Piracy, Morals and The Need for Change
Written by Ernesto on December 23, 2007Morals are often defined by what the general public sees as right or wrong. Most people don’t feel that they’re doing wrong when they download an MP3 or share a movie, but in most countries they are actually breaking laws, laws which do not reflect what the general public considers to be legal, fair use, or even moral.
Law and morals are clearly out of sync when it concerns sharing copyrighted works on the Internet. To give an example, David Pogue, technology writer for the New York Times often questions his public during talks to find out where the line between wrong and right lies in this case. He starts of with a simple statement such as:
“I own a certain CD, but it got scratched. So I borrow the same CD from the library and rip it to my computer.”
He then asks the public whether they think it’s wrong or not. Normally the more extreme the examples are, the more hands are raised, but when he spoke to an audience of 500 college students, something different happened.
Finally, with mock exasperation, I said, “O.K., let’s try one that’s a little less complicated: You want a movie or an album. You don’t want to pay for it. So you download it.” There it was: the bald-faced, worst-case example, without any nuance or mitigating factors whatsoever. “Who thinks that might be wrong?” Two hands out of 500.
Pogue was blown away by this response, and he realized that there is a clear generation gap when it comes to copyright morals. Indeed there is, but what else do you expect from a generation grew up with iPods, CD-burners and the biggest copying machine ever invented (the Internet) at their fingertips. There’s a whole industry built around filesharing, take the 160GB iPod for example, any idea how much it costs to fill that with legally purchased songs?
Computers and the Internet made it easier than ever to reproduce and share files, and it is virtually impossible to stop people from sharing and copying music and videos online. I’m not talking about copying movies for profit here, just for personal use. Besides, sharing files is not as bad as most anti-piracy lobbies want people to believe.
A recent study has shown that people don’t buy less CDs when they download songs, instead, they discover music they otherwise wouldn’t have listened to, and buy more CDs than people who don’t download. On top of this, research continues to show less popular artists actually profit from piracy simply because it allows people to try new music.
From people who missed an episode of their favorite TV-show I often get the question whether it is legal for them to download these off BitTorrent. For them, the only way to see that show is to download it, again, they don’t make any money off it, they just want to see an episode they missed. Is that immoral?
Personally I think it is all about alternatives. Movie, TV and music companies should put their content online and make it available in high quality for a reasonable price without restrictions such as DRM. At the moment there are often no products online that can compete with their pirated counterparts in quality. Sure, there are ways to download (some) music and movies online, but apart from the ridiculous prices, these products are often offered in a low quality format and restricted through DRM.
The thing is, the entertainment industry should learn how to embrace technology and compete with piracy, instead of fighting its customers. The rise of illegal downloading is a signal that customers want something that is not available through other channels, it’s more about availability than the fact that it’s free, as illustrated by the missed TV-show example.
Honestly, the real problem isn’t so much about protecting the rights of the artist, but about protecting the revenue stream for the big media companies. The people who actually create the movies and music want their content to be shared, only the large corporations behind it are too afraid to move on. Lobby groups such as the MPAA and the RIAA represent the distributors of movies and music, NOT the creators. They even pay politicians to support their cause by voting for or against laws so that legislation is made with their interests in mind. Is that moral?
The main reason why these corporations are hesitant to go online is because they are trying to make most of their money of something that can easily done by the public - distribution. They are striving to preserve outdated business models because that’s how they make their money. I’m not proposing that everyone should just pirate everything, but I suggest that the movie and movie industry make their content available online for a reasonable price.
The Internet and filesharing technologies make it possible to make production (of the copies) and distribution costs disappear, yet the prices still don’t change. Why? Because they cling onto their old business models.
So should sharing copyrighted material be legalized? Not per se, but the entertainment industry should focus on monetizing filesharing networks instead of bringing them down. Sharing is a good thing and there are tons of possibilities to profit from it.
What do you think?
Previously: MediaDefender Stock Plunges Due to Leaked Emails
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201 Responses (Add yours or TrackBack)
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PROPERTY IS THEFT
[quote comment="246102"]stealing is stealing. you ppl steal music, you don’t buy it.[/quote]
Sigh, stealing requires that you actually remove/take something leaving the owner with nothing eg: If I came up to you and took your phone, I’d now have your phone and you wouldn’t.
If on the other hand I came up to and used something are other to make an exact atomic copy of your phone we would now both have a phone. You still have what you paid for and now I have a copy. This is NOT stealing, it is NOT theft. It’s illegal yes, but don’t misuse words.
“I suggest that the movie and movie industry make their content available online for a reasonable price.”
As long as the content distributors care more about money than art, they do not deserve any money.
[quote comment="246674"]To all of the people chiming in how great it is to take creative content from other people without paying for it: How many you have content of your own somewhere on the web for free?
