Donate Your Piracy Savings to Reduce Poverty
Written by Ernesto on October 15, 2008If the MPAA and RIAA are to be believed, rather than buying media, file-sharers around the world are saving billions of dollars by downloading copyrighted material instead. For these people, we now have the ultimate solution to salve their ‘guilt’. Donate a week in piracy ’savings’ to reduce poverty among those who need it.
Together with thousands of other blogs, TorrentFreak is participating in the Blog Action Day 2008. This year’s goal is to raise awareness and generate discussion on poverty, so that’s exactly what we’ll do.
Our plan? Encourage people to donate their pirate ’savings’ to projects that help to reduce poverty. Why? Because we believe in sharing.
The Rules:
The idea is to calculate how much you have ’saved’ in the past week by downloading copyrighted content. If you haven’t downloaded anything, just pretend you have, we’re trying to raise money here.
In the interests of grossly inflating the figures and therefore raising as much money for charity as possible, just like the MPAA and RIAA we’re going to assume that one pirated copy equals one lost sale. We decided not to include software, because things can get a little out of hand for those who downloaded Photoshop.
1 music track = $1
1 music album = $10
1 movie = $10
1 TV-show = $5
1 book = $10
Now, calculate your savings based on the example above (you are allowed to show off in the comments) and donate this amount to a project that aims to reduce poverty. You can pick your own charity of course, but we also have a pretty good suggestion.
Where to Donate?
We assume that most of our readers are familiar with the concept of P2P, so we would like you to consider the following. Let’s say you fire up your BitTorrent client because you want to download the latest album from your favorite artist. You use BitTorrent, which means that the more you share with others, the more you will receive back.
The only problem is that you will start with nothing, so initially, you don’t have anything to share at all. Luckily, the BitTorrent protocol has solved this problem, and when the swarm recognizes you as a new entrant, random peers will send you a few bits which you can then start to re-share with others. People might wonder what this has to do with poverty, so we’ll try to explain.
In ‘real life’, people sometimes also need to receive something before they can start building up their business, and generate a steady income. They are just like file-sharers – without the first bits, they can never fully participate in the downloading process. Kiva tries to solve this problem. With Kiva you can lend a few dollars to entrepreneurs in developing countries, who will use it to make a living for themselves.
These people will use your $10 to start their own businesses, so they can provide for themselves and their families – P2P in the real world. The good thing is, once they have a steady income they will repay their loans, give to get, just like BitTorrent.
Final Note
The MPAA, RIAA and other anti-piracy lobbyists want you to believe that thousands of people lose their jobs because of piracy, and that it’s a disaster for the global economy. We know better of course, and would argue the opposite. An illegally downloaded song is not a lost sale, in fact, it tends boost sales. We could even argue that, without piracy, hundreds of thousands of people would lose their jobs. For example, iPod sales would plunge and bandwidth usage would drop by 50%.
Piracy is embedded in our world economy and eliminating it would be devastating. It’s better to work on legal alternatives instead. So dust off your calculator and let’s donate!
Previously: Norway Mulls Anti-Piracy ‘Complaint Board’ Proposal
Next: Copyright Cops Target Kids’ Schools and Community Centers
113 Responses
lol, whatever
I think it’s a good idea, I already donate to oxfam what I can monthly if I had more money I’d donate more but I just don’t.
Music alone comes to over $700! better start saving…
Who wants to buy a seedbox for a poor nigra?
Really a very good idea! All the best and wish you a grand success….
Pavan Kumar
http://www.techpavan.com
in the last week:
1 movie 10
3 albums 30
1 tvshows 5
equals 45 dollars
thats not so baaaad
nice idea
hrmmm … er, nice idea – I already sponsor a child through “Save the Children”.
But I’ve stolen so much shit this week that goddamned if I can make a donation in line with this little exercise.
lol, regarding some of the previous posts by cheapskates, isn’t it interesting to have some of the worst stereotypes of your (and my) community proven true?
Donate to wikipedia? In longer perspective free software projects do more in respect of reducing poverty than donating/lending to small entrepreneurs. Knowing the political situation there in (some of) those countries, it is very difficult to help someone just by lending him the money. This may work in the west, but usually not there. This is more like buying indulgences, this pacifies your heart, but actually does nearly nothing. Donate to free software instead!
