Glitchitar

this is all i have to say to you

http://cristgaming.com/pirate.swf

This isn't an attack, I'm just wanting to point something out.

Not having a Paypal isn't an adequate reason to just turn to piracy. There are so many other ways to download media legally. iTunes for example does not require Paypal. In fact, the only thing I use Paypal for is eBay.

Piracy doesn't just hurt artists, it cripples them. It is also crippling the industry in which they work. Due to the constantly declining sales in 'hard copies' of albums (CD's, LP's), musicians rely almost entirely nowadays on two things to generate income - live performance and downloads.

Piracy isn't only about whether you gain a cent from what you do. It's about denying the artists the money that is rightfully theirs.

I would have far less problems with it if pirates actually admitted they do it just to get free stuff, not some other bogus reason.

Well, good of you to be honest.

@Lord Clowncrete;

Do you forgive a thief if he admits he/she's been stealing yet continues to do so?

Honesty, in this situation, would be stopping the piracy and obtaining the music (or other media) by honest means.

I think it's okay to "pirate" (lol at that term) music if you really can't afford it. Just buy music when you are able, and don't download music from local artists because that ain't cool.

@TheMissingno.;

But by that logic, people are entitled to anything that has to be paid for, even if they can't afford it... unfortunately, that's not how the world works.

I apologise to everyone who's read this blog and the writer for me coming across as if I'm trying to dominate the whole thing. I'm a musician, I studied for a BA in Music Composition and I currently have two jobs to pay the bills while I continue to write and perform music. It is insanely difficult to earn money with any level of consistency. I cannot stand people making excuses for piracy.

If something is illegal, it's illegal. There are no varying degrees of legality. Something either is legal or illegal - no middle ground.

Not having a Paypal account...I'm sorry but that's simply a ridiculous excuse for not paying for music - so @Glitchitar; with respect, don't say ''i would buy it legally if I could.''

You can. There are many, many ways.

@JaggedRag;

No need to be sorry, you are free to express your opinion.

Look, I agree that stealing isn't good but he has clearly stated that he is not going to be able to buy the music(for now atleast). He has admitted that he pirates and from his blog, it appears that he does have a conscience. He isn't pirating when he has means to buy music like many others do.

You are telling him to be "honest", but he has no means to be so. How will he get music, without having a way to pay, without piracy?

And I donot buy the argument that one should stop getting what he wants just because "he cannot afford it". I have heard many people say to pirates that "stop playing games if you can't afford them" or "stop listening to music, if you can't afford it".

I live in a "3rd world" nation and 90% of people where I live pirate. Why? Because the original product will take away as much as 50% of a person's monthly(!) income and nobody is going to spend such absurd amounts for video games or music. That doesn't mean that they should stop enjoying themselves just because the company decides to sell the product at dumb prices. Selling at reduced prices doesn't mean lower profit. Example would be prentice hall's Eastern Economy Edition books.

I know for a fact that quite a few people here pirate and yet they claim to be the epitome of saintliness. The blogger is coming out and not being a hypocrite, and frankly I appreciate his honesty even if he what he is doing comes under dishonesty.

Originally Posted by JaggedRag

@TheMissingno.;

But by that logic, people are entitled to anything that has to be paid for, even if they can't afford it... unfortunately, that's not how the world works.

If you reach that conclusion, then you have not followed my logic. If you can't afford music, then you're not going to buy it. If you get it through file sharing, then you have still not bought it, so the author has not actually lost anything because they wouldn't have bought it anyway. Like I said, if you can afford music you should buy it, and file sharing music from local or small time artists really isn't excusable.

I just don't think someone should be deprived of culture just because they don't have the ability to pay. Say someone downloads a Pink Floyd album. Is that really hurting anyone? Pink Floyd have made their money, and the rest of the money from buying the album would probably go to people who have had nothing to do with the creative process. It may open up a whole new world of music to someone who would otherwise have been indifferent. Who knows, maybe some of your customers could have gotten into music as a result of file sharing.

If something is illegal, it's illegal. There are no varying degrees of legality. Something either is legal or illegal - no middle ground.

The law is not infallible.


Stop apologizing for your opinion. If that's the way you feel then that's the way you feel.

@Lord Clowncrete;

I understand what you are saying. The situation in 3rd world countries is obviously regrettable. There is absolutely no doubt that the majority of entertainment media nowadays is vastly overpriced.

If we can return to the subject of purely Music Piracy. In the case of music, reduced profit does indeed mean lower profit. I guess my main argument is that the blogger obviously has internet excess (hence the piracy) therefore could access any number of the many legal download sites to obtain his music. No Paypal? Fine, most sites don't depend on it - like I said earlier, the only site I have ever come across that is Paypal dependant is eBay. So, no Paypal. How about credit or debit card? Don't have one yourself? Ok, so use the details from your mother/father/sister/brothers card and pay them back in cash. (Something I did regularly when I was younger). No access to a credit or debit card? How about saving up your pocket money (or wages if you have a part-time or full-time job) and heading to your local music store?

