Piracy Continues to Thrive

reply to Nightfall

Re: AArghh!

reply to ITALIAN926
First, the content makers have a different idea of ownership than the common consumer. If I pay for an item, I (and most reasonable people) consider it to be my property and I can do with it as I damn well please. If I want rip it to my PC or laptop so be it. If I want to stream it from my PC to my XBOX360 and listen to or watch it on my home entertainment system then that is my right because I bought it. Most people would be understandably pissed if they bought a vehicle and two months down the line the manufacturer took it back because they didn't like the way you were driving.

Second, you are getting overly dramatic about the demise of the entertainment industry. In fact, the "wants" of pirates the world over have been taking place for years and yet the entertainment industry is still here. Piracy, as popular as it has become, is not the threat they claim it to be. The real problem is the fact that instead of trying to adapt to an ever-changing market and new technology the content producers are trying to fight the natural evolution of the market through lobbying, legislation and litigation. They don't compete, they don't innovate, they refuse to adapt. While every other industry was finding ways to take of advantage of new tech the content producers were trying to keep their existing business models in place. Imagine if you could eliminate the middle man, cut costs and sell directly to your consumers. It's a businessman's wet dream. Like it or not, they are locked in competition with piracy because of their refusal to take advantage of new technology and an insistence on having an insane level of control over their product (even after the consumer has purchased it).

But the point of this article is, despite any argument made for or against piracy, it's a moot point. Piracy is not going anywhere. Pass a new law, sue millions. Piracy will still be there.

Yeah, that's one of the unfortunate downsides to capitalism and a fractional-reserve based economy. It promotes selfishness while at the same time destroying intrinsic motivation. 2 birds with one stone. The excellent sheep-maker combo.

reply to Snakeoil
Your argument is basically, I want a product, I am not willing to purchase it legally, so I have no choice but to steal it. US Home video sales (DVD, BluRay, PayTV, VOD, Streaming) are down 25% to $18.5B in 2011 from $25B in 2006. The first BitTorrent search engines debuted in 2004. Recorded music is down worldwide from $27B in 1999 (Napster) to $15B in 2011. Those are real jobs lost that are not coming back until the public realizes that these are your friends and neighbors whose careers are being destroyed by lack of copyright enforcement. Who is destroying these industries, ISPs, search engines and internet ad networks make 20 to 40 times more money than the US content industries. ISPs, search engines and internet ad networks profit from pointing to and distributing music, movies, software, games and books without paying any royalties. Google $44B a year, Verizon $120B a year compared to Viacom (CBS, MTV & Paramount Pictures) $14B a year, Warner Music Group $2.4B a year.

reply to Snakeoil
Your argument is basically - I want a product, I am not willing to purchase it in the manner the manufacturer distrbutes it so I have no choice but to steal it. US Home video sales (DVD, BluRay, PayTV, VOD, Streaming) are down 25% to $18.5B in 2011 from $25B in 2006. The first BitTorrent search engines debuted in 2004. Recorded music is down worldwide from $27B in 1999 (Napster) to $15B in 2011. Those are real jobs lost that are not coming back until the public realizes that these are your friends and neighbors whose careers are being destroyed by lack of copyright enforcement. Who is destroying these industries, ISPs, search engines and internet ad networks make 20 to 40 times more money than the US content industries. ISPs, search engines and internet ad networks profit from pointing to and distributing music, movies, software, games and books without paying any royalties. Google $44B a year, Verizon $120B a year compared to Viacom (CBS, MTV & Paramount Pictures) $14B a year, Warner Music Group $2.4B a year.

reply to maartena
I have to agreee about format shifting.
I'm a vinyl collector, and yes I do play my albums; however, every time i do so I degrade the quality of the music I've purchaced the right to play in my home for my personal use. So I've format shifted all the Albums to 320kbps MP3 files which reside on my personal computer and my cellphone.

I don't distribute these files to anyone I just use them when I don't wish to degrade my physical media

I wouldn't buy music from a service like Itunes, because I don't like the company having the control to tell me where and when I can listen to the music I've paid money for so I'll keep buying LP's of the music I want and keep format shifting them for on the go use, and as far as i'm concerned as long as my Fiancee isn't sitting at home playing exactly the same song from the origonal media when I listen to it I've done nothing wrong.

reply to steeleword

reply to steeleword
You are over looking on thing:
Hulu and Netflix.
Many people no longer buy movies/videos or pirate. Because the low cost alternative of those two services. I'll go a step further and include red box into the equation, as they are a source of low cost DVD rentals. Why buy at a high price, when you can stream at a low monthly price, or even rent for a low price.

The industry likes to blame pirates for their woes, but that isn't always the case. Look at how Hollywood/content providers have tried to cripple Hulu/Netflix. 90 day wait on new releases/streams. All in an effort to force people to buy physical/digital media. The people have shown they like netflix streaming and netflix prices, but hollywood refuses to listen.
So then Hollywood trains people like you, to go posting as to how "evil" and vile pirates are. Nveer mind there are authors, music performers, and movie makers that have said that the torrent sites have earned them money. How is that possible? Because a true fan will go and buy a copy of something they torrented.

Add to all that, there are some things that you have to torrent. Why? Because the powers that be in Hollywood feel they wont be able to make any money off of what ever it is. So they wont distribute it in the USA.

I'm not a fan of pirates, but then again, I'm not a fan of an industry that refuses to listen to the consumer.

--
Is a person a failure for doing nothing? Or is he a failure for trying, and not succeeding at what he is attempting to do? What did you fail at today?.

Piracy will not stop

reply to ITALIAN926

Re: AArghh!

reply to steeleword
Sales are down as a reflection of shitty product more than piracy. I would be willing to bet that without piracy some movies or OS'es, they know which ones they are, would never have been hits or even cult classics.

Also "losses" are a scarcity technique promoted by capitalism to make sharing look like it's bad.

Nah. I bet it's less than 15% of the actual losses. They have to find some scapegoat.

If people weren't so bored they wouldn't be downloading as much, regardless of the content. Boredom does some silly things to the psyche. Just observe how some people react to solitary confinement or strict sensory deprivation...

Humans are being deprived and counter conditioned against their intrinsic motivations and this is a fragment of the result.

Here's a good example of the quality content that's available. Keep in mind the people who watch this will be taking care of you when you wear diapers again and cant remember who you are. »trailers.apple.com/trailers/inde···america/

reply to maartena
iTunes music has no DRM and hasn't for quite some time.

You can do everything anything you want with music you download from iTunes - burn unlimited CDs, convert it to MP3s for your "old" MP3 player you're still using for some reason, or copy it to all the iPods in the world.

And I'm pretty sure you can transfer iTunes Movie purchases to multiple computers as long as you have the purchaser's Apple ID. Everything you asked for is already possible with iTunes, with one exception on your one request to have it play on any TV in the house. You can do that if you have an AppleTV.
--
University of Southern California - Fight On!

The only way I know of to transfer apps or music from one iPod to another is to reSync the new iPod with the library your copying from. Unless you archive your stuff and remove the DRM first using something like SharePod (»www.getsharepod.com/)

»www.macworld.com/article/138000/···faq.html

reply to ctceo