Thanks for adding your opinion and voice to Blog Action Day 2008, Ernesto! We hope that change becomes today’s key word. That, or action. :)
Very creative post idea, by the way. Was wondering how you would tie in torrents to poverty. :)
Donate to Free Software Foundation and the Electronic Frontier Foundation! (FSF.org, EFF.org).
Also, Amnesty International, Greenpeace, WWF, WSPA, and Oxfam.
Well, I’m up for approximately $300 this week…
How much would I have bought? maybe one album so that’s $10… Oh wait, I DID buy that album…
The rest, not a chance in hell I’d buy that crap…
And the TV shows, I’ll buy them when they get to DVD anyway.
Movies… maybe I’ll buy one when it gets to DVD… The rest were crap and 2 I didn’t even watch through till the end they were THAT bad.
Now, maybe if the MPAA and RIAA made something INTERESTING and USEFUL I’d go and watch the movies at the cinema. I actually enjoy the cinema but only when it’s a movie that’s original and interesting.
Most downloads cost less than those prices anyway. I would be bankrupt.
% find /mnt/storage/Music -ctime -7 -type f | wc -l
138 Mp3s (Ok some of those where albums, including 1 with 4 cds so I’m not sure how you count that exactly).
42 – TV Shows
475 books (Most of those where comics though, probably around 11 real books.)
1 – Movie
What about like HD Movies/TV and PC games and Console Games? Lol, I must be over a grand by now.
Maybe McCain and Palin could donate their savings too?
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/10/15/minister-son-text-scandalmccain
Ha ha, I noramally don’t donate but I this article was put so well that I’ll go ahead and do it. I do believe in micro loans so Kiva sounds like a good target.
2 movies and 3 tv shows last week amounts to $35.
It makes you feel lika Robin Hood, taking from the rich IP owners and giving to the poor.
And how about those actors/film makers/etc millionaires donated something ?
Usually they just sing some crap and they consider their duty done…
And remember, 40-50 cts of every dollar you donate go to communication fees…
Their is a “funny” parallel between the needy and the not-so-popular artists-on-majors : you’d think you earn them a living by buying their cd, but in the end you just make the middlemen fatter !
The only thing I downloaded was Maya Unlimited (retail price $7 thousand)
How much of my “savings” should I donate?
1TB worth! oh dear, better get a second mortgage.
In all seriousness though, poverty will never be removed until our capitalist way of life is changed. It’s geared towards keeping few wealthy and many poor.
money is not the solution to poverty, it’s one of the 3 roots of the problem (the other 2: religion and state), especially calling to give money in DOLLAR is definitively NOT the solution
Fuck off brainless worst than nazi slave bitches
Great idea! Lets show the MPPA, RIIA and what so ever they call themselves what sharing is all about! Thumbs up from me, and Ill donate right away!
no chance, sorry
and why on earth would i give some random “charity” my money so they can spend it on a nice webpage to take donations?
your heart is in the right place. How about i just give my 10$ to the next homeless guy that asks for change?
Besides, I’d put myself into poverty if I used those figures for a week. This past week would have me donating $500 and that’s a slow week for me!
i’ll echo everyone else’s comments by saying
1. what a great idea
and
2. no i don’t think so somehow.
This logic is totally fucked – not the charity bit- but “An illegally downloaded song is not a lost sale, in fact, it tends boost sales.” What the..?? Note [try a 'to' next time, or maybe an education as well???] Listen TorrentFreakers, so is this charity trip a guilt relief trip for you all??; ‘cos when you steal something you steal it, just like your mama told you, been that way for 1000s of years and aint nothing changed, just easier to get away with it.
Why am I so railed up about it; well, I WAS a street musician playing and selling CDs to people, but have had to give it up to find another way of supporting my family: now there’s some CAUSES of POVERTY for you.
You see, used to be, everyone who wanted a CD would buy one, got to the stage where say 5 or more people would come up, one would buy one, others would have their money out ready to buy another and the 1st guy would say “Dont worry you can BURN MINE.” Like right in front of the guy they’re ripping off, blatant, no shame. My sales of my music dropped to a quarter of what I used to do. People just don’t care about the artist anymore.
