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Morality of Torrenting....
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Post by
9037
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Azazel
For. Because I can save money. (Selfish like that)
Post by
Adamsm
For: As I've said in other threads, I live in a crap hole town that it's nearly impossible to get the stuff I want, so it's a lot easier just to use the torrent sites to get the shows, music, books and audiobooks I want.
But really; if I like a book I get a torrent of, I'll buy the physical copy fairly soon after that. But there are books from when I was younger that I have no luck finding anymore, and I'm not willing to pay the previously owned copy of anywhere from 3 to 10 times the original price.
Post by
138638
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Ksero
For, I see absolutely nothing morally wrong with (your scenarios given for) torrenting.
Some will probably disagree with this idea but torrenting =/= theft. Despite what the "you wouldn't download a car" commercials say downloading a torrent and going to a store and taking something you like are 2 completely unrelated things
I would totally download a car if i could...
Im for torrenting, considering how overpriced all the games are these days, so what if the supergiant companies lose profits, they factor pirating into their business models anyway.
Books are another story, if its something i previously had, or that i cant find then i am fine with it. but im not gonna go download the new New York Times bestseller the month it comes out.
Post by
Squishalot
considering how overpriced all the games are these days, so what if the supergiant companies lose profits, they factor pirating into their business models anyway.
You don't think that's a bit Catch-22?
Post by
Adamsm
Books are another story, if its something i previously had, or that i cant find then i am fine with it. but im not gonna go download the new New York Times bestseller the month it comes out.
But it can depend; what I've been doing lately is whenever I go into a book store, I'll browse and write down names of books that interest me on my phone's memo option; then I'll go home, download them, read them and see if I want them. So far, that's saved me about 150 dollars worth of purchases; books that are good for one read, but not something I'd read a large number of times(such as Robopaclypse, The Enemy series and a few others).
Also, back when Under the Dome came out; I read a torrented version first, then picked up the actual copy of the book a few months later.
Post by
donnymurph
For. I have never earned more than $40,000 in one year. I need to keep my money more than game/record/film companies need to take it.
Post by
138638
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
FatalHeaven
Against. I just don't believe in it. It doesn't mean I dislike those who do. It just goes against the morals and principals I hold myself to. Those who say money is a factor is kind of two fold. If the companies were making a proper profit they wouldn't need to jack prices up.
Example (Unrelated to torrenting but relevant): When I was seven I stole a lighter from the local convenience store because my brother and our cousins had left over fireworks. The day that I stole the lighter it was priced at .69¢. My mom found out about it, shamed me and walked me into the stores owner to give it back. I noticed that the lighters were now .89¢. You see, as the owner told me, my thievery wasn't the first for the store or even a rarity. Kids from the middle school and high school had been sending in friends to steal a lighter often; they had discovered cigarettes. Due to an influx of product loss, he was forced to raise the price so that those who were actually buying them were helping him make up for the loss.
Moral of the story: You may get it free by torrenting but someone somewhere is actually paying for the thievery. You don't see it as stealing, I get that. But to me, and to the companies, it is.
Torrenting =/= Piracy but that doesn't mean it's a good thing either.
Post by
204878
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Interest
I'm going to say for, because when done right it can send a message to some company about their practices.
Besides, sometimes a torrent is legit, as opposed to being associated with pirating copyrighted works.
Post by
FatalHeaven
He probably wouldn't have sold lighters to kids, so there was no way for them to purchase the product: by refusing to supply when there is demand, illegal means were the only way.
You know the rest of your post was legitimate but this line of thinking discredited the entire thing for me.
Post by
204878
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Nathanyal
Would you have been able to purchase the lighter as a child? If so, then there was no reason to steal it. I'm sure the owner would rather sell you the lighter instead of you stealing it. But if you couldn't purchase it, then the only way to get the lighter was by illegal means. That is what Doctor is getting at. "By refusing to supply when there is demand, illegal means is the only way of obtaining it."
Post by
Magician22773
I am against it, but I am as guilty of it as most everyone out there.
I have a pretty substantial music library thanks mostly to good 'ol Limewire (when it was still around).
Now, I can say that probably 50% or more of the music I downloaded I either have owned, or still own on CD.
But I am not even going to try and BS and say that its nothing other than what it is, and that is 21st century stealing. Ten years ago if I bought a CD, and lost it, I could not walk into Wal-Mart and shoplift another copy of the disk. So how is this any different?
Besides, sometimes a torrent is legit, as opposed to being associated with pirating copyrighted works.
If a torrent is legit, then there is, or should not be, an issue. I realize that there have been mass sweeps to sites like megaupload that did not discrimiate between legit downloads, and piracy. But"
(a) How could you ever expect a site like that to be culled of, and monitored for, illegal torrents.
(b) If you could have culled out the illegal torrents, the site would have no longer been profitable for the hosts, and it would have died on its own, so (a) really doesn't matter.
Post by
134377
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Post by
138638
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Magician22773
Because the 'supply' of the product doesn't change. If Wal-mart has 100 copies of a disk and you steal one they only have 99 copies of it left.
But the 'demand' does. Now, Wal-Mart has only 99 potential buyers of their disk. There is, in effect, the same net change in potential sales. Basic economics....Supply
and
Demand, without either one, the other is worthless.
Have you ever had a friend who had the Album and he let you borrow it so you could burn a copy?
Under the letter of the law, this is no less illegal. However the "Fair Use" provisions of the Copyright act make it unlikely that anyone would be prosecuted for jusst sharing with a "friend". I don't think anyone is going to succesfully argue that the entire population of the internet is their "friend", so this point is laughable to make at best.
Or has a friend of yours ever beat a video game and let you have or borrow the game afterwards? Have you ever had a friend who'd let you borrow or even give you a book after they finished it?
Sure. But my friend didn't make 10,000,000 copies of the book of the game and give them to every single person in New York City.
Like I said...I am guilty as hell. I love getting free music, apps, and software. I agree that the cat is out of the bag, and instead of trying to stop an unstoppable force, they should look for ways to adapt. But I am not going to come on here and try to offer some debate style points to win an argument, when anyone with 1/2 a brain knows damn good and well that they are stealing copyrighted works.
Hell, I respect donnys Marxist view
For. I have never earned more than $40,000 in one year. I need to keep my money more than game/record/film companies need to take it.more than I do anyone who trys to argue that its just sharing files with a few million friends.
Post by
Thror
Torrenting, piracy whatever you call it isn't the digital version of stealing it's simply file sharing. Have you ever had a friend who had the Album and he let you borrow it so you could burn a copy? Or has a friend of yours ever beat a video game and let you have or borrow the game afterwards? Have you ever had a friend who'd let you borrow or even give you a book after they finished it? Torrents are the digital incarnation of that, except now you don't have that physical cd with you but rather just the raw data or information within it.
Guess what, all the examples you have given
are
stealing, lol.
But don't take my word for it:
Neil Gaiman on Copyright, Piracy and the Web
I respect Neil Gaiman as a writer greatly, but my god is he full of crap in that vid. All the things he says are so easy to say when you are an extremely successful writer who sells his books in the whole world, rofl. Every single Slovak writer would be able to beat that whole speech to a pulp. It is 100% bull&*!@, spoken by a man who probably doesn't realize there are artists who operate on a much smaller scale and who are actually getting ruined by piracy.
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