Interesting Article on Piracy

[TheSlyMoogle]

http://gizmodo.com/5539417/why-i-steal-movies-even-ones-im-in

Like a billion other people, I download things illegally. I'm also an actor, writer and director whose income depends on revenue from DVDs, movies and books. This leads to many conflicts in my head, in my heart, and in bars.

From an industry standpoint, physical media has a great advantage: It is its own copy-protection. Even disregarding the DRM built-in to discs, to make copies is hugely impractical for the average consumer. But physical media is disappearing. We simply don't need it any more. Remember slinging out your VHS collection? That's how I'm now thinking about my DVDs. And don't think you're safe either, Blu-rays.

He then basically goes on to explain why he is joyed that everything he wants that is digitized is readily available in the form of a torrent download, and to discuss some of the often frustrating things with youtube and other things (Can't view this vid in your country, Can't read this ebook on iPads because it's in adobe format).

An interesting read, also if you haven't seen his show, I suggest checking it out as it's pretty funny.

[TheSlyMoogle]

Double TAP!

Just because I'm sort of interested in getting this whole debate going again I will post my feelings on piracy.

As many of you may already know I'm a huge pirate. I haven't paid for a single cd, song, movie, tv show, book or Nintendo DS game in probably the last 6 years. Well I did buy Pokemon Diamond when it came out, and aside from Magical Starsign it's my only legitimate DS game. I'll get to that later though.

So why do I do it?

I have broken down my philosophy into each form:

Movies:

Here's how I feel about movies... Basically I hate watching movies for the first time usually in any other format than theaters. So it is highly unlikely that any movie I want to see I haven't already seen in a theater... However when downloading movies they're generally either: 1.) Movies I didn't get a chance to see in Theater but are now available on DVD, 2.) Movies that are foreign or limited release that are hard to find even on DVD, 3.) Movies that are so old it's often hard to find them on DVD.

Now to be honest I would be willing to pay a small fee to go to a website and stream a movie, and as far as ownership goes, I would be willing to pay a slightly larger fee to own the actual movie. However the closest thing to this service is netflix, and as far as I know they don't offer a service that allows you to pay to stream or rent a movie as a 1 and done deal. Like would it really be so bad to put a movie online and stream it for say 25 to 50 cents? Something that cheap, well in a day I could watch 6 movies for the price of renting one movie at blockbuster, and with the lack of any physical expenses, I expect a service like that to be very profitable. I mean pretty much every blockbuster movie that is released has the 1 goal of making more than it's expense to create, and generally most blockbusters do. So DVDs are generally just another form of profit. They're not that expensive to ship or make really, and when they finally reach us they're 20-30 dollars. That's silly, often for a movie you paid 9 dollars or more to see in a theater.

Music: I listen to a lot of music... A lot. I think the music industry however is severely flawed and stubborn. They were the first of the big entertainment industries to run into this problem. Small files, easy to rip a CD, and easy to transfer the files to friends or to just give them your CD so they could do it. You'll be hard pressed to find someone these days who doesn't own an MP3 player of some type whether it be specifically for music or if it's a function of their phone. They were so silly and stubborn for years, and approached the piracy issue with an iron fist instead of embracing digital media, and coming up with a way to profit from it. Eventually Apple did, but by then I think perhaps it was a little too late.

However I don't feel bad about stealing music. Why? Well for the most part I feel like very little of the money I spend is probably going to the artist themselves. I'm sure most of the profit goes to the label, and i should hope by now that youtube has proven that you don't need the promotion you would get from a record label to be successful. The next reason is... If you find an artist on my iPod more than likely I have been to a concert they put on and used the money I didn't spend on their CD, to go see them in concert, where I generally buy an over-priced t-shirt to remember the event with, and if for some reason they serve alcohol I usually buy an over-priced beer too (Well since I turned 21 anyway). If I haven't seen an artist or band in concert it's because either I missed their tour or they stopped performing, or it's some shitty pop song that I just have the 1 song from them. You might say "Well John, you could just pay a dollar and get that 1 song on itunes" Fortunately I don't download shitty pop songs anymore anyway because thanks to youtube I can listen there, for free, as much as I want for a day or 2 and then that song is usually something I never want to hear ever again.

