Pirates why do they .....

[oldmike]

why do so many defend pirates and call the RIAA bad guys
like the case they just won 95% of the post were for the lady that was convited
how do all these ppl see stealing is ok?

[WickyWoo]

I'd say it's much more of a reaction to the RIAA's overreactions than anything else. Stealing is wrong, stealing is a crime, but let the punishments fit the crime. This shaking people down for thousands isn't helping anything, and all it's doing is encouraging civil disobedience

Time and time again it's been shown to be far more efficient to go after the hubs than the individual people. While I still think the guy on the street with a blanket full, or the guy on the subway with a bag full of boots should be able to be arrested for selling last week's blockbuster on the spot, suing individuals like this is only going to turn the jury against you

[DealsR4theDevil]

See, I pay for everything i get. I buy my movies on BD discs (and sometimes DVDs) and I buy my music on CDs or iTunes. I really dont like how MOST people I meet and talk to feel it is ok to steal music or movies online. And these are people who would never steal anything else. I dont understand where this mentallity came from, that its ok to steal music and movies because your not stealing a physical copy. I have no sympathy for this woman or anyone else who gets caught doing it. It's people like her that are keeping the cost of movies up for honest people like me.

[oldmike]

the only reson she was hit so hard is she had the idea she can win
and as for the hubs as many are out side the US its hard to get them

[tron3]

Pirating is a thrill as well as free. But you still have to pay for a disc to burn on, a case to put it in, a computer to do the piracy, so it still costs SOMETHING to pirate.

Some people don't own a stitch of software on their computer, let alone the O/S. People like this come to me to fix their computer, "Where is the disc?" " I don't have it." "I can't rebuild it without the disc." "I'll get you one."

I have warned my brother over and over about not buying bootleg DVD's. He stopped for a while and brought home Simpsons and Transformers thinking I would approve. Buying this stuff is a crime too. While I don't think arresting the general public is going to stop people from buying bootleg, it should cost them a hefty fine.

If you buy illegal drugs on the street and get caught you should go to jail. Someone buying a pirated movie is generally not a threat to the neighborhood. Fine them $100 per movie and send them away.

Studios have long claimed they can't bring down the price of movies because of piracy causes them to loose millions. Ok, so BD+ saves the day. Will the price come down? What for? Now they have us over a barrel. I'm sure it will come down in price to make it more marketable, but I don't foresee $15 BD any time soon, even with BD+.

[Banjo]

Originally Posted by oldmike

why do so many defend pirates and call the RIAA bad guys like the case they just won 95% of the post were for the lady that was convited how do all these ppl see stealing is ok?

Do you realize that you are paying a levy on every single blank CD because of RIAA? It's to "compensate" for the losses caused by piracy. RIAA is very anti-consumer. They lobbied and they got the politicians to pass laws forcing the average joe to pay a levy on every blank CD they buy. Do you think any of these monies goes to the artists?

Are you aware that independent artists cannot sell their music CDs on eBay because of RIAA? In the end, we are paying RIAA for the losses caused by the pirates. That we had nothing to do with to start with. I'm deaf and I don't listen to songs, so why should I pay the levy? That's why it's anti-consumer because we are being forced to compensate RIAA for their losses.

I do not condone piracy. It should be condemned because Hollywood is losing a great deal of money because of piracy.

But the problem here is that people has a very broad perceptive of how the word, theft is defined. They think that making a back-up copy of a movie is a form of theft which it isn't. It's only the encryption layer that is illegal to break through. The reason why there's an encryption layer is to prevent the pirates from making massive copies to be re-distributed to the public.

Too many people blur the line between consumers' rights and piracy.

[cpgator]

Originally Posted by Banjo

Are you aware that independent artists cannot sell their music CDs on eBay because of RIAA?

Not sure about that claim - can you provide a link?