Ok, most of you wont listen, you’re intent on harming the ‘big’ artists and corporations [who by the way still make their money anyway through ringtones, blank media sales, mp3 players, etc.] but you are REALLY FUCKING IT UP FOR SMALL STREET ARTISTS, BANDS, etc.
Look after our art people, the small artists of today are YOUR CULTURE TOMORROW. THATS IF YOU WANT A CULTURE, or will you be too busy downloading shit off the net.
Here’s an idea; play some music, not on your IPOD, dummy, on a real instrument, write some music, create something, and dont let this world turn into a faceless group of accountants, computer programmers and other pricks in similar jobs like the way it’s going now. If this sounds familiar, yeah, I’m talkin’ bout you!!
Even if you dont want to listen to anything I’m saying, instead of faceless donations over the net, go and volunteer in Africa or something, or go and chat to the lonely old lady next door, or buy that homeless guy a cup of coffee and sit down and really listen to him, just make someone who really needs it, believe that someone else REALLY CARES, then you will have really given.
Oh Yeh and by the way I used to love making a living playing music to people on the street but that world is long gone, long gone. Enjoy the future of blended recycled aural crap brought to you by Apple
Right, after 5 minutes my comments dont even get posted. sez 1 minute here??? So much for a fair debate…
“It takes approximately 1 minute for your comment to appear on TorrentFreak after it’s posted.”
“approximately
One entry found.
Main Entry:
1ap·prox·i·mate Listen to the pronunciation of 1approximate
Pronunciation:
\?-?präk-s?-m?t\
Function:
adjective
Etymology:
Late Latin approximatus, past participle of approximare to come near, from Latin ad- + proximare to come near — more at proximate
Date:
15th century
1 : located close together 2 : nearly correct or exact
— ap·prox·i·mate·ly adverb
”
hxxp://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/approximately
sheesh
Piracy is stealing someone else’s creative material and no matter how much you think you’re getting at the fat cats by doing it, those fat cats are smart enough to make sure your pain is inflicted on the little guys [and gals] in the music industry. Piracy sent me broke as an artist attempting to live off my own recordings. Now there’s some POVERTY for you!
‘Approximately’ 100 light years more if we find your comments don’t conform with editorial opinion. The truth hurts
Phishybongwaters :
Nickname chosen by geek,nerd or socially-inept person pretending to be some ultra-cool dope fiend, or something they will never ever be.
Oh n btw thx 4 the sympathy about the editorial intrusion, dick
@Marc
There are several peer-reviewed academic studies that show how most artists profit from piracy (check out the link in the article).
In fact, more and more artists give away their music for free, which seems to work for most of them. See: http://torrentfreak.com/artists-see-a-future-with-bittorrent-081013/
The purpose of this article, however, is to encourage people to share some dollars if they can miss it. Feel free to disagree with our reasoning, as long as you donate ;)
Isn’t this just admitting that we’re basically saving? There was this whole idea that pirates don’t cause damage because they wouldn’t buy the materials if they ‘couldn’t’ get them free. I still buy things that I think are worth my money. Truth is, if I’m downloading it, it’s because I don’t care about it.
I’ll only buy something if I’m a fan of it. But it’s like you say, if you download an album that you wouldn’t normally buy anyway, you aren’t saving anything, at all. Isn’t this just a good way of saying ‘look at the damage we’re causing’ when we’ve been trying so long to point out that we really aren’t causing any?
last week … jeez … this is gonna be expensive = / how about “what you saved yesterday”? ->~100€
1 book and 4 albums so $50 or about £30 me thinks. Whilst I pirate in the hope that the law will change, another big reason is that I just can’t pay for all the stuff that I have. If I find a charitty that I like then I will donate the £30.
this is a pathetic promulgation to rid pirate’s of their own shame for breaking the law.
moralfags like the writers at torrentfreak always want to clean the nonexistent soul of anonymous.
they never succeed! no one is going to help the poor, lol, and even if they do donate, that isn’t just compensation for the crime they consistently commit.
only the poor like Robin Hood, because they get free stuff! but everyone else thinks he’s a jackass, because he steals their stuff.
