Beware illegal downloaders: Data is being collected on you to crack down on piracy in

[pylon]

Originally Posted by GreatWhiteEbola

VW is making the Beetles. In my world VW has a machine that makes free Pink Beetles for everyone, yaaay!

Even though I could see free pink Beetles hurting our bottom line on the sales side, at least our Body shop would be booming with full repaints, which we would make more money on.

I for one, am all for counterfeiting pink Beetles.

[sun]

NSFW!

[Flames Draft Watcher]

Originally Posted by pylon

I have always posed this example to content Pirates.

If you could duplicate an exact replica of a Calgary Flames ticket, that guaranteed you access to the arena for games, would you use it to print tickets for personal use? If your answer is no, then you should be against piracy, because it is the exact same thing. If you rip a counterfeit album you have no tangible "thing". If you pirate admission to a game neither do you as well. Like c'mon.... have you seen the price for those new fangly hockey tickets, they are expensive as hell. I should steal them because I am OWED the right to admission, because I like the team. Same goes for airline tickets. Damn flights overseas are pricey. I should pirate those too. Hey Jetfuel, and 777 maintenance is free right?

The only reason people are piracy apologists, is so they can justify the fact they know they are stealing someone else's product or service.

It isn't really a clear parallel at all. Attending a game in person or concert in person is not identical to watching the game on TV or watching a rip of the concert later. In the case of the games one way in which it is different is that there is a limited number of seats and assigned seating. So in attending a live sports event there is an exclusivity. If 100 million people wanted to go to the Saddledome to watch the next Flames game it isn't possible. If you print off a counterfeit ticket and sit in someone's seat you are stealing their exclusive access to that event.

It just isn't the same with movies, TV. These are digital representations that are easily copied across the world. 100 million ppl could download the next Flames game and watch it after it had aired and been uploaded. This would not disrupt any season ticket holders who pay to watch the game live and in person.

Intellectual property is a tricky issue. It seems impossible to enforce or prohibit. As many have pointed out in this thread capitalism shows us that a model like Steam can work and prevent a lot of piracy of video games. Piracy being theft isn't necessarily a straightforward claim either. People are not stealing a single item that has value in and of itself. People are copying digital data which required some money to produce. However if it were not profitable to produce this digital data in the first place then it likely wouldn't have been produced. If people stopped downloading would they then go to more movies? I go to movies despite downloading as well and I don't feel like my ratio of seeing movies at theatres has changed since the introduction of torrents. Would the people who download movies and tv shows buy them if they could not download them or even if they could? Probably at a certain price point some would. I've seen people who collect movies and tv shows and I certainly bought many at some points.

Lets face it there is no simplistic parallel for piracy of intellectual property. It is not at all like printing a counterfeit ticket and going to watch the Flames live for free. It is a new phenomenon and should be treated like one. It makes us question if there shouldn't be a completely different way of compensating movie makers and tv show producers. It has the potential to undermine the entire tv and movie industry as they exist now.

Intellectual property is going to continue to be a massive issue as we move forward. Anyone with some technical knowledge can get almost any TV show, any movie, any book, any comic, etc at the click of a button. Trying to prevent the spread of this data seems impossible. Therefore attempting to stop it or limit it through the courts seems ridiculous. Which means that tv and movie producers may have to re-imagine the compensation model of their industries.

What we haven't seen is Hollywood and TV producers going broke so clearly the model isn't unsustainable yet. People still pay for cable, premium cable and still go to movies. I don't think its realistic at all to expect people to not download movies, tv shows, and books based solely on morals and not "stealing". Capitalism will have to find a solution so that people are still compensated for their creative efforts. These things will be shared, it seems inevitable at this point.

[arsenal]

Originally Posted by pylon

Besides the obvious safety issues, there is a reason they cannot sell these garbage death traps with gun powder used as airbag propellants in any other country but China. Their government allows, and promotes piracy, and intellectual property theft.

Citing China as a model of copyright laws, is like citing Hitler as an example of patriotism.

Yes.... I godwinned this thread.

Where did I say that China was a model of copy write laws? They are the magic machine that creates the pink VW that you used in your post earlier.

[GreatWhiteEbola]

Size

Spoiler!

[Burninator]

Originally Posted by Lchoy

This is essentially how file sharing works. The movie or media is recreated from the 1s and 0s of the original source material. Nothing is stolen if the original source material was acquired through legal means. Similarly as if I borrowed my friends car to use as a model so I can forge my own metal, plastic, and other materials to build an exact copy. VW can't sue me if I built my own car (unless I sold it as if it was from VW).

Perhaps I got lost in all the pink VW talk, but are you saying that since it's just 1 and 0's that it's not theft (or whatever you want to call it)? Or are you just making a hypothetical point?

[pylon]

What my question is, is how did they get around DRM and copyright laws in the ST:TNG Universe?

Holodeck lawyers must've been in high demand.

[The Yen Man]

Originally Posted by pylon

What my question is, is how did they get around DRM and copyright laws in the ST:TNG Universe?

