RollWithEm

One more:

Where do you stand on the issue of piracy? Have you ever done it? Do you still do it? Do you buy bootlegs? How do you think it has affected the music and movie industries? What do you think a reasonable punishment should be for a person caught pirating, if any?

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But that's just me.

RollWithEm

BTW, this is the spectacular ad that got me thinking about this in the first place:

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But that's just me.

Hyperion

Piracy is what law abiding citizens do when the government interferes with free trade.

How can it be legal for there to be a blockbuster video where I pay someone to watch their copy of another's movie but I can't merely download it for personal use? How can it be legal that someone sells me a used CD then gives none of the profits to the artist yet me doing the same without the middleman is problematic?

Piracy only exists because the corporations haven't figured out how to be profitable through free music. They're learning now. Just look at concert ticket prices. They're even putting on large events. IHeartRadio is ClearChannel rebranded. The technology exists that would allow for complete vertical integration of music and movies but the companies just don't want to change their paradigm.

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"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time... like tears in rain...."

"The light that burns twice as bright burns for half as long - and you have burned so very, very brightly"

Dornado

You really don't see the difference in those scenarios? In the case of blockbuster, the rental company pays for the right to rent out those videos, so those that created the work of art are compensated. You downloading it for free from someone else who is distributing it to an enormous amount of people for free (and who likely only paid enough to get the DVD for personal use) is far different, isn't it? Similarly, a person who sells you a used CD has a product that was purchased at some point... if the creators are compensated at the point of purchase then it doesn't matter whether the person re-sells that one item... online piracy is more like me buying a CD, making a bunch of copies of that CD, and then selling those copies for a profit. Dornado's burned-CD emporium would be stealing their intellectual property, just selling my copy of a CD I bought wouldn't.

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Basel

I'm sure if I was a musical artist or actor, I wouldn't like the idea of piracy. But I'm not and if I can find a way to get a movie or album free, I'll do it.

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Hyperion

So if I bought a copy of 10 DVDs of a particular movie, I can let people watch one of them over and over again while charging them but not giving money to the studio? Or are you arguing that because the studios are complicit and facilitating the rental industry its okay? I remember a time when they weren't okay with movie rental stores. So does that make them pirates too?

You look at used CD stores and tell me where the cut of the profit is for the studio when a CD gets ripped onto your computer (legal) and then sold to a secondhand store (legal) which is then sold to another person at a profit (legal). In all of this, the music company receives only ONE payment. The secondhand store is selling copies of the music company's music WITHOUT paying royalties.

Now on to that digital copy. Is it legal for you to keep that copy of a CD even though you don't have that album anymore?

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"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time... like tears in rain...."

"The light that burns twice as bright burns for half as long - and you have burned so very, very brightly"

Prince

I have never bought a CD in my life.

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Hyperion

You have always had high speed internet too I bet. Music before Napster was a whole lot more difficult to get ahold of without buying the CD.

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"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time... like tears in rain...."

"The light that burns twice as bright burns for half as long - and you have burned so very, very brightly"