“this is a pathetic promulgation to rid pirate’s of their own shame for breaking the law.”
no way, breaking the law feels awesome
especially in such magnitudes knowing you will never be caught
AWESOME IDEA!!!
so creative of u:) ;)
1 TV-show = $5
*ouch* You said high, but isn’t the going Itunes rate 1.99. I’d say $1-$2 (per ‘hour’), usually what a dvd works out too
this is hilarious!
cheap pirates don’t care about charity. the whole “bettering the world” thing is just a veil to disguise their theft. in truth, they are just as selfish, entitled, and greedy as the corporations they hate.
@Marc
how mature. If you said something off collar, to bad for you.
Anyways, you seem to think we download stuff to “hurt the corporations”? you sir are an idiot. I download because I want to, plain and simple, and the fact is, I end up buying the stuff i watched for free, instead of buying it all and wasting half my money.
I’m a musician myself, and you know what, I’d love people to pirate my work, because for me, being a musician, is about MAKING MUSIC. Not money, if you can’t make money touring, get a freaking job.
Go tell your sob story somewhere else. Stop blaming people spending their money wisely for you sucking at working a music career.
Lol @ marc
There’s another positive thing about piracy: It gives talentless musicians something to blame their failed careers on.
Well, i first started downloading music cuz i didn’t have any money for the expensive albums. And if I dont have any money, what should I donate? Isn’t it the main purpose we all download? Cuz of the high cost of music and movies…
just something to add.
good idea, torrentfreak. but live8 was few years ago. what has changed?
things are now much worse!if all those moneywhores they call themselves “music industry” would give 5cents of every sold item, they would change things big way. but no, lets just scream “stealingz our art, killing the artist!! HALP!! sue them all!!!”
and let me bring you few things to you.
art in old greece was meant for people to get catharsis and that way to become better person. from today 99.99999% of music, what can you possible learn that will make you better person?
imagine you downloaded 700$ of stuff by this calculations. there is no way that you could listen/watch that in next few years. so stfu. ignorants.
world economy is in decay. when you lose your job or even your home will you then discuss about poor artist being ripped off. or even art. first food, then art. is that clear?
usa gave 700 000 000 000$
for saving the banks. after that, big boys from banks went to weekend and have spent 450 000$ on relaxation. for a weekend.
have a good rest of the day, marc. and every day. till reality hits you so hard that….
Are you crazy, Credit crunch times and all that. I seriously doubt that many people will give much away to charity the economic climate being as it is today. I’m not saying never give to charity, what i am saying is give to charity when you can afford to give to charity. TorrentFreak I think this was the wrong time to talk about giving money to charity.
can someone wake me up when I get to the end of Marc’s post.
Ta
Zzzz Zzzz
lol, this is a stupid idea.
i’m not giving my money to nobody i prefer to go to hell :)
The TV Show part is iffy in itself – if it’s a currently running show, like Heroes, then what’s the difference to having watched it on TV in the first place?
TV Torrents are just my replacement for TV, since either I don’t have access to a TV at the time they’re on, or two shows I watch are on at the same time on different channels.
“then what’s the difference to having watched it on TV in the first place?”
Because you didn’t watch the commercials. Did you think they make shows for you to enjoy? No, they make shows to sit you in front of your tv and inundate you with ads. That is why TV was invented my friend.
I myself grab TV shows for time shifting, and I’d rather not waste 50% a month on cable when all I really need is 3 channels.
anyways, since my comment is still awaiting moderation (i must have swore) I’ll say it again.
Grow up and get a job Marc, if you can’t make money touring and playing shows, you obviously suck, and have come to the wrong place to place blame, look in your mirror.
I buy most of what I download, because it’s worth it. If you crap music was good, I’d end up buying your album too.
i’m a musician, and I’d love to be pirated, that’s a whole base audience I couldn’t reach without piracy, and would allow me to actually make money touring.
If you want to make music to make money, join a boy band, if you are an artist, grow the hell up and get a job like every other true musician.
Well – if we “pirates” are saving Billions of Dollars by not purchasing whatever we are supposed to be downloading – then how do I get a decent chunk of the “billions saved”?