Holodeck lawyers must've been in high demand.

Funny enough, if you think about it, the Holodeck would actually be an interesting debate on copyrights. If the Holodeck was real and capable of replicating exact objects virtually, would you need to pay a license fee in order for it to duplicate it?

So lets say I want to drive a Ferrari. Do I have to pay Ferrari a fee so the holodeck can replicate it? I wonder how much Kate Upton would charge?

[longsuffering]

Don't hurt yourself with those ethical and moral gymnastics of yours.

It seems you're trying to say:

Originally Posted by pylon

To me the line is really drawn at whatever I do is okay. Anyone who does more than me is a thief.

[Barnes]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

And boom, there it is.

Game of Thrones, the most pirated TV show in Canada, is unavailable to the Canadian audience without a prohibitive associated cost.

There's no other method of attaining the show without spending 70 dollars just for the opportunity to pay for the channel. No online streaming, and no pay-per-use pay model.

The people that are pirating that show are the same people who would otherwise be buying it if they could. Given access, people will spend their money.

Steam is the ultimate applicable example here. Digital content management that is easy to use, fairly priced and easier than pirating. There's no mystery why it's so successful. It's harder to pirate games than paying the reasonable fee of owning them, forever.

Another good example is Adobe's CS Suite. I pirated every version for 15 years for home use and now the with the creative cloud and discounts available, every CS application for $30/month, shut up and take my money.

[LChoy]

Originally Posted by Burninator

Perhaps I got lost in all the pink VW talk, but are you saying that since it's just 1 and 0's that it's not theft (or whatever you want to call it)? Or are you just making a hypothetical point?

Hypothetical point of course, but I was trying to confer the idea that copying a file is the same thing as me building the car with my own materials. No 1s or 0s were taken from the movie company nor any resources away from the originally purchased version.

[GreenLantern2814]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

There is absolutely no excuse for stealing anything. Period! Pirating cannot be justified in any manner because it's theft. Whether or not you agree with hollywood's pricing has absolutely nothing to do with the fact you are illegally gaining access to their products without paying for it.

You can't really be that naive, can you?

[Azure]

Originally Posted by Barnes

Another good example is Adobe's CS Suite. I pirated every version for 15 years for home use and now the with the creative cloud and discounts available, every CS application for $30/month, shut up and take my money.

Microsoft doing this with Office is going to result in the same thing. People will pay the monthly fee, and boom piracy goes down.

[TorqueDog]

If anyone is concerned...
http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-pr...iously-111007/

Originally Posted by Azure

Microsoft doing this with Office is going to result in the same thing. People will pay the monthly fee, and boom piracy goes down.

That's pretty well it. A monthly payment is far easier for most people to swallow than a big lump sum for something.

[zamler]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

There is absolutely no excuse for stealing anything. Period! Pirating cannot be justified in any manner because it's theft. Whether or not you agree with hollywood's pricing has absolutely nothing to do with the fact you are illegally gaining access to their products without paying for it.

I realize this has been pointed out before, but your avatar and username are intellectual property that does not belong to you.

[Dorkmaster]

Originally Posted by pylon

LOL, this thread is causing quite the stir with the hacked Apple TV XBMC users here at the store. One guy is saying it is perfectly legit to watch a movie released in the thatre the day before because otherwords, he would never watch it anyway.

Pylon: "Would you buy a pink VW Beetle?"

XBMC guy "No, I would never own a Beetle. I don't like the car in any colour."

Pylon: "So if the keys were left in the ignition of one on our lot, it would be OK for you to steal it, since you don't like it, and would never pay for it anyway? Right?

XBMC guy: *blank stare crickets.........*

I would never pay $20,000 for a pink VW Beetle. If one magically appeared then maybe I'd take it because its better than walking home. If I liked using it I'd go out of my way next time to buy a VW Beetle cause I liked it so much.

However I'd have never taken it if you would have provided more buses in the first place.

[DownhillGoat]

Originally Posted by CaramonLS

The Music industry has pretty much adapted. The amount of Piracy has decreased pretty significantly with things like Itunes and music sites like Pandora (f##k you CRTC).
....

So why hasn't film and television adapted yet. I would wager that far more people who download illegally download TV shows or movies vs. video games or music.

Originally Posted by Jacks

As others have said I download TV episodes but I also pay for cable. If Shaw offered a pay for episode setup, commercial free, I would cancel the cable and pay for the shows.

That's the same boat I'm in.

iTunes is sort of on the right track with Season Passes, (with the exception of not being able to view them in something like XBMC or Plex), but my biggest beef is that not everything is available. Boardwalk Empire, for example. If I could get the half a dozen shows I watch via a season pass or something similar, I'd gladly go that route and drop cable (or most of it).

Also, in this day and age, having shows available in the UK or the US not available here is absurd. Outside of 'piracy', there's no legal option for me to watch the new season of Archer, or formerly the new Futurama episodes, outside of illicit downloading.

[DownhillGoat]

Originally Posted by Barnes

every CS