I know that if any of you proponents of “free” content had anything of value to offer, you’d be whining about copyright theft by bit torrent users right now.[/quote]
I’ll bet the owners of these netlabels feel terrible about it:
http://thepiratebay.org/user/musictrade
http://thepiratebay.org/user/oceanbase
my computer wont play the downloads, i can only hear them. can anyone help im new and dont know if i need to download new software to be able to see video. i appreciate the help
Booga said:
“it is NOT theft. It’s illegal yes, but don’t misuse words.”
Fair enough. So how about this? “The taking of a commercial product created through the work and good faith of others, intended and offered legally by them for sale, but taken willfully and illegally with no proper payment by you…….. makes you a true, ethics-free scumbag.”
Does that work better for you?
ok so sharing is wrong if there are “cheap” “legal” alternatives? don’t give me this hypocrisy.
piracy is about freedom of speech, freedom of information. if you like something and want sequels you buy the dvds/donate.
i’m so tired of all the copyright fascists and their talk about stealing, they have the right to call it [unauthorized sharing of copyrighted media] whatever they want but if they keep misusing the word like that it won’t be associated with something bad anymore and it’ll lead to a lot of confusion.
Digital files have no value. Movies, music, literature, doesn’t matter. The physical product has value. People will pay for that. A downloaded digital file I will never pay for, nor would I expect anyone to pay for a digital download of anything I produce.
Eventually all information will be free. There’s no way to stop this with the evolution of the internet. Musicians will be forced to perform to earn a living. Admittedly, this will mean fewer musicians (and fewer pre-packaged product “performers”)but the quality would have to improve and innovation would return.
What we are going through are growing pains as we move into the “Information Age”. There are going to be much more devastating and far reaching effects than copyright issues before it’s over but the entertainment industry will have to adapt. They have no long-term option and they know it. What they’re doing now is wringing as much profit as they can and trying to get laws enacted that will help preserve the status quo as long as possible. They are all temporary measures though and our children will look back and chuckle and roll their eyes at how long we took see the obvious.
If the Mpaa and the Riaa had not fucked it up that could of probably been the head of the revolution! But they fucked around with copyright lawsuits and all that $h!t making us hate them. Now they are on a downward slope. They can arrest more people but that will just make us all STOP buying music completely. Then they will be totally out of a job. Way to fuck it up mpaa and riaa! way to rock 50 cent, Saul Williams and all the rest with some backbone! You will lead the way and be remembered for years to come!
Let Freedom Ring!
Sharing is not immoral. When we pirate ANYTHING, we take NO money away from the creator. We don’t take their discs, we don’t take their DVD case, we don’t take their booklets or their artwork.
What do we do? We circulate their product and give them free advertising. When do you see an artist complaining about torrents or P2P? You don’t. Recently we’ve heard artists happy about their music being downloaded so much, with their record sales through the roof AT THE SAME TIME. Torrents create buzz for products that result in HIGHER SALES.
If you buy a book, can you lend it to a friend to read it? ZOMG, they didn’t pay for it someone shield their eyes quick before they read copyrighted material without paying! No…that doesn’t happen. If the friend likes the book, she will go out and buy more books by that author.
What is one of the most pirated and downloaded file ever…think. Windows XP Operating System. I bet you can sure tell how Microsoft’s profits are plunging and they have to file bankruptcy because of it right? WRONG. Even if pirate XP’s abd Vista’s affect their profits, all it does is balance out their overpricing. I think they are happy with their billions and billions in profits. And since Gates gives so much money to charity anyways, it’s not him doing all Microsoft does to circumvent pirates.
Is it immoral to borrow a friend’s CD and put the songs into iTunes, then give him the CD back? If you like the artist, most likely you’ll try and find more music from them. Once again, pirating only helps get names out there and gets products off the shelves.
Our government and law making system needs more input from the most active and opinionated minds of our country, us. People need to wake up and realize the truth about torrents and P2P.
“The taking of a commercial product created through the work and good faith of others, intended and offered legally by them for sale, but taken willfully and illegally with no proper payment by you…….. makes you a true, ethics-free scumbag.”
If they care more about the money than the product they create, then they are filthy scumbags, and they deserve nothing. How could creating a product for the purpose of the money rather than goodwill possibly be of “good faith”? The whole industry is only wanting money and don’t care about the things they create. I will never give a single cent to those scumbags.
restrictions on everything i buy is theft in my eyes im paying for something i cannot use as i desire.
and the likes of DRM is removing all my rights pysically not morarly.
If i buy something expensive like a cd or dvd of a game or movie i expect to be-able to make a duplicate as i own the disc not the copyright, they stop me protecting my investement so now when i take it back to the shop scratched GASP! they wont replace it, but when i try to use my own brains by making a copy so i dont have to damage my original i’m restricted from doing this?