@ marc
there are some VERY successful bands / musicians out there who encourage people to share/copy/steal their music. Maybe your music has just never been good enough to make a living from?
nobody is going to do this because people download to get free stuff. they only act self-righteous when they are under criticism.
they somehow figure they are doing a justice by ripping off the corporations and record labels. i fucking hate corporate america too, but these self-righteous pirates don’t know the difference between good corporate america and the corporate america that needs to be fought.
give me a fucking break.
in the last week.. uh oh…
154 tv shows == 770$
10 movies == 100$
30 albums (aprox 12 songs each) == 300$
total: 1170$
Hey Ernesto!
Thanks for linking to Kiva.org!
I’d never heard of it and googling around a bit it looks legit.
“but these self-righteous pirates don’t know the difference between good corporate america and the corporate america that needs to be fought.”
I keep hearing about these guys, but as of yet I’ve never seen a single one of them.
there’s no single reason people pirate, but I find it hard to believe anyone does because the falsely think they are fighting back against “corporate america” it’s a bullshit argument that I’ve never seen anyone use.
The fact is, downloading something you weren’t going to purchase is not a lost sale, simple as that.
I do not need the donations, because I don’t buy digital media. If I donate the specified amount, I’ll become poor and will need donations… See the problem?
thewinespies.com are donating $3 an order today – to the UN Food Program – when you buy their great (discounted) wine. They are featuring Trefethen today, which is a big deal winery from Napa Valley! Use coupon code ENDHUNGER6 and they’ll ship for free if you order 6 bottles or more. Everyone wins! Go Wine Spies!
Want a dedicated seedbox with 10MB/s upload speed ?
For only 40$/month
Contact me for more information:
cheapseed*_[at]_*hush.ai
5 $ pro a TV Show??? are you kidding?
#56: “they are fighting back against “corporate america” it’s a bullshit argument that I’ve never seen anyone use.”
————————————–
you must be new to torrent freak comments.
I’ve calculated it all up, and the grand total is somewhere around $50,000
Yes, I pirate that much. The amount of anime, TV shows, and music I’ve pirated over the past few years is a lot.
Keep in mind this is not including software. If software were included, it would be well over $100,000
But this is just using these figures. If I were to add it all up in a rough estimate using the amount of money the products cost, it would be somewhere in the multi millions.
SO yeah, I refuse to donate what I make every year.
1. This is a great idea
and
2. Just donated my $50 to charity.
I just graduated from school and took a job. I used to claim that I was “time rich and money poor” meaning it was better for me to download music because I could afford the time/effort/CPU cycles it takes to search torrent sites for the artists I like and then wait for the downloads. Now that I’m evening out that scale (I’m kind of “time medium and money medium”) I feel a bit guilty about still downloading music rather than paying for it (old habits die hard.)
5 albums this week (ok, 4, but Kiva has preset amounts in increments of $25 so…)
Ernesto you should make a team on Kiva.
Nicely put article, donation of $50 sent. not from a valid calculation of any sort just a nice round figure. sharing is caring after all. :)
I mostly download Japanese based shows and music, so I’m not sure how that can count toward these numbers. (64 Episodes = $320, 4 Japanese Albums = $40) But I’m probably one of those people in the border-line Poverty area ($10k+ in CC debt). So I most likely won’t be donating. But I’ll be interested to see how this works out.
AWESOME idea! Great way to get back at them for acting like greedy bitches. I’m broke but i’ll dig my wallet for something anyway.
Please remove response/comment #4
REALLY really like the idea!
…if only i had the REAL money to donate,i would have been the first one to donate.
…of course NOT kidding!!!
I’m not antipiracy, but doesn’t it make more sense to use that money to purchase legitimately and thus have no guilt as well as no threat of legal action? If I were paranoid enough about getting sued that’s what I’d do… IF
depends on who you think rather deservers your money: poor/starving/ whatever people or multi billion dollar companies
i like the idea, a whole week is to much but i think i’m gonna donate what i saved yesterday ;)
~1200 music tracks = $1200
~25 movies = $250
~100 TV-shows = $500
12 books = $120
2070 (i think??)
I’ll donate 10% of my pay check until i got at least 75% paid off
$30,000 in music
$5-600 in movies
Good Times… Priceless
Great idea… putting money to good use. I like it.