[w_tanoto]

i still rather buy original version whenever possible. but if it's not possible, I will get pirates (like song of the south - disney)
in developing country, people think dvd and cd is expensive. yes, indonesia is popular with its piracy from software, modded PS2 (including mine - because I got no choice), movies. Downloading is also pupolar.
people can't afford it. here is a comparison:
to eat once, you will need $2
to buy a dvd, you will need $20 (one of the cheapest)
note that the difference is a lot. In UK, to eat you need 10 USD, to buy DVD it's ranging from 20 USD to 40USD

[Banjo]

Originally Posted by cpgator

Not sure about that claim - can you provide a link?

I remember reading about it a few years ago. It was in the news and how people were complaining that it wasn't fair. Mainly, it was done to prevent people from selling pirated music CDs. But the problem was, they lumped the independent artists' CDs into the same category.

I'm not too sure what eBay's policy is now on independent music CDs but I do remember when they had that policy in effect. I tried googling it but couldn't find the specific article in relation to what I said. Maybe somebody will have better luck than I did.

However, the music companies will even try to sue you for re-selling CDs that aren't pirated. Just to show you how greedy some of them can get.

http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2007_08.php#005393

Heck, even RIAA won't tolerate a person reselling an iPod with preloaded music that you bought legally from iTunes and other stores. If you downloaded the songs illegally and then sell the iPod/MP3 player preloaded with them, then that's a copyright infringement because you didn't pay for them legally. When you resell a product, you don't make a profit off it because you're only getting 20 to 60% of what you paid for it to start with most of the times.

http://www.fmqb.com/Article.asp?id=174065

'Fair Uses' are not 'Fair Uses' after all. Piracy is out of control, so is RIAA and several other associations, companies, corporations, etc.

I'm just pointing out the irony and how big of a hypocrite RIAA and others are. RIAA Is not here to protect the artists despite what some people here may believe.

Step back and take the time to think this over. Many of you say that artists shouldn't be getting ripped off by the pirates. I think it's not right for artists to get ripped off by pirates too. However, RIAA is ripping the artists too as well. A lot of independent artists refuse to be associated with RIAA because of how they do business.

Piracy is a serious issue, so is anti-consumer.

[cpgator]

I believe the ebay issue dealt with CD-Rs, and the attempt to get rid fake or pirated software or music. The problem was the programs ebay used to find these auctions looked for CD-R amoung other things, and apparently some legit auctions got pulled. The RIAA never tried to prevent people from selling their own music on ebay - they wouldn't have a leg to stand on.

I do agree with your main point that the RIAA sucks and is anti-consumer. In the long run, they will only be hurting themselves.

[Zyclone]

she stole and got busted fair enough but the RIAA is making her pay some crazily high figure as punishment , the punishment should fit the crime and in this case it really does'nt , plus the RIAA tried to sue some lady for downloading songs until the ladies family pointed out to the RIAA that she had died and did'nt even own a computer.

whatever money the RIAA gets it does go the the artists it just goes into their pockets so they sue more people.

[The Guardian]

Originally Posted by Banjo

Do you realize that you are paying a levy on every single blank CD because of RIAA? It's to "compensate" for the losses caused by piracy. RIAA is very anti-consumer. They lobbied and they got the politicians to pass laws forcing the average joe to pay a levy on every blank CD they buy. Do you think any of these monies goes to the artists?

For a while in Canada that made downloading (but not uploading) music free from the net legal... it's quite an interesting court case actually. Basically it was successfully argued that the language used to institute the levy meant it was effectively paying for the illegal music.

So as long as you burned the music to a CD-R... legal!

Anyway... I think if they became more customer friendly ($10 CDs without DRM etc) they would find piracy would be reduced and profits would be up despite the lower prices... similar with Blu-ray.. ok we can charge $35 for a disc with BD+ and AACS and whatever on it... or they could sell them for $15 and almost nobody would bother trying to pirate them.

Even if downloading it was legal, say, I'd rather pay $15 than spend days downloading 50 gigs... actually I'd never want to download 50 gigs but at some point you just don't buy the movies....