And you call us Pirates? and what we do illigal … i pay money for something i cant use or it dissables itself or deletes itself and you wonder why we choose to be pirates?
i’m really sorry for using comon sense and wanting a content/product that i can use how i please once i bought it without jumping through hoops to use it
When you provide me a way to do that legally then you’ll see my money.
You know I what want for xmas? A debate. A serious open discussion with and about MPAA and RIAA and artists and torrent site leaders. Everyone go to vegas for a weekend and just talk about it. Let the MPAA et all make their statements and let torrent leaders address their distro concerns. I like what I see here, but it’s been too often and it’s become rhetoric. I just wish the other side would step up and respond instead of their rhetoric of “illegal, pirating, condemn, blah”.
Seriously, there must be someone like us on the inside of these organizations pushing the same points we are. Speak up!!
Agreed, completely.
[quote comment="247092"]Sharing is not immoral. When we pirate ANYTHING, we take NO money away from the creator. We don’t take their discs, we don’t take their DVD case, we don’t take their booklets or their artwork.[/quote]
Except that you do. That whole album or movie thing that you share, that’s taking away from the creator.
[quote comment="247092"]When do you see an artist complaining about torrents or P2P? You don’t.[/quote]
Prince doesn’t seem that happy. And I think I heard of this Metalica group that wasn’t too happy.
[quote comment="247092"]If you buy a book, can you lend it to a friend to read it?[/quote]
I think you can do that with a CD too. You might have noticed all those signs at Kinko’s that say don’t copy copyrighted books. Hmm, that seems similar to something else, but can’t think of it right now.
Amazingly well said, I did a nearly identical speech at school for my Argumentative Speech project. Well said man.
I think people would be willing to pay for a higher quality product over a cheaper product, if they deem the product worthy to begin with.
Take for example a high definition version of a regular TV episode you watch versus a lower resolution/quality version.
Either way you get to watch the content but more people would most likely buy the high def version if they found the lower version enjoyable.
I agree piracy is bad but pretending you can stop by shoving the RIAA down our necks just pisses people off and doesn’t solve anything.
The only artists I pay for are the ones who need to money to continue outputting good work.
I think 50 cent said it nicely by saying that major artists have to adapt to the new generation.
People are willing to pay 50-200$ to go see concerts so obviously the bulk of the money they make are outside of CD sells.
So I guess more artists are going to have to go on tour a lot more to get the money they deserve versus being a one hit wonder with a CD… I thought that was originally the dream of an artist? To play to millions of fans and have their music felt on many levels.
Fuck it dude… i still say legalize marijuana before copywrite
1. I download. Movies, games, music.
2. I BUY. Yes, mr. MPAA or Canadian MPAA i dunno what ur sucking-money company’s name is called. I buy shit too. I download games, I play offline - thus I can see if I like the gameplay, the graphics, the storyline and to make sure it works fine on my computer. Thus, I dont spend $50-$70 on some game that I mite not like! If i really like it, I buy it because I want to play it online.
Music…well, how am I supposed to get Romanian music in Canada? Enlight me. We don’t have that fancy iTunes store in Eastern Europe.
Movies. I rent movies most of the time. BUT I first download the shit on my computer, I look it over, usually I look at the whole thing, YES, I LOOK AT THE WHOLE MOVIE. Then, if I like it, I go rent it to watch it in HD on my nice widescreen monitor. Or if I really love it, I GO AND BUY IT FROM BLOCKBUSTER!
3. I am not against buying your shit. But I am AGAINST PAYING FOR THINGS I DON’T LIKE. Enlight me again Uncle Sam, why should I give a good portion of MY MONEY to you, on something I don’t enjoy?
[quote comment="246110"]*hands booga1134 a box of tissue.[/quote]
ahahahaha couldnt have put it better :P
Similar thoughts on another blog.
Laws should adapt to people morals. The current laws need change
http://tech-talk.biz/2007/12/22/the-new-generations-do-not-see-an-moral-issue-with-file-sharing/
Sooner or later the music & film industry will adapt to the times.
Their fight to keep the status quo is a nonsense. It is like pretending Internet did not exist, and forcing us to purchase DVD and CDs at the infamous price they used to charge.
Forget it. See what iTunes and Amazon are doing. This is the right way.
Music and movies is culture and should be available to everyone…
I agree that artist should be paid for their work, and so they are. When they preforming live they get money… Movies earn money in theaters…
Big corporations should not get money for culture! Only those who create it should… end of deal…
Copyright is stopping the sharing of culture… Sharing culture can never be wrong…
I’m quite sure, that’s why all the libraries was build in the first place, to get culture to everyone… At least in earlier times, people thought that it was a good idea to share culture…
i use filesharing to get music / videos. if i think the product is worthwhile i then go and buy it. i used to just go and buy the product but got fed up of big companies making great trailers / demos and the actual product being a massive disappointment.
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