Athanor said:
Does that apply to music, video, books and in fact any other kind of media? Can we all now just declare "I wouldn't have bought it anytway" and go steal it instead?
Obviously that cant be used as an excuse in a court of law. However I do feel a certain amount of common sense needs to be applied.
I feel it highly arrogant of the industry to claim every act of piracy can be considered a lost sale. Take the second hand market. If I buy my product second hand, this is a lost sale, isn’t it. What if I watch a DVD at my friends. I’m not buying the DVD, but I have enjoyed the product. So chalk up another lost sale there. I visit the library and borrow a book. Another lost sale. (You don’t see the publishing industry suing its readers for visiting the library, do you?). What if a friend borrows it you? Another lost sale?
You can, beleive it or not, obtain it for free without the internet. Or you may, shock, horror, may not even bother at all if you cant get it for free. Imagine that!!!
As it stands the media companies claim that EVERY act of piracy is a lost sale. I’m sorry, but I just don’t believe that their products are THAT good.
Or Athanor, are you telling me that you agree with the media companies that if people couldn’t obtain their products for free via piracy (erm, the library, friends??) that their product is just so good that instead they would rush out and purchase the product brand new from a retailer for their own sole enjoyment and never let anybody else watch it with them and never ever even dream about selling it second hand, lending it out, or just plain giving it away? I don’t think so.
Athanor said:
If you don't like/need it enough to buy it then you can hardly justify it as necessary enough for you to carry out a criminal act. You can't have your cake and eat it.
Lord, I bet you was popular at school. So you never borrowed from freinds or to freinds CD’s, or tapes, or games, DVD’s, or anything else like that? Because if you did, you’ll find that too is a criminal act. As I’m sure you didn’t have the required “authorisation for permitted lending, hiring, distributing….”, did you? And, just because its your friend isn’t an excuse for breaking the law, is it now Athanor?
Firstly I would like the media companies to PROVE that every individual act of piracy results in a lost sale for them. Lets imagine that every act of piracy WOULDN’T result is a lost sale. Lets say, quite feasibly, you buy the product second hand, enjoy it at a friends, or be given it. Where does this leave us? Does this entitled the same companies to spy in your living room to check up on you? Or spy on what your computer is doing?
Athanor said:
Can we clarify we're not just talking about "the evil Microsoft" here. We're talking about everyone in the supply chain including companies like Overclockers.
So, lets bring this to a head. Are you advocating stealing Vista instead of buying it from Overclockers? Yes or No?
Can you prove that if people couldn’t steal Vista instead of buying it that they would buy it instead? What’s stopping them from using Linux instead?
Finally, considering that Microsoft has made Bill Gates the richest man on Earth, it could be said that piracy of his operating system has helped him achieve this. What would have occurred if it was impossible to pirate his windows OS?
Now, Athanor, before you accuse me of condoning piracy, let me state not at all. I just object to being steamrollered by aging industries that are obviously putting their bottom line before the needs of their customers. Suicide in any industry. It aggravates me that spiel out such unproven ‘lost revenue’ statements that treats us all like lemmings and glorifies there products to the point that we cant live without them so much that we have to resort to 'stealing' them...
I will continue to lend a copy (edit; not a copy, but the Original) of my DVD’s to my friends, and live on the dark side of the force. Heck, in fact tomorrow I may even invite a few friends over to watch a second hand film. Just imagine the tears at Warner Bro’s at all those ‘lost sales’
