We're sailing on the wide accountan-sea...

Posted by munineye on 01-02-2008 in What are your thoughts on filesharing and piracy?

People make ridiculous amounts of money off of intellectual property. They harp continually about their money being stolen by "pirates" who share their files over the internet with other "pirates" for non-monetary gain.
If I want a copy of, say, Aqua's album "Aquarium", I could into a store and pay for it. But why should I shell out this much money (cds are more expensive than ever) for this cd, when all I want is that one song I can't get out of my head (or some other logical-sounding argument)? Welcome to filesharing. Where you can download that one song or that whole album, all for free.

I'm not saying that all pirating should be legal. I am saying that prices for some things are so high that some people would rather let their computer take care of it and they'll end up with the stuff. I can't tell you how many discographies I've downloaded because I'm not sure if I'll like the band. Half the time, I end up buying their cds anyway, because I want to support the band.
When a friend introduced me to a particular band, he handed me a few burned cds and said, "If you like them, buy these albums." I didn't so I didn't pay the money for them. They still sit on my computer, because other people I know like them, but I don't have to think about it.
I wouldn't have nearly as much music without piracy, and I wouldn't have nearly as much money without it.

But music isn't the only thing at issue here. Movies, television shows, software; these all have real-world accessibility. But most software (at least the software I want) is hideously expensive for all that you get two little discs and a crapload of code. ($400 for Adobe Creative Suite? Are they mad?) And sometimes, I want to try something out before I buy it. Like Sims 2, another popular download (at least for me). I wanted to download the new expansion pack, Bon Voyage, but upon reading about it through filesharing forums, I found it was actually awful and poorly coded. So I didn't spend the money on it, and I'll leave it out of my collection. I've bought all the others, so I don't feel too bad.

Movies and television are a sticky situation, though. My favorite new discovery right now is on-demand movies/tv from Netflix, where you can watch things you like on your computer instead of waiting for it to come out on DVD and rent them. I just watched the entirety of Heroes yesterday, and I am perfectly happy with the result. I'm paying for the privledge, to be sure, but at least I'm not getting arrested, or threatened with arrest, like last time.

I have been threatened with charges by Paramount, who put out the show Quantum Leap. I tried to download that show, our internet was turned off with no notice, and once it was back up, I went to download it again. This time the internet was shut off and Paramount told our ISP that they would arrest whoever was doing this.
Obviously, people who do this regularly would say that I found a bad torrent file that was being tracked. I instead went out and bought the series whenever I had a little extra money. I recieved it as presents. It also gave me a great story.

Let's just say, I'm all for television being traded around. It's like making tapes of a show and then sharing them with your friends. Same with movies. You can do the same thing, but as long as you aren't making bootleg DVDs and selling them, I think it's okay.
I think making cds is fine too. Long ago, in days of yore, people used to record tapes to give to friends. It's what half of High Fidelity is about. Mixes, and even outright copies of cds should be fine, again, as long as they aren't sold.
Software, I must admit, should be purchased. But the demos offered by the software companies should actually allow you to play with the tools provided and maybe just be a time-sensitive version that stops working after a certain amount of use.

It all comes down to money. Who has the cash to fork over for some $400 program or $20 cd set or $60 video game...and who doesn't. And who gets that cash once it's out of the consumer's hands.