Does “getting the crap beaten out of you” hurt more than being “a victim of battery”? A beating by any other name bruises just as much.
The defense for taking something off the internet that you otherwise would have to pay for – “It’s not “theft,” it’s “copyright infringement” is just stupid. Lifehacker has a reader who may have been busted and seeks advice, and many of the comments are a sad commentary on society.
Here’s the thing that people who are not being willfully ignorant and patently dishonest understand: when it’s something that the maker EXPECTS payment for and it’s NOT paid for, someone, somewhere, is getting ripped off. That’s wrong, and you shouldn’t do it.
For nitwits who need examples, I used this one when I taught computer classes to high school students who thought Kazaa was a nifty way to get music they used to pay for or sit through ads on the radio to hear: If I have a brilliant idea to make Widget X which solves the energy crisis and Exxon-Mobil steals that idea, manufactures the widget and makes a bazillion dollars off it – or even if Greenpeace steals the idea, manufactures it and sells it at cost, making no profit for themselves – I’ve been stolen from even though I still have a copy of the idea in my head. It was MY idea and I had the right to profit from it or to be the beneficent savior of the planet or just keep it to myself for whatever reason.
When other people take away my ability to profit from my own ideas, they steal from me. Get it?
For the really mentally challenged out there, forget the moral aspect of this and just please try to absorb this concept:
When making movies and music is no longer profitable, they’ll stop doing it.
Oh, they may still love their art and all that, but they’ll be busy doing the day jobs that get the electric bill paid. Think about it, mmkay?
Added: a great comment on that Lifehacker post, emphasis added -
If you download a movie to watch it instead of buying a copy of that movie in the store, or buying a ticket, etc., you are effectively stealing it. That is one less DVD or ticket that will be sold, and the company therefore does not receive any revenue for your usage of their product. Whether it’s legally defined as copyright infringement or theft, it *is* stealing. It’s illegal. And it’s wrong. There are bigger wrongs out there, to be sure, but it’s wrong.
You can choose to continue doing it, but don’t pretend that you’re somehow entitled to someone else’s work for free. “I’m a student,” “If torrents didn’t exist I wouldn’t watch it anyway, so I wouldn’t pay for it anyway,” “It’s victimless,”… All those arguments are rationalizations. Accept what you’re doing is a crime, and accept the consequences if you actually get caught.
As someone who works in the movie industry, even though I’m way at the bottom, my bottom line is directly affected by the ticket sales of our movie. By watching our movie for free rather than seeing it in the theater, you are directly impacting my take-home pay, even if it’s by a small amount. So it’s not just rich CEOs that are affected, it’s often the rest of us at the bottom who are working our asses off to put movies into theaters and food on our tables.
I was going to start out by writing that my comments are not meant as a justification for using peer-to-peer networks, but after further thought, I believe that there is justification for some of what is happening.
First, a history lesson. When colonists boarded boats in Boston Harbor and dumped tea into the water, were they causing harm to the East India Company or some other company that was “leading the paradigm?” The answer is yes. There were probably victims of those actions who were outraged at the actions of the “crazy colonists” who were upset about absorbitant taxes or even worse, taxation without representation. I believe that the actions really amounted to the harbinger of a paradigm shift.
I think that the current music industry is in the middle of a similar shift. If you think that the RIAA and current record labels are being so generous and fair to artists, you have a lot to learn. They have been taking advantage of the artists and of the public who listen to them. How much does it really cost to make a cd even if you add in marketing and paying the artist? It can’t be $13 – $20!!! That is pure greed or maybe better stated “highway robbery.”
I love it when they show the clips in movie theaters asking, “Would you steal a purse? Then you shouldn’t watch copied movies.” I always think, “Why is there such a market for piracy?” Then I remember that it costs $40 for me to take my wife and two kids to a B movie and I realize that there are so many people that don’t have that kind of money and never will. There are two groups stealing…Those making/watching pirated movies AND those companies that make movies in the first place.
I don’t want to get bogged down in semantics, so I would like to turn back to the new paradigm. I was talking about. Technology has made record companies dinosaurs. Artists can record in their own homes and publish directly to consumers. Peer to Peer is an effective method for building listenership and a fan base who will go to concerts and buy merchandise often including cd’s. Soon there will not be a need for the companies that are fighting so hard and breaking the law themselves to keep the status quo and their own money. I don’t blame them, but I also don’t think that you should blame a colonist who “boards the ship and throws the music into the water.”
