Piracy and the Obama Administration

[Abyssalstudios1]

What fascinates me is that people assume that, because I've copied something, the publisher has lost income. Their balance sheet will stay the same whether I copy something or not. I haven't stolen a disc or something.

[Aliotroph?]

Well, they've lost income if you were going to buy it. They've lost nothing at all if you're the sort who never buy it. There are a lot of those. Sometimes people like that probably help publishers by exposing their material to people who will buy. I wonder if that often outweighs the number of people who just copy things for the convenience.

[Abyssalstudios1]

I do know that my legal copy of Bioshock will not accept my legal serial. Cracks can be used for more than copyright infringement.

[Technician]

I download music all the time. I also pay an insane amount of money on concerts.

[HackNeyed]

Thank you, Aliotroph? Ralphis and Jodwin for having the actual conversation this news should bring up. The piracy discussion will always be a circle jerk of opinion and facts that are about as clear as a 100th generation fax copy or legal document. I think there is good and bad on both sides however, uh-oh, was that imaginary fax in my analogy spreading copyright infringement? If so the government seems to think the makers of my Canon Fax/Copy/Scanner should be treated as criminals and perhaps my act of owning such a device should put me on a special watch list for thought crime or library cards... No, that's absurd, right?

Right.

What's next? Are they gonna arrest Logitch for manufacturing keyboards with c and v keys... lol

[RestlessRodent]

You don't buy software, you buy a license. Licenses can usually only be used by a single person at a time. So if you don't have a license to use the software then you are illegally using it.

[Coopersville]

Scet said:

You know the "music" on YT is total crap and incredibly inefficient space/bandwidth wise, right?

Don't care.

[Use]

Coopersville said:

Don't care.

Might as well listen to music through a can attached to a string, save electricity.

[Mr. T]

Buy buy buy, it costs money to make shit you know.$$$

[Abyssalstudios1]

The thing is, I know piracy is wrong (sort of). What really pisses me off is the complete overreaction to individual cases. It's like the Big Industries are trying to get at all pirates with just a few trials.

[ArmouredBlood]

I torrented some music. I found pandora. I don't torrent music anymore. I also used to torrent anime, but I've been out of the loop and don't think there're any good ones this season, so besides some .pdfs I got for a SWRP my friends and I are doing, I haven't torrented anything for months. Funnily enough, our de facto dm torrented some other .pdfs for it, but now supports ending piracy ... heh.

/non-doom weird facts about myself and/or life.

[Mr. T]

ArmouredBlood said:

I torrented some music. I found pandora. I don't torrent music anymore. I also used to torrent anime, but I've been out of the loop and don't think there're any good ones this season, so besides some .pdfs I got for a SWRP my friends and I are doing, I haven't torrented anything for months. Funnily enough, our de facto dm torrented some other .pdfs for it, but now supports ending piracy ... heh.

/non-doom weird facts about myself and/or life.

Torrenting is so old skool, use megaupload (lol)

[Aliotroph?]

In Canada torrenting music is legal despite there being only a broken framework to reimburse artists with a levy on blank media as discussed here before. Despite this, huge numbers of people don't downgrab a lot of music, or even none at all.

[Maes]

hardcore_gamer said:

If he were merely thinking about it, if it were just a thought, then it would have ended right there. But by looking for torrents online/buying a gun and putting together a plan the person has proven that he has already passed the "thinking process" and is now actively seeking to do torrent/murder.

Guilt by association? You would make a dandy, ruthless, heel-clacking fascist yes-man thug for some totalitarian asshole, "hardcore_gamer". More like "hardcore_fascist".

[Mr. Freeze]

Maes said:

Guilt by association? You would make a dandy, ruthless, heel-clacking fascist yes-man thug for some totalitarian asshole, "hardcore_gamer". More like "hardcore_fascist".

The sad part?

The hyperbole you were using is actually correct.

[Whoo]

The posts made by hardcore_gamer in this thread make me want to throw my head into an oven.

[myk]

Keep in mind this hardcore_gamer guy also thinks Marx invented racial genocide.

hardcore_gamer said:
But it reduces income, and that is almost as bad.

Income for some, that isn't guaranteed nor something they necessarily deserve. It also increases the income of people who don't have much income in the first place, as they can spend it on other things rather than a slew of digital services, and also their access to "intellectual capital". The same principle can be applied to free software in general, whether legal or not, and you can expect the same associations to attack both piracy and free software. Piracy is a very natural side-effect of the dominance of commercial software. Attacks on piracy will, due to the tactics used, naturally be detrimental to free software.

This "war on piracy" is a war on the ability of many people to access information without a select group of businesses controlling the bulk of information or means of information.

[The Ultimate DooMer]

The above post is correct.

[E_O]

Ralphis said:

The bill also makes it a criminal offense to bypass DRM.

Seriously? Fucking seriously? DRM is by-and-large a draconian measure that hurts paying customers.

And does Obama really think he can prevent free distribution on the internet? Ha. Very funny.

[Jannak]

This is solid evidence that Capitalism is not and will never be truly a democracy but rather a republic for a wealthy few.

As long capitalism exists, the internet as we know it now will inevitably come to an end. I'm sorry to say this but unfortunately that's how Capitalism works.