Thanks for taking part in Blog Action Day, too. I did, as well, but it’s not as fun (or as cool) of a take – http://www.mike-nagel.blogspot.com
I think you have a very good idea. This is quite feasible I think.
JIff
http://www.privacy-tools.at.tc
You people make me sick, don’t be such tight fisted bastards and give some money
@5
+1
I’m down.
$35. I always figured the folks who collect bottles deserved some help more than the ones who sit on their asses asking for it.
I download because I can’t afford to purchase, cost of living is just too expensive these days.
Nice work!
Been donating (lending) my pirate “savings” to Kiva for years.
Even though I give myself a 50% discount because media shouldn’t cost as much as it does, I’ve been averaging around $5,000 per year over the last 3 years.
don’t donate to greenpeace. they’ve lost their way and are more concerned with stopping genetically modified foods that will reduce blindness in poor countries than anything important.
i can explain what that means if anyone cares.
What a fuckin stupid idea!
If you got too much money, give it to the EFF.org
They use the money to fight for your digital rights and that’s what matters to me.
somebody obviously doesn’t understand the purpose of pirating.
hilarious, TorrentFreak. Once you lowered the bar with your horrific “TV show, now this..
first off… who puts a price on a TV show? Who determines it?
For example, our tax many goes to the PUBLICLY owned broadcast towers in the US, on the PUBLICLY OWNED airways to broadcast in our home. Traditionally, who pays for the TV is YOU the taxpayer, and the advertising on said traditional broadcast means…
so to pay anything, is idiocy…
and NO..
let them starve.
When they develop a massive mobilized Land/Air/Sea strike force, and use military threats for political capital, THEN I might donate…
The point of torrenting is FREE!
All you EMO Apple loving rich AF wearing douches can donate, but I cannot even afford to pay my heating bill… and I supposedly live in the wealthest and “best off” nation in the world
where is my handout? Food stamps don’t buy beer. The bus has negros on it… where is my handout?
You should start a legal music site based on that premise. Shit four pages of comments, no ones gonna read this. Well, for my own thoughts anyway — it would allow free downloads of all tracks on the site with some metrics and the expectation that the user would donate money to the causes its sponsoring. so over time , these free tracks kinda accumulate and so the users’ account kinda accumulates a bunch of suggestion donation amount… and from time to time just updates the user with a newsletter offering new tracks and updates on causes and shit and the specific user’s current donation “debt” and suggestions for how to spend it . Kinad neat. I like it. I”LL BUY IT, SENATOR GOVERNMENT
donate to iceland, we will be soon out of food here :-/
@10 : Quote: “In longer perspective free software projects do more in respect of reducing poverty than donating/lending to small entrepreneurs.”
Err, are you on crack? Free software is strictly in the domain of the developed – rich, first – world. Are you actually naive enough to think that people who are reduced to eating grass to live at times, have no electricity (or running water, gas,… shoes, I coulod go on) are going to benefit more from – ROFLMAO – free software projects over starting their own micro-business. Let alone benefit in any way at all.
You have a lot to learn about the world my friend. The appeal was to help people who are so poor that they literally die (from indoor fires & associated smoke, hunger, thirst, no medicine or medical help whatsoever).
Seriously, you don’t actually think these people will benefit from free software do you? Lordy, I hope not.
good. icelands actions recently have been disgusting
the MPAA and RIAA should donate 1% of the money they collect to poverty.
You know what, I’m out. I’m done. I’m finished. I no longer wish to be associated with piracy or the people who take part in it. I have very little money (which is why I pirate) but even I can afford 10 or 20 dollars for a good cause. You people are the worst kind of pirates there are.
Ok, I think I’ve covered my fair share of downloads this week. There’s a Cambodian man who’s well on his way to a new trailer for his transport business.
The “poor entrepreneurs” are right here – no need to go across the world to find them. Poor students making minimal wage and amassing huge debt pirate for a reason – they don’t have “piracy savings” for the same reason they don’t have money to buy a $15 music album – the essentials in life (food, shelter) are expensive enough without the extra commodities.
How about using some of that donation money for a p2p legal defense fund?
