

"Revealed: The 5 netbooks killed by Microsoft"
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/laptop/121153/revealed-the-5-netbooks-killed-by-microsoft/
Mini laptops hobbled by licensing restrictions
By Jared Newman | PC World | 15 August 09
.."Microsoft licensing requirements prevent netbooks with good specs using Windows as an operating system. We look at the five netbooks that have suffered at the hands of Microsoft.

"Microsoft Killed the Netbook – not the Tablet"
http://www.talkingpointz.com/microsoft-killed-the-netbook

Yes, the M$ Dicattor$hip can use it's Monopolistic weight to lean on the hardware manufacturers in order to manipulate & force higher software prices onto the unsuspecting public but now it's backfired in their faces with the explosion of lower cost linux based devices like android tablets & smart phones.

Piracy would almost disappear if the monopolistic corporations like Microsoft & Apple were not allowed to continue with their corrupt anti-trust activities against a free & open competitive market that includes all the Open Source companies.

Instead of competing they buy legislation, politicians, software patents etc etc & litigate against the competition (Apple vs Samsung...etc etc).

Is it that an old dinosaur doesn't want to die?

A lot of developers fear change & so try to polarize the argument into a black & white issue instead of accepting the fact that the old licensing model has been superseded.

The question they DON'T want asked is what are the conditions that led to this current piracy explosion.

I have asked Fabe these questions before but just like before, I fear that my questions will be ignored.

With the tittle to this thread being " Piracy/ Intelectual Property"
I would think that my questions would be very relevant to the topic being discussed ...No?

 

[Fabe]

Notebook.ix:
Your premis is all wrong.
I was looking to open a debate.
I did not in the least get miffed that I didnt get an black white solution.
I DID get miffed at the topic going wayyyy off topic.
Perhaps ( most likely) i didnt explain it from the start.
What Im refering to is the inclination for rationalisation that people have for pirating software and other peoples intelectual property.
AGAIN. Its not a "this is because microsoft is evil and charges too much "debate.
Have a nice enough day

 

[Fabe]

Of course Im ignoring the questions you asked , because they have nothing to do with the debate.
Is Gucci or Levis or Wrangler or RayBan or Addidas or Nike as evil as any software company ? And therefore there is justification to bootleg their products ?
The MS issue and whatever their monopolistic tactics , and the GNU and Linux will save the world issue isnt relevant to this thread. I MUST ignore it because in the contex that you use it , it is a rationalisation to bootleg their software.

 

[notebook.fix]

Company A used to exist in the 90s when product X was recorded onto an OLD CD format & packaged in a nice shiny cardboard Box... but died out like the Dinosaurs when Company B appeared in the horizon with a newer business marketing model.

Company B operates independently & sells it's software through the Internet as a download...it uses youtube, facebook & various other social media tools as a marketing strategy..sure some of it's software will be pirated but that is more than made up for by the extra sales volume & service revenue that the company now enjoys due to the fact that it's product is more competitively priced due to lower operating costs.

Company B's business strategy is to build strong loyalty & trust with their clients as well as providing a superior product at an overall lower cost due to the fact that it runs on a different business model.

Certainly - Let me illustrate for you.


Company A used to employ 10,000 employees to produce product X.

Due to piracy of 15% of product X, the company is forced to either raise the price of product X sold to actual buying customers OR layoff 1,500 workers due to the lose in revenue from the piracy of product X.

In order to remain competitive with Companies B and C they can not raise the price and are thus forced to layoff those 1,500 employees.

Due to the poor job market, many of those 1,500 workers are unable to find jobs and several...sadly are unable to pay their rent.

 

[scotttswan]

The major reason for piracy is the lack of alternatives and archaic business models.
This lack of innovation is 100% due to the fact that there are now only 6 companies that own and run all the media in the US.

http://i.imgur.com/DBvwb.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/4wll8.jpg

These companies rely on outdated sales methods that are long past their sale by date. Kids now don't want to go and buy a cd/dvd. They want to download their media and watch it now and they can due to a large number of very dodgy websites providing what they want because the big media companies don't provide them with what they want.

The perfect example of a company doing something right is Valve in the games industry.

Valve made some software called steam that allows you to buy games and download them however many times you want.

They let you buy the latest pc games without having to worry about different countries stupid import laws but better than that they actually have innovative sales which are converting one time game pirates into actual buyers.

A long time ago you could buy any game you wanted and install it on any machine as many times as you wanted. Then over time in a bid to combat "piracy" more and more draconian Digital Rights Management systems came out until some of the latest games required you to stay online constantly to even play the game in single player mode. It got to the point that some people were having to download the pirated versions just so they could play the game that they owned.

DVD's are the same with their un-skipable ads etc and if i bought a movie on VHS/DVD i believe i have every right to download it to watch on my laptop/phone.

Treating your customer as a criminal doesn't work and steam has proved this.

By analysing the figures Valve's been able to make some interesting predictions too. A 10 percent price reduction creates an average income increase (not just in sales) of 35 percent, while a 25 percent discount gives an increase of 245 percent. 50 percent discounts create average increases of 320 percent, while a price slash of 75 percent off will push income up by a staggering 1470 percent.

The single most impressive figure though is that one (unfortunately unnamed) third-party game saw an increase in sales of 36,000 percent in a single sale weekend.

A whole other argument is crazy copyright laws. I fully expect companies such as Disney to push for longer and longer laws. I doubt i'll ever see even the beginning of rock and roll entering the public domain.

Copyright was originally to promote the creation of new works but now it just seems to be to protect a few companies profits.

I say reset copyright back to 30-40 years and watch the huge innovation on people using the new public domain media from the 60's and 70's.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/Copyright_term.svg