SOPA

[jammi]

I would actually doubt that, most people here seem to think that torrrenting or in other ways using material without the consent of it's creator and without any profit to it's creator is perfectly ok. I would say the majority of people here probably torrent games and movies. Do you?

Not really. My connection is too slow for anything like that anyway. :lol:

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[Zelot]

The common counter-argument is that by copying, using and reusing such material, you provide publicity to the stolen intellectual property, and it's author. And people start using software ages before they could afford them. When these people grow up, they'll be consumers on the digital market, what they most likely wouldn't become if they wouldn't played trough their childhood with pirated games.

And the distributors shouldn't spend much on commercials - their products spread, and who likes it, buys them. And people play a lot to see their favorite band on the stage, especially if they saw all their videos on youtube. People who torrented games are now buying it for bucks on Steam.

Also digital piracy is well-spread since at least a decade, and I'm yet to see the foretold regression in those industries.

That is simply a rationalization that people who want to steal and not be called thieves have come up with.

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[Treewyrm]

Except in copyright law copyright infringement isn't theft. Let's not make a mistake of assuming it's the same. It isn't. Neither in law nor in common sense.

My experience? I found a lot of good music through torrents and supported authors by purchasing from them directly or donating a sum equal to retail CD price if they have an option to. Same goes for games. And then there are older games where all original copies were long time sold out, how you're going to obtain them? Should you find a legal mean do the money goes to developers for those? Most often not - those development studios no longer exist, the IP rights were sold and re-sold again, where it ends up in hands of those had nothing to do with making the game at all. Support the man, but I find less and less reasons to support man-in-the-middle given how consistently worse they become by pushing DRM-laden poor man's ports and drive prices higher and higher.

[Evan_]

That is simply a rationalization that people who want to steal and not be called thieves have come up with.

That I shouldn't deny for a second, but that's not necessarily means that the economy of digital distribution isn't effected by the said reasons. And there is also a sociological component. Here in mid-Europe, a couple in the university college I live in could live well for like two weeks for the price of a Skyrim. Thou everyone has the net, and everyone grown up on games, and they rely on software. Those people who - for financial reasons - can't allow the luxury of legality will dream about times when they'll be able to afford a clean machine.

But I do see more and more people buying legal software. That was some curiosity in my childhood. We rarely saw such. I'm quite sure it's getting better here. How's it over there? Did people lose their incentive to buy data if it's also available illegally?

But if yes, really the solution should be an attempt to separate a group of people from an ever-growing part of the net?

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[Zelot]

See this is the problem with all of these rationalizations, the people making them assume they know whats best of the owner of the copyright. It is the own who should get to decide how he or she wants to distribute their work. No on here wants anyone trampling on their rights, and would scream to high heaven should that occur, but the thought of taking away the rights of the person who produced the copyrighted material doesn't even enter people's minds as they steal. And yes Yuri thats what it is, in the United States, violating copyright is against the law, it is a crime, and I am fairly certain it is that way in many other countries. All these arguments to allow people to abuse other peoples work is self serving and fairly hypocritical.

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[Alex.]

Except in copyright law copyright infringement isn't theft.

And yes Yuri thats what it is, in the United States, violating copyright is against the law, it is a crime, and I am fairly certain it is that way in many other countries.

You either completely misread his post, or deliberately misinterpreted it.

Unless you actually believe that each violation of a law is theft.

[Zelot]

You either completely misread his post, or deliberately misinterpreted it.

No, I read it, Yuri is trying to rationalize how copyright infringement isnt stealing and it is, by law and by common sense.

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[oZoneRanger]

It's called "Greasing the skids" the only politicians not gone for the holidays will be the one's paid to get that bill passed. And yeah, we use a lot of copywrite material on these forums.

[Sanae]

No, I read it, Yuri is trying to rationalize how copyright infringement isnt stealing and it is, by law and by common sense.

By law? Yes. By common sense? Not really.

I copy a piece of software or a song or whathaveyou, and that is "theft" under the law. Yet the people who made the software are no poorer from this (barring the hypothetical me buying it, or the current me not just buying it after deciding the producers and developers are worth supporting), where victims of actual theft are.

Its a bit different from actually busting into someone's house and stealing their things. If I invented a copy-ray, would it be "theft" for me to copy your car and then drive away with it, just as much as if I had just stolen it outright? (Not advocating piracy btw, but copyright is a rather nonsensical concept).

[Alex.]

No, by law, copyright infringement is not theft.