There are already services available with a small monthly fee that allow you to basically listen to any song you want to hear in certain settings, like your computer, phone and think even some cars now. Stuff like the pay services for Pandora and such. I feel that hopefully it wont be long before there will be services that allow you to just pay a fee for amount of music downloaded or whatever, and it's cheap. Like 10 dollars to download as much as you want in a month? I mean that's honestly fair, and guess what? It happens already, but I guarantee you most people would do something like that. I know I would jump on it for 120 dollars a year to get as much music as I wanted, because it's a price I feel is fair, and it's something I already do anyway.

Books:

Well the reason I steal books is because libraries are dying. I've never been able to afford the 25 dollar price tag for most hardcovers, and even most soft backs are 9+ dollars these days. I go to libraries at least twice a month to get books and return them. I absolutely love reading, and when enthralled in a book will do nothing more than read. Unfortunately I'm starting to see more and more libraries closing or severely reducing their hours. The local library here is now only open Tuesday to Thursday, and has reduced hours on those days from 11 AM to 4 PM. Five hours, and those 5 hours are generally times I'm working or sleeping. Even in Lexington, KY the closest library was 8 miles away, and started slowing down their hours.

I'm not worried too much about books though, it's rare I'll download one, but sometimes it has happened, and I have to say, maybe the last time Neil Gaiman came out with a new book I couldn't afford to buy the real thing, so I stole it to read, but I still enjoyed it, and he's still my favorite author, and hopefully the next time he releases a book, I can afford it in some way.

Things like the kindle and iPad are changing things though. Books in the kindle shop are varying degrees of cheap, and that this is hella convenient. The only problem is the kindle itself is major expensive. However I don't disagree with the way books are being handled and actually think they're assimilating quite well into the digital society.

T.V. Shows:

Well this used to be an issue, but basically I haven't had a problem finding streaming versions of any modern show since heroes did it 4 or so years ago. Which I totally agree with. Everyone is doing it these days, and not paying for 1000 different garbage cable channels gives me extra money to occasionally buy season dvd collections for shows I love.

DS games will have to wait until tomorrow as I can't hold my eyes open.

[Zen]

I used to pirate everything, big time, the only thing ive stopped with is video games, because it cheapens the game for me. When I dont pay money for it I barely even want to play it, as opposed to "you paid for this so you better god damn beat it". That or I end up with so many games I dont know what to play, with my limited gametime these days one game lasts me forever, so no real need to pirate anything.

Now movies, I dont care about, I do not buy movies. Same thing with music.

[KillerGremlin]

I can see this thread going in a lot of directions....the first direction I can see is people quoting other people's piracy habits and applying their own moral beliefs which will result in some good arguing but it could also spiral into a good flame war.

So to keep things in good fun, at least for a little, perhaps everyone can clarify their own moral position in a context that does not involve quoting other members personal habits. Then, once there position is established...they can let it rip! I'm all for a good argument, but we need some foundations. :D



I'll throw out my first though...which is that I do like to OWN a physical copy of media. I like having my piece of plastic when it comes to a movie, music, or TV show. For me it is the ultimate form of ownership...I have the media, and I can do whatever I want with it.

[TheSlyMoogle]

I can see this thread going in a lot of directions....the first direction I can see is people quoting other people's piracy habits and applying their own moral beliefs which will result in some good arguing but it could also spiral into a good flame war.

So to keep things in good fun, at least for a little, perhaps everyone can clarify their own moral position in a context that does not involve quoting other members personal habits. Then, once there position is established...they can let it rip! I'm all for a good argument, but we need some foundations. :D



I'll throw out my first though...which is that I do like to OWN a physical copy of media. I like having my piece of plastic when it comes to a movie, music, or TV show. For me it is the ultimate form of ownership...I have the media, and I can do whatever I want with it.



Well for the most part I was going for a thread mostly about your pirating habits and at the same time a solution to what would make you stop those habits. Because let's face it piracy is a huge deal in most of the entertainment industry.

[The Germanator]

Double TAP!


