[aldo_14]

It's about value for money, actually.

[Kosh]

Redmenace would have a heart attack if he saw the piracy in this country. Anything you want (assuming that it is reasonalby new), two RMB.

[Rictor]

If you want it, pay for it.

If you want to punish them, don't buy it.

Vote with your walllets. What you are really saying is, you want it, but you don't want to pay for it. So you perpetuate the bull**** that the RIAA pulls off, you GIVE them targets for this insanity by stealing it.

They have it, they charge for it, you get it without paying for it. Justify it all you want with word games about "property" but you got something you didn't pay for.

Stop giving the bastards the satisfaction of being right.

Oh yeah, it's not about not wanting to pay for it, it's about freedom. I forgot.

I consider it morally (though of course not legally) justified to steal from the rich, particularly when the specific people I steal from contribute nothing to society, are responsbile for the commercialization of what is supposed to be an art form, and serve as llittle more than conduits to take money from the stupid and give it to the ruthless.

[redmenace]

Redmenace would have a heart attack if he saw the piracy in this country. Anything you want (assuming that it is reasonalby new), two RMB.

Believe me, I know. I also know the 50% bs response they give for it. Actually, one of my professors and I were talking about that very subject about how you can get basically anything on the street. Not only that but look at all the chinese imports on frackin ebay. all due respect, believe me, I am well aware.

[Kosh]

It's no joke that you can get anything on the street. There is one street in this city that all the stores sell technology related devices. People there hang around these stores with a handful of pirated DVD's, and if you are interested in buying something, they will take you to their homes where they have 100s of pirated DVDs of almost everything. Computer software, movies, tv shows, you name it. There are also lots of these people on the streets too.

The pirated stuff looks genuine (right down to the DVD covers). For example, I bought a DVD of "Lord of War" (while it was still in theatres in America) and, except that the screen would occationally turn grey for a couple of minutes and say "Property of Lions Gate Entertainment", I could not tell that it was pirated at all.

This makes me wonder, if the people who pirate and sell these things for $0.25 can make enough money to stay profitable, it makes me wonder why DVD's in America cost $10 or more. So is it really worth it to buy legit stuff? For me it isn't when I can get anything I want (for example: Adobe Photoshop for 7 RMB) for the equivelent of 1 USD on the black market.

[Turambar]

If you want it, pay for it.

If you want to punish them, don't buy it.

Vote with your walllets. What you are really saying is, you want it, but you don't want to pay for it. So you perpetuate the bull**** that the RIAA pulls off, you GIVE them targets for this insanity by stealing it.

They have it, they charge for it, you get it without paying for it. Justify it all you want with word games about "property" but you got something you didn't pay for.

Stop giving the bastards the satisfaction of being right.

Oh yeah, it's not about not wanting to pay for it, it's about freedom. I forgot.

I consider it morally (though of course not legally) justified to steal from the rich, particularly when the specific people I steal from contribute nothing to society, are responsbile for the commercialization of what is supposed to be an art form, and serve as llittle more than conduits to take money from the stupid and give it to the ruthless.

QFT!  Robin Hood FTW!!

I used two 3-letter abbreviations!  LOL!!

but seriously, im with Inq on this one
*adjusts eyepatch* and chicks totally dig the pirates

[Ulala]

*shrugs* I listen to quite a bit of music, but most of it is OSTs/OSVs from games, piano music, and some techno. I could probably burn all the music I'd want to listen to onto a DVD. If I needed a musical pop-culture fix, I'd just turn on the radio.

[NGTM-1R]

I just completely gave up on all music save that from modarchive.

[Nuke]

i stick to the underground, like i said, its very kvlt to have your **** pirated, and if i had a bm band, id want people to pirate it too.

rockstars in america need to work for a living. i listen to of foreign metal. i respect how close knit their musicians are. some of them will be in several bands at once, do 5 shows a week and for beans. now thats metal. theres nothing metal about multi-million dollar contracts and ripping off stupid kids. big record lables are bad for bands as well. they sign what they can sell, not whats good. usually simple music that is really dumbed down. then if you manage to get signed they manipulate your band so they can sell to a larger demographic. then they make musicians lives harder by making them filty rich, encouraging their drug and alchohal habbits, and in some cases, catering too their addictions. they burn out become arrogant as their talent breaks down. they flood the airwaves with overmarketed crap while people with talent are playing at bars and nightclubs, usually working a day job to make ends meet. when a band has to work for a living they dont have the time and the money for bull****. id rather give my money to such a band than pop star x. its not the legalization of piracy i want, people should be allowed to make a living of their work, its only fair as we all have to. none the less we need a restructuring of the system.

