Well that settles my internal debate then. I will no longer pay for movies, music or games since I don't own what I bought. Gonna just keep on chugging along.

Now, does borrowing fall into this same category you described, because from the looks of it it should right? If I lend Dark Souls to 4 different people at work I robbed Namco and FROM Software of money. I costed movie studios money when I recorded movies off of HBO on VHS. I costed the music industry money when I would record music off of the radio. I costed them money my whole life and probably so did almost everyone here because I doubt nobody here ever borrowed anything from anyone without sending a small check to someone in order to prevent themselves from robbing them of a sale.

Bunch of thieves...

Point is, the way I look at it is that if I buy something, it is mine. I buy an album, so I should reserve the right to do what I want with the content on that disc since I paid to have what is on that disc. I hate this day and age where you don't own anything, even though the prices are absurdly high. If I only own the plastic but not the data then only charge me for the plastic.

You're not paying for the song but rather the right to listen to the song.

Fuck that shit. These are the same people who put their songs on Youtube for us to listen to at no cost while making money from the advertising.

Maybe it is more of a case of them getting with the times than giving a bogus reasons as to why we don't actually own anything we spend our hard earned money on. Even when free they can earn money. It is just a case of them wanting more.

While I'm not in favor of piracy, for the most part I'm ambivalent about people who find themselves engaging in it. The only people I usually find myself taking an active stance against are people who are using piracy for profit.

As far as I'm aware, renting companies like Netflix, Blockbuster and LoveFilm etc have an agreement with film companies that allows them to rent out the films. You don't, although if you not making a career out of it I doubt they'll ever try and hunt you down. You're also forgetting that when you record movies off TV, you've probably recorded the adverts as well, so the money is still finding its way back to the film company. 

As for paying just for the plastic, they are very few things in the world were that is ever the case. Just about every product has a mark-up on it, otherwise nobody would be making any money. Whenever you buy something, you are always entering into an agreement with whoever you're buying it off. With intangible products, that agreement tends to be different to tangible products. 

I get all that, I even mentioned that when they post it for free on Youtube they make money off the advertising. When it is played on the radio it has commercials too, but unlike TV those commercials don't interrupt the song. They actually don't interrupt the shows or movies on channels like HBO either since they don't have adverts. That is part of the reason I pay a subscription cost to watch those channels.

As for the next paragraph, that isn't what I am arguing really. What I am saying is that if I am buying a DVD I should own everything on that disc and if not, then I should only be charged for what is legally mine upon purchase. Does it seem to work that way? Obviously not, so this is how I react to it.

If they have rights as owners then so should I.

It is like with PS3 not too long ago. If they had it their way we wouldn't actually own anything that we buy, but rather be renting them and only be allowed to do with them what the corporations tell us we can do with it, even though we bought it and OWN it.

It is obviously a mind set that tends to get me a lot of disagrees, so I end up agreeing to disagree.

Nothing is new. Why do you think many DJs talked over music -- so you could not record it and had to buy it.

When I was in graduate school two decades ago, the professor expected us to have certain software packages ... but really did not want to know how we "acquired" it. There were students who could get anything and students who came from places where copyright was not as strongly enforced/meaningful. The result was that there were many copies of Word Perfect 5.1 (on six 5-1/4 inch, 360K floppies) floating around.

Of course, a lot has changed since the days when you had to bring your own DOS disks to boot the computer (and chances were they were copied too). Places that used to turn a blind eye to software being copied had to start watching it because it is a form of stealing. (For example, I once saw someone who I used to work with running a database program in their business that appeared to have been "acquired" from where we had worked together.) Also, copy protection became more pronounced, from hard-to-copy code sheets (e.g., Sim City) to installation counters (e.g., Gauntlet -- which allowed only one installation and prevented me from reinstalling my legal copy when I had a hard drive crash).

That all being said, the only ROMs I have today are for not-released games, games I own, or a out-of-print, several generation old games that I have yet to find the actual games. In other words, generally abandonware.

I would never think of trying to DL current games. Unfortunately though too many people seem to think that they are free for the taking. And while agree that the business model is broken with not enough money going to the creative people (especially in music) and that copyright laws have grown far beyond their original intent (What ever happened to Jefferson's 19-year patent recommendation?) -- stealing is still stealing!

Mike from Morgantown

I wish art, including games, were made out of social momentum and good will instead of greedy gathering of capital. Oh well, maybe in the far future, if people get things right.

Oh this could be a fun thread...

I pirate from time to time, but only if I can't afford it otherwise (and as soon as I can afford it, I DO buy it, as my DVD/Blu ray shelf is a testament to.)

I have over 500 DVDs. 75 blu ray movies, like a dozen TV shows in their entirety, and literally hundreds of games. I catch deals on steam, I catch deals at Wal Mart, and generally am a good consumer, but sometimes I just don't have money for something, so I pirate it.

For instance, I pirated every season of house at one point, and I look over at my DVD shelf, and I see that I own the first 5 seasons (will be finishing that collection as soon as I can. I pirated Rome, I have both seasons of that. Titus, Family Guy, Arrested Development, The simpsons, Futurama, Firefly, Dexter..I've pirated every one of those shows and yet as I look over, BLAM, own them all legit. I was just surfing through my Movies that I've pirated over the last couple years and had to delete literally dozens of them because I now own them on DVD or more likely Blu Ray.

I own two copies of Avatar on blu ray, three copies of the lord of the rings trilogy (originals, extended, and blu ray extended), I own a bunch of movies on DVD and blu ray (Die Hard series, Sin City, Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy plus On Stranger Tides)

My point is, Nobody can get pissy at me for being a pirate, I buy more stuff than almost anyone I know, but I also pirate stuff. You look at my DVD shelf, and it's two layers deep with games, movies, and TV shows. I have a simple rule I live by: if you can afford it, pay for it. Movies and games are a luxury, so do your part. On the flipside, I see no harm in piracy when we have so many people working in hollywood making hundreds of thousands of times more money than I.

I study box office trends, I track game sales. While some companies are doing poorly, Movies are as profitable as ever, Games break records yearly, and the economy only sucks for lower/middle class citizens. I feel no remorse over not giving some super rich guy more money that he doesn't need.

When it comes to piracy, I see both sides of the coin. That said, I never pirate games...mostly because I won't mod my consoles and my PC isn't good enough to run most games anyway, so what's the point.

also: Piracy is not theft. Theft would indicate that the item is taken away from the owner, we pirates are making copies. People have been doing this as long as there were recordable casette tapes and VHS tapes, and nobody bitched back then.

Excellent post.

Would just like to add, I do pirate games for emulators (most of which I actually own) and I pirate Dreamcast games to burn onto a disc.

I would have thought that record sales across various mediums would have put to rest the idea that piracy is killing these industries.

I have always believed (And will continue to do so) that the effects of piracy are so incredibly overblown.

While I don't advocate piracy in the least the article raised a number of key issues - or flaws - in current corporate and international operational models that certainly encourage people to pirate digital media of various forms.

Ultimately it's wrong simply because while not theft in the traditional sense, it is electing to use something without paying that represents someone else's income model. The example given of a painting is key - however many copies are made the artist should get a fair share as the originating creator.

There are too many barriers to ownership and use currently, and I do believe that rather than limit piracy the result has been to swell the ranks of knowing illegal pirates with people who wouldn't pirate if there was no DRM, no usage restrictions and re-sale was understood and accepted.

Better transparency of costs of a digital model and what is a fair charge would also help.

In the end piracy has always been around since the earliest availability of anything to pirate, but I believe corporations and international legal enforcement have gone in entirely the wrong direction to combat and control it.