| Mr Khan said: Piracy is merely another force of economics if you frame it like that. Piracy is trying to tell these companies that their business models are broken and that they have to fix them, but the companies, operating in a corporatist society, merely appeal to the government for help. All anti-piracy initiatives and laws are really, at their core, just like the subsidies that I know you so loathe. The odd thing, of course, is that i favor subsidies in certain situations, but generally disagree with antipiracy legislation At the end of the day, media should be easier to buy. I do not, like some, completely morally justify piracy, nor do i just wish everything should be free forever, but the fact of the matter is legitimate purchases should be competitive with piracy alternatives, if not in terms of price, then in terms of usability. DRM needs to die, things need to get cheaper, artists need to be able to more directly reach out to consumers without the corporate middleman getting in the way, content needs to be released faster. Piracy is an effective market pressure to guarantee that these things happen, and they will happen, so long as vigilant voters make sure that the greedy media moguls can't just turn to the government to bail them out of their bad business practices |
I agree with you 100%. I don't believe in anti-piracy laws. Like I said, it's a property rights thing, and should be a civil matter. Treated exactly the same as your neighbour's dog breaking your fence, or something (as what recently happened back at home for me... although my parents never did anything about it).
And, yes, piracy is a force of economics (most things are...), which is what I meant by companies not taking the right course of action. Viacom made a decision to block all of their online content from working outside of the US, for example. So, if I want to do watch Colbert Report of Daily Show, I have no choice but to commit piracy (through illegal streams). This is the most absurd thing I've ever heard, and Viacom would stand to make a lot of money if they just put all their content online for everybody, with commercials. But I also say that it's entirely their decision to make. I think, eventually, Viacom will come around (and they would come around a lot quicker if Congress saw piracy in the same manner as we do).