[Eightball]

I pretty much agree with Inquisitor.

If you at Barnes and Noble and the available selection is both over-priced and poor-quality, you don't grab everything you can off the shelves and run away to "punish" them.

[karajorma]

No. You go to a public library and read the books for free.

[aldo_14]

They have libraries in America, don't they?

[Eightball]

Yeah.

Many have (Gasp!) CDs.

[Stealth]

i dunno.

i don't disagree with what she said.  i mean, he broke the law. he got fined. he can't afford the fine without dropping out of college/university.

... but suddenly the blame's on the RIAA because they're inadvertently forcing or implying that he should drop college?  Are we forgetting why he's in this situation in the first place?  He took a chance.  If he didn't want to risk getting caught, he wouldn't have downloaded music in the first place.

Granted it may not be completely right for the RIAA to be fining people so high, but the fact remains that he broke the law, and he got punished for it.  Not the RIAA's problem, not capitalist america's problem.  his problem.

[Mefustae]

The issue is not that he has to pay the fine, it's that the fine is so damn high. I mean, say he downloaded $100 worth of music, shouldn't it be logical that he pay back that $100, rather than $1000? The only reason he is being fined so much is to crucify him so others don't do it, but other people are going to do it anyway, so they're forcing him to drop out of MIT - effectively ruining most prospects for his future - for absolutely no reason at all.

F*** the RIAA, f*** them up their stupid asses!

[Martinus]

Lets say hypothetically that someone brings out an entirely anonymous version of something like the bittorrent client in the next few years, I can guarantee you that the RIAA and MPAA will use all of their (considerable) political push to bring into action new laws that will inhibit how you can use technology.

As far as I'm concerned they can keep peddling their ****e to anyone foolish enough to buy it. What they cannot do however is to tell me what I can do with something that I bought that they should have no ownership over; my technology. Unfortunately voting with your wallets is not a viable option because there are simply too many people in the world that care more about Britney's new album than their own rights. I consider it more akin to the old phrase "When freedom is outlawed, only outlaws will be free"; you need to take action which was previously not illegal in order to deprive them of the money they would use to trap you into creating more cash for them. Only when they realise that they are no longer able to make money on their terms will the market become more competitive. There's a reason that there's a 'big 5'. They bent the law and your freedom to make sure that nobody could stand against them.

[Stealth]

The issue is not that he has to pay the fine, it's that the fine is so damn high. I mean, say he downloaded $100 worth of music, shouldn't it be logical that he pay back that $100, rather than $1000? The only reason he is being fined so much is to crucify him so others don't do it, but other people are going to do it anyway, so they're forcing him to drop out of MIT - effectively ruining most prospects for his future - for absolutely no reason at all.

F*** the RIAA, f*** them up their stupid asses!

that's ridiculous.

so if someone breaks into a house and steals a television... and then a few days later gets caught.  he/she should only be made to pay the retail price on the TV he/she stole?  lol that's comical.  it's the principal. 

[Mefustae]

that's ridiculous.

so if someone breaks into a house and steals a television... and then a few days later gets caught. he/she should only be made to pay the retail price on the TV he/she stole? lol that's comical. it's the principal.

That's completely different, we're dealing with petty theft here, not breaking into an Rapper's house and stealing his bling. A more apt analogy would be someone breaking into your house and stealing some change out of the change-dish you keep near the door, and then - when they're caught - making them buy you a Television, all the while saying 'shutup, that's completely fair'.

[Ford Prefect]

Not to mention the fact that the record companies like us to forget that they're just a giant middleman between the artist and the public, and that the theft is not one that affects the person who made the music, but the company that took charge of its distribution. The artists quite frequently get ****ed by these companies to the point where a lot of them are now turning to smaller, independent labels.

[Eightball]

I guess it's just funny that you guys think it's morally right - nay, it is your duty to steal.

If you don't like the law, try to change it.  If everybody stopped obeying laws they didn't like...