Many people will say, “Movies and TV are different.” I disagree. I recently so a prominent movie studio who had purposefully put most of a popular movie onto the internet. The catch was that the ending was missing. I bet that generated DVD sales. I also noticed that most tv stations are now streaming popular shows on the internet. Why is that? They make money with all the advertising that they put around and into the streams. Once again, we are moving into a new paradigm. The people who will succeed are the ones who find a way to use the new paradigm to their advantage.
Food for thought…Isn’t it?
How… convenient. You get to strike a blow for Freedom AND enjoy a movie without paying for it. Sorry, I’m not buying that argument. First, it’s clear you don’t know your American history. The History Channel has a 13 part series called Revolution that you can buy
on Amazonat the A&E store. Second, the analogy doesn’t work on a number of levels, starting with the fact that the colonists risked everything they had, and didn’t drink the tea. Content thieves risk nothing or next to nothing, and get to drink the tea. Also, it’s exorbitant. The word you used sounds like something from a feminine protection ad.How does you ripping off RIAA AND the artist make you Robin Hood? I don’t know or care how much of the cost of CD is profit. Companies, people, are entitled to make as much profit as they are able. What are you, some kind of Marxist? From each according to his talent, to each according to his media preferences? Give me a break. The only question you should ask, when it comes to the cost of a CD or a movie, is “Is it worth it to me?” If you don’t like the price of something, just don’t buy it. It’s a free country, and I bet you really can continue to live even without hearing that music on your ipod or watching that movie on your computer.
You are also free to invent and promote a delivery system you like better, and convince artists to use it and to convince big companies to adopt it if it’s so superior. If that’s peer to peer, fine – show them there’s a way to make it profitable, and they’ll get on board. They’re in business to make money, after all. But the “convenience and technology” arguments ring awfully hollow when you yourselves are the only beneficiaries, not the creators of what you’re taking without payment. You think stealing may hasten that technology improvement – I don’t know whether it will or not. But I do know that it’s wrong to take something that should be paid for, without paying for it. Call it what you want, rationalize it however you want, but if it was happening to you, you wouldn’t like it one bit.
Food for thought… Isn’t it?
By the way… if you want to see what the next big advances in media technology are, look at the porn industry. I despise that industry because it is abusive to women and harmful to men, but I have to hand it to them where technological advances and profit are concerned.
And Russ, the more I think about it, the more your facile and false analogy aggravates me. Content thieves are not colonists rebelling against an arbitrary and unfair King who controlled many aspects of their lives. Read the Declaration of Independence – there is long, long list of King George’s offenses against the colonists. Content thieves are simply consumers who don’t want to pay for what they consume. If you can’t afford to spend $40 at the movies, don’t go. Wait a while and rent the DVD for $4. This isn’t like someone withholding food from your children, where stealing and lawbreaking would be understandable. It’s just entertainment, a luxury item by any reasonable standard and certainly not something you are entitled to free of charge. And you have a wide array of alternatives if you can’t afford your first choice. The vast majority of the country pays for their entertainment – a situation that subsidizes the thieves among us, because if everyone did steal it, it wouldn’t be long before we saw our last new movie and listened to our final new CD.
You’re fighting a lost cause, Laura. When I was in high school, I wrote an imaginary bill for the YMCA Youth Legislature to combat music piracy. I got critiqued to no end and got no where. Young people just don’t believe in property rights.
For the record, how much does it cost to make a cd? Aside from physically burning a cd and even “add[ing] in marketing and paying the artist,” the record label must pay for transportation, lawyers, the writers of the song (often different from the artist), all the other employees working for the artist, the rent for real estate at your local music store (in the form of discounted prices for the store itself), cashiers and employees to sell you the music, taxes, etc.
If you really think CDs shouldn’t cost so much, buy your albums off Napster for $1 per song (which you can download thrice) or $10 per album — OR DON’T OBTAIN THEM AT ALL. If you can’t stand to pay for a song, WRITE YOUR OWN, or otherwise wait 70 years after the death of the artist and download it for free off the public domain. If you think the record companies are making ridiculous profits then buy their stock. But just quit stealing.
I love the fact that anyone who stands up for people who use peer to peer automatically is guilty of illegally sharing music and movies AND they are single handedly responsible for the end of the world as we know it. People won’ be able to eat or feed their families…Movies will never be made…Music in all its forms will cease.
I NEVER stated that I had illegally downloaded anything…I merely stated that I can understand the feelings and the rational for someone in that state. To set the record straight, the only files that I download are ones that are legal or that I have paid to purchase on cd or that I have bought online. I haven’t ever done anything with movies either.
So get off your high horses and stop “hatin’.”
Oh, and one more thing…It’s not “beating the crap out of you,” the record company doing business.
That’s right – it IS just the record company doing business, and people have every right to choose not to do business with them. They don’t have the right, however, to take something without payment that payment is expected for.