The Death of D. (Was Tango vs Phobos)

[Yigal Chripun]

Robert Fraser wrote:
 > I've had very mixed feelings about all this. One one hand, the letter
of the
> law may be questionably constitutional. But millions of dollars every day are
> lost because people (including myself occasionally...) steal copyrighted
> material. Honestly, I think there should be much stricter penalties for
> things like internet piracy, because it's simply so widespread and damaging.

Of course you have the right to have your own opinion (that's also in
the constitution) but all of the above is bullshit. (sorry for the
language).

stealing only applies to physical things like chairs and cars. that
whole metaphor of information as physical entities is wrong.
you sure can infringe someone's copyrights but you cannot steal anything
since there's nothing to steal.

Now that we cleared that out of the way, let's touch other nonsenses in
what you wrote:

A) "millions of dollars every day are lost..." - Not true. you assume
that if a person doesn't pirate he would have payed for the stuff. this
is a wrong assumption since the majority of people would just use other
alternatives. if I wouldn't be able to pirate MS office I'd probably
search for a cheap commercial solution or install Open Office which is
good enough for me and most other private people and small companies. no
one in their right mind would pay 500$ for an office suit. think
globally: in US standards paying for software is not that expensive and
is convenient (and you pay for that as well) but for most of the world
those prices are high. in Israel 500$ translates to roughly 2000 NIS
which is a lot.
B)"it's simply so ... damaging" - not so.
If you look at music and films than the image is backwards: since it's
easy to pirate I can download a lot of stuff try it out and only keep
what I like. If I like it I'll tell friends and more people will be
exposed to the content. pirating actually makes money for the copyright
holder and helps him get recognized since it's advertising they don't
need to pay for.
If what you said was true than Red Hat and Novel wouldn't lasted more
than a day. after all you can legally download their products from their
 respective websites!

The issue is not whether piracy is moral or not. it's a fact of life -
the internet provides an efficient means for distribution of
information. either you take advantage of it or you insist on your old
irrelevant business model and go extinct. business 101 - "The customer
is always right." the moment they (RIAA, MPAA, etc..) broke that rule
because they refused to evolve with respect to new technology and
business models is the moment they signed their death warrants.

I prefer supporting music artists by going to a concert and paying 100$
for a ticket rather than paying for CDs with shitty music the records
companies advertise and try to stick in my throat.

one last thing, before suggesting more penalties and such please read
the following: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
*after* reading this, are you sure still that this is the way to go?