Music: I listen to a lot of music... A lot. I think the music industry however is severely flawed and stubborn. They were the first of the big entertainment industries to run into this problem. Small files, easy to rip a CD, and easy to transfer the files to friends or to just give them your CD so they could do it. You'll be hard pressed to find someone these days who doesn't own an MP3 player of some type whether it be specifically for music or if it's a function of their phone. They were so silly and stubborn for years, and approached the piracy issue with an iron fist instead of embracing digital media, and coming up with a way to profit from it. Eventually Apple did, but by then I think perhaps it was a little too late.

However I don't feel bad about stealing music. Why? Well for the most part I feel like very little of the money I spend is probably going to the artist themselves. I'm sure most of the profit goes to the label, and i should hope by now that youtube has proven that you don't need the promotion you would get from a record label to be successful. The next reason is... If you find an artist on my iPod more than likely I have been to a concert they put on and used the money I didn't spend on their CD, to go see them in concert, where I generally buy an over-priced t-shirt to remember the event with, and if for some reason they serve alcohol I usually buy an over-priced beer too (Well since I turned 21 anyway). If I haven't seen an artist or band in concert it's because either I missed their tour or they stopped performing, or it's some shitty pop song that I just have the 1 song from them. You might say "Well John, you could just pay a dollar and get that 1 song on itunes" Fortunately I don't download shitty pop songs anymore anyway because thanks to youtube I can listen there, for free, as much as I want for a day or 2 and then that song is usually something I never want to hear ever again.

There are already services available with a small monthly fee that allow you to basically listen to any song you want to hear in certain settings, like your computer, phone and think even some cars now. Stuff like the pay services for Pandora and such. I feel that hopefully it wont be long before there will be services that allow you to just pay a fee for amount of music downloaded or whatever, and it's cheap. Like 10 dollars to download as much as you want in a month? I mean that's honestly fair, and guess what? It happens already, but I guarantee you most people would do something like that. I know I would jump on it for 120 dollars a year to get as much music as I wanted, because it's a price I feel is fair, and it's something I already do anyway.


I'm going to try to stick to mostly music here, as that is a field I'm involved with. First of all, I believe Rhapsody already has that type of service you describe. http://www.rhapsody.com/welcome.html $10 a month, supposedly for any song you'd ever want. Honestly, I have no idea if this is actually good or not, I just happened to see a commercial for it the other day...

As for myself, I pirate music and my music is pirated. I suppose that's kind of how I justify it. I think "oh, well, people do it to me, why can't I do it?" I admit it's not much of a justification. If anything, I should know that it has completely affected and roughed up the music industry, so I shouldn't do it. But in the end, I'm a poor musician, so I download stuff or get it from friends because I can't really afford to buy CDs like I used to.

Anyway, that's also my general reaction to other people downloading our music. I can't really stop it, and I figure that more people are going to hear our music if they can get it for free than if they have to pay for it. If a percentage of those people ends up coming to a show and buying a T-shirt, well than that's pretty good. We've even had people come to our show specifically saying that they've downloaded our music. A lot of times those people will then directly buy a CD from you at the show, which is really the best profit margin for the band. However, as a whole, piracy has certainly turned the music industry into something else. Vinyl is coming back which is interesting...I think the music industry is finally trying to work out the digital marketplace and make it work, but they should have started way earlier...It's a crazy business, but you just have to put out good songs and hope that people like it and maybe someone pays you to put your song in a commercial. That always helps.

[TheSlyMoogle]

I'm going to try to stick to mostly music here, as that is a field I'm involved with. First of all, I believe Rhapsody already has that type of service you describe. http://www.rhapsody.com/welcome.html $10 a month, supposedly for any song you'd ever want. Honestly, I have no idea if this is actually good or not, I just happened to see a commercial for it the other day...

As for myself, I pirate music and my music is pirated. I suppose that's kind of how I justify it. I think "oh, well, people do it to me, why can't I do it?" I admit it's not much of a justification. If anything, I should know that it has completely affected and roughed up the music industry, so I shouldn't do it. But in the end, I'm a poor musician, so I download stuff or get it from friends because I can't really afford to buy CDs like I used to.

