The Pirate Bay Trial

[Oyvoyvoyv]

SlorgNet said:
I know we're supposed to be living in an era where there's no good or evil, just shades of grey, but this trial is an exception.

It's a bunch of Corporate Slimefascist Democracy-smashing Pigopolists versus we, the people of Planet Earth.

Point 1: with digital technology, making copies has become incredibly cheap. Noone should pay $30 for a movie when the real cost (bandwidth, electricity, infrastructure) is three cents, or less. Reduce prices, we'll buy and rent stuff legally. Anything less is like trying to overcharge for candles while restricting electricity supplies -- sheer idiocy, and an idiocy without a future.

Point 2: Torrenting is a non-commercial activity and therefore NOT a copyright violation. It's sharing data, that's all. If Pirate Bay loses this fight, anyone who ever bought a used CD is a music criminal. Anyone who borrows a book from the school library would be a book criminal. Anyone who watches a moment of TV at a friend's computer would be a cable criminal. Anyone who is literate would be an alphabet criminal.

 

 To point 1.

The copies are cheap, but making the game (for instance) is expensive. Most video game companies are losing tons of money, do you think they would have been able to survive if they sold the games for 1/10 of the price? No way. Downloading does of course lower the price (cuts out the middle men), but to make their money back, they need to sell stuff at 10 dollar or more. That is, unless you want the quality to drop like hell.

 

To point 2.

I think that's just completely wrong. With Pirate Bay, you keep the song/movie/game for yourself, in addition to giving it to someone else.

By buying it used, the seller no longer has it.

It's not the same at the library, as only 1 person has it at a time.

 

That Guy said this in another thread, and it fits fairly good (it's far better than what he said in this thread :P)

 

 

The rule is the same for any Intellectual Property, i.e movies, media, etc.

You can sell or transfer the "rights" to use the property to whomever you want. But duplicating the game, keeping a copy, then distributing it is where you get into trouble.

 

Just think of it as a book. You can buy a harry potter book, read it, then give it to your friend and that's just fine. You're just not allowed to photocopy it and then distribute the copies to people.