Infact even the Internet itself is antithetical to the capitalist system due to being a open system for all rather than proprietary which the capitalists will try everything in their power to get it back in their grimy hands (As I heard that the Internet was originally developed by the Military and used by big businesses but got let out by mistake into our hands and been using it eversince...as if we never had internet rights to begin with we just got lucky) so they'll keep our society stagnate and under stasis circa the 18th/19th/20th centuries and prevent it from progressing.

As I think the only way to truly progress is to replace Capitalism with a more suitable system for workers like us via a revolution (Socialism).

[Mr. T]

Jannak said:

This is solid evidence that Capitalism is not and will never be truly a democracy but rather a republic for a wealthy few.

As long capitalism exists, the internet as we know it will inevitably come to an end. I'm sorry to say this but unfortunately that's how Western Capitalism works.

That's not true, capitalism would be great if it had checks and balances so that it helps the poor rather than people who already have power. Just look at the bs restrictions on the internet in China, NK etc..........

[Jannak]

Mr. T said:

That's not true, capitalism would be great if it had checks and balances so that it helps the poor rather than people who already have power. Just look at the bs restrictions on the internet in China, NK etc..........

Unfortunately that's not how capitalism works since it's a individualist based system that basically says a huge "FUCK YOU" in large caps in large capital letters (pun intended) to collective needs hence why capitalism is inherently imbalanced nor can it be "fixed" or reformed to benefit the working class/poor but it can only be dismantled via class struggle.

Also there never was a true communist/socialist society since they never existed (they happen to be State Capitalist regimes...)

[Mr. T]

Jannak said:

Unfortunately that's not how capitalism works since it's a individualist based system that basically says a huge "FUCK YOU" in large caps in large capital letters (pun intended) to collective needs hence why capitalism is inherently imbalanced nor can it be "fixed" or reformed to benefit the working class/poor but it can only be dismantled.

Also there never was a true communist/socialist society since they never existed (they happen to be State Capitalist regimes...)

Hi, you can spout your communist mantras all you like, but modern history has consistently proven that a capitalist system with a robust welfare (healthcare, pensions, education) safety net to protect the disadvantaged is the best way for a society to prosper.

People like buying stuff, it's something ingrained in our collective psyche.

[Abyssalstudios1]

Mr. T said:

People like buying stuff, it's something ingrained in our collective psyche.

More specifically, most animals on this planet are self-focused, and humans are no exception. We care about ourselves over the collective. Consequently, capitalism prevails. If we were more collective creatures like ants or wasps, the notion of doing something for ourselves would be very foreign to us; a system like communism would prevail.

[Jannak]

It saddens me to see that most of you are apparently brainwashed by capitalist/liberalist pseudosciences ("human nature", etc) which is actually a class suppression tool to prevent class struggle in order to keep the working classes/poor down (it seems they have already succeeded...our fate is sealed). Hence one of the reasons why I think revolution would be unlikely due to this trend of thinking as people continue to (disturbingly willingly) suffer under capitalism.

[Mr. T]

Jannak said:

It saddens me to see that most of you are apparently brainwashed by capitalist/liberalist pseudosciences ("human nature", etc) which is actually a class suppression tool to prevent class struggle in order to keep the working classes/poor down (it seems they have already succeeded...our fate is sealed). Hence one of the reasons why I think revolution would be unlikely due to this trend of thinking as people continue to (disturbingly willingly) suffer under capitalism.

Not really. Just the alternative of turning my world into a piece of shit nightmare like North Korea isn't really appealing. Sorry.

[Jannak]

Mr. T said:

Not really. Just the alternative of turning my world into a piece of shit nightmare like North Korea isn't really appealing. Sorry.

Again, North Korea (like every so called "communist countries") is not and never will be communist but it's rather all along state capitalist. Stop getting your sources from bourgeoisie scholars/historians....

[Mr. T]

Jannak said:

Again, North Korea (like every so called "communist countries") is not and never will be communist but it's rather all along state capitalist. Stop getting your sources from bourgeoisie scholars/historians....

No, unlike you my source is REALITY. A lot of things would be great if they worked in practice as well as in theory (religion?), but unfortunately that's not how real life works.

[Aliotroph?]

LOL Communism is a stupid joke for anything bigger than a population of about 500 people.

As for capitalism not being a democracy, I say good. I'm also glad the government isn't as democratic as it could be. True democracy is mob rule by idiots rather than organized rule by a few idiots with limits on their power. Democracy is a tool that can be used to limit tyranny, not an end in itself.

In a communist society we'd all be bullied into producing whatever the community thinks is essential and innovation, craziness, risk and porn would all go right out the window. A capitalist society with no regulation would be close to the same thing in many cases, which most Americans fail to grasp despite all the companies that try to control everybody else for their own ends, including the makers of DRM.

[gggmork]

How about an evolved society where the majority of the geographic area is set aside to continue the less risky systems that more or less worked in the past, while a smaller island or something is allowed to do contained social/political experiments, perhaps based on theories instead of willy nilly. If the result is 'better', implement from the island into the larger society. If bad things happen, halt and try a new experiment.
Maybe that wouldn't work in our current exponentially changing age since moore's law and such constantly changes the larger society, perhaps at a rate that the experimental 'island' couldn't keep up. Obama is a long legged mack daddy.