Anyway, that's also my general reaction to other people downloading our music. I can't really stop it, and I figure that more people are going to hear our music if they can get it for free than if they have to pay for it. If a percentage of those people ends up coming to a show and buying a T-shirt, well than that's pretty good. We've even had people come to our show specifically saying that they've downloaded our music. A lot of times those people will then directly buy a CD from you at the show, which is really the best profit margin for the band. However, as a whole, piracy has certainly turned the music industry into something else. Vinyl is coming back which is interesting...I think the music industry is finally trying to work out the digital marketplace and make it work, but they should have started way earlier...It's a crazy business, but you just have to put out good songs and hope that people like it and maybe someone pays you to put your song in a commercial. That always helps.


Awesome. I'm glad you commented as was hoping.

I always figured the actual bands got more from me going and buying a shirt at the shows than me buying the cd in a store or whatever. Awesome.

Like I said I like to remember my concerts with t-shirts. Half the band shirts I have I've never worn even, but I still like just having the shirts. I have mostly hung them on the wall kinda like posters. Weird I know.

Anyone on to my last two articles of piracy:

TV Shows:

As far as TV shows go the only thing I pirate anymore usually are really old shows. For the most part you can find pretty much every episode of a show streaming online now on the website. Thanks to Heroes and South Park everyone is doing it now. However if they're not, I'll download them. I'm not paying 50+ dollars for seasons of a show I've never seen just to find out I maybe don't like the show. Sorry, not paying for something that is usually broadcast freely. I also pirate anime, which has been going on forever since like people started watching shows and such on the internet, and since Japanese loving children started translating the episodes into english. Often this is much faster and done just as well as companies do it. Plus who wants to hear cracker jack english voice acting anyway?

Video games:

Oh video games...

Video games I rarely pirate with few exceptions. For the most part I feel paying the full price for the games is worth it, because for the most part you get any extras, and it ensures you'll always be able to play the games online with no problems. That's the most important thing for me anyway.

However with DS games... They're a rip off. There are few I enjoy playing and I will continue to pirate them until the day people put original thought into them. The only DS games I own are Pokemon Diamond, Magical Starsign, and both the professor layton games. I'm not paying 40 dollars for your shovelware. No thanks. F YOU NINTENDO.

I also pirate things that only come out in Japan such as certain fighting games, but thanks to SF4 I don't really have to worry too much about that anymore thanks the to resurrgence of fighters.

[Vampyr]

I used to pirate stuff, but not anymore.

Video games: Like Zen said, I get little to no pleasure out of playing a game I have pirated. And thanks to Steam I can get a large quantity of my PC games for very cheap, since everything goes on sale at some point, and I feel like the developers deserve the money. Making games is hard work, even shovel ware.

The only games I ever pirate are ROM's for games that were only released in Japan and a legit English translation doesn't exist (the SNES Fire Emblem, for example). However, if these games ever do come out for the virtual console or something, I will buy it on there. I like playing games on my TV more anyway.

TV & movies: As a subscriber to Netflix, I never have a reason to. A ton of TV is streamable, as are a ton of movies. And even if they aren't, it's only a couple of days wait to get what I want. If you were to factor out everything I watch on Netflix vs the monthly fee I pay, I am getting a ridiculously good deal.

Music: For one thing, I don't really listen to music very much. When I do feel like listening to music, I use Grooveshark.

Books: I don't want to read off of a computer screen. I work down the road from a library...I should get a card there. I'm also live about 5 minutes from another library...

Software: This one is the hardest for me to resist. Some software is just outrageously expensive - the reason being that they make most of their profit off of selling it to large businesses. If I have a way to get software free or cheap legally, I usually take that path (I'm a member of the MSDN, and I can get a lot of cheap software through my University), but I don't really have a problem with people pirating software that they can't afford, even though I am a software developer myself. The biggest reason for this being that I have moral problems with the fact that any software you buy isn't really yours - you are buying a "license" for it. I just hate that. If I was a developer working on Photoshop, I really wouldn't have a problem with teenagers or other people who can't afford it pirating it. Fortunately, there are a TON of great free and open source alternatives today. People can use Linux if they can't afford windows. People can use OpenOffice.org if they can't afford Microsoft Office. GIMP and Paint.net exist if you can't afford Photoshop.

In conclusion, I think the world has caught on. 5 - 10 years ago, it would be hard to justify not being a pirate, but now we have so many options available to us that it's not needed as much. People are realizing they can found a business based on micro transactions or brief advertisements (Hulu), and I think in general people are willing to put up with those things to get something legit as opposed to pirating it.