Like torrent sites, Usenet indexers like Newzbin are now being pursued by the MAFIAA, in this case by two entities, one of which is the MPA (Motion Picture Association) http://www.slyck.com/story1782_Newzbin_Prepares_for_Litigation
They might be in need of a legal defense fund soon.
I wish I had $2500 =/
I would def give it to those in poverty.
When you loan money through Kiva, it’s paid back 99.7% of the time. All you’re losing is the few dollars of interest you might have made on that money.
Say you loan $50. One year in a high-interest account makes that $54. So loaning to Kiva costs you $4, but gives a third-world entrepreneur $50 of value.
People talking about contributing to a p2p defense fund, or to EFF, sound like they’re more interested in what a donation can do for them, instead of what their donation can do for others.
Nice idea, but I did a quick count of my drives and it comes to a total of $27225
Do I have that much in the bank… no.
torrentfreak now you are simply being ironic
filesharing downloads do NOT equal lost revenue because those who can buy do buy and those who cant buy dont
most of us cant buy, those who can are try before you buy
there is no guilt, you must be a Catholic dude
Great !! sounds really good, now if everyone who donates will donate a few cents for me then even i will endorse this. Hell if my Govt didn’t leave me such a fucked up mess from 3 tours in Afghanistan then i would prolly even go to pay and see a movie ………. but when the proposal is given some deeper reflection on part i keep coming back to the same answer ….. Fuck off !!!! i cant afford $500 a week
“Piracy sent me broke as an artist attempting to live off my own recordings. Now there’s some POVERTY for you!”
Marc, it seems for me youre in the wrong business…. Really I dont feel sorry for you.
You dont understand the mechanisms of todays business and you blame us, the “pirates” for your financials problems. We are NOT pirates, we are filesharer who love music and share with others. I play with a band as well, and we have used the Internet to share and spread our music, and believe it or not, we have quite a nice succes in our country, and we could in fact make a living of it, if we had time for it! :-D.(And we ARE a little band!) So dont blame us, but blame yourself for not using the tools that are around you to spread your music and get better known…
Hard words? Yes, but you have to live with your time.. Remember: “If you cant beat them, join them!”…
I already pay for the stuff I download that I use.
The other stuff is basically worthless to me.
So I propose..
Shit game – Donate 20c
Shit(99% of)Movie – Donate 1c
App I make no money off or use once in a blue moon – 1c per use.
Music – OK maybe a few bucks here and there,say $1 per album.
Fairer?
lol
Great idea I donated my share 30 AUD to a fund that is not a anti poverty org but helps poverty stricken children by giving clef lip operations to children that cant afford them in sumatra, Indonesia. The shit thing is the ausie dollar is shit at the moment thanks to the idiots on wall street! if u want to help these children u can check this site below
childrenofsumatra.org
I feel bad not being able to participate in this, but I have no cash whatsoever and $100 in the bank… and my calculated donation is $130. :-(
wow, if this were really a scale to go by, i’d be out nearly $100,000 in the past year, how much would i have bought if i werent downloading…not a bit.
You want to know how inconsequential music and movies are? Instead of throwing money at these problems of poverty, and as these artists products are SOOOO valuable, simply BUY the poor a DVD, or CD. I’m sure the artists will take the dividend, but the poor will still be hungry.
I thought this sort of robin hood mentality died out a few years back –
it’s hard enough to make a living as an entertainer, let alone with people devaluing your stuff by stealing it…
nice idea to contribute towards poverty, but most musicians, artists and actors are already on the poverty line, so give us a break and just contribute to an indie label instead of wasting your money on new componentry for your computer…
M@
wtf.. no one this is happening. If i donate i might as well not donate and buy the actual shit….then wats the point of “pirating?”
You might want to just copy the data from http://ship.baywords.com and check the BSA.org current data reports and present the real numbers.
The UN/ICC Case is scheduled for review within a few months, which should shut down the imperialist patent and fraud industry completely due to explicit crimes against humanity.
It’s not my job to take care of poor monkeys, oh I’m sorry “people”, in fucking africa.
damn, im screwed :)
1 tv show (24 eps, 2 seasons) = $240
plus others
benfica rules
Music: $40′385
TV: $6530
Movies: $8000
Thats more then my life’s savings.
Nice article – shame about some of the idiot comments!
Oh shit. $1920.
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