I'm not going to say that anyone who indulges in piracy is a bad person. That is simply not true. I will however say that laziness nor tightness (unwilling to part with cash) are valid or acceptable reasons to pirate.

If you live in a 3rd world country, well, I can only imagine some of the difficulties that many of the people around you must face everyday. It is a much too significant and large a topic to dive into on this occasion, in these circumstances.

@TheMissingno.;

You misinterpret me.

I never apologise for my opinion - I apologise in advance in case my opinion offends or angers anyone.

Whether or not the law is infallible is a matter of opinion, however, by definition - any law that is active at this specific moment in time, is indeed infallible I'm afraid. That's how 'law' works.

I accept your point about Pink Floyd though, to a certain extent. However, it is still Pink Floyd who would receive the most money (royalties) from the sale of the material. A group or soloist who has achieved massive amounts of success in their chosen career still deserves the money generated by the sale of their work.

Originally Posted by JaggedRag

Whether or not the law is infallible is a matter of opinion, however, by definition - any law that is active at this specific moment in time, is indeed infallible I'm afraid. That's how 'law' works.

Not really, the only thing that is infallible is a god, if you choose to believe in one. The law was made by people and is therefore imperfect. Saying something is bad because it's illegal is inherently flawed.

I have no moral problem with piracy. If it wasn't for the fact that I'm scared of getting wrong for it, I would do it all the time. Some things are good but they just aren't worth buying, and more often than not, I'll watch a movie or play a game and if it is worth buying, I will go out and buy the real thing. I've maybe purchased 40% of everything I've pirated. If I hadn't of pirated, I wouldn't have bought any of it. I'd only pirate something that I wasn't intending to buy anyway.

I don't pirate because it's illegal here, but I envy those people who live in countries that allow it.

You don't need to live in a third world country to not be able to afford music. $15 for a CD is fucking expensive.

He should ask his mom to buy it for him then.

I sorta follow the logic of Crackfox about pirating, but in a different way. I pirate for three reasons: It isn't available for purchase, I want to try it out first, and/or because I don't want to be left behind my friends who already have it.

Reason 1: I used to go to iTunes for everything, but the more music I found I liked, the less dependable iTunes became because I could not, for the life of me, find it. For example, I wanted an InuYasha on my ipod, but iTunes only had a Karaoke version of it. I got the Karaoke version because it was all they had, but it wasn't the same. I wanted that song, the WHOLE song, because I liked it and it had good memories associated with it. Should I be denied the nostalgia and full enjoyment of the song because I can't find a way to legally obtain it?

Reason 2: When Black and White were on their way here to the US, I wanted them so badly, but I didn't even have a DS, or the money to buy one. We were barely getting by on what we had, and had to save money only for what was direly important. So when Black and White came out, I was hugely depressed because as fun as it looked, I couldn't do anything about it. One of my friends helped me out by introducing me to emulation, and teaching me how to do it so that I could still play Pokemon Black, despite my next to nonexistent wallet. For almost a year, I satisfied myself with a cropped version of Pokemon Black *since anything having to do with interacting with other players was out of the question*. It was so much fun to play, even without the wifi/wireless stuff, I promised to buy it as soon as I could afford to.

Then, when the times got a little bit better and we had some breathing room, I asked my parents for enough money to buy a Nintendo DS and Pokemon Black. They gave me $100 in my paypal, I went to ebay, and I bought a used DS that came with a free copy of Pokemon Diamond and Yoshi's Island Advanced, and an incredibly cheap brand new copy of Pokemon Black. So yes, I did pirate the game, but I did it with the intention of buying it when I could, and I followed through on that.

Reason 3: Pokemon Black was the hottest game coming out at the time, and everyone was playing it except me. I felt left out because all of my friends had a copy of the game and were talking about it, and I barely knew what they were talking about. A guy named N? A gym leader who had two incredibly annoying Emolga? A Castle instead of the league? What did all of that mean? What the heck were they talking about?

I felt incredibly out of the loop, and couldn't find common ground because I didn't know anything about the games that could only be discovered by playing them. They're my best friends, but they were clearly having a lot of fun talking about this without me. It wasn't fair, and it COULD have gotten nasty. Either I would have resented them over time or, if I asked them to not talk about it around me, they would have resented me. Basically, emulating saved my relationship with my friends because we were all on the same playing field once again. I did eventually buy the game, so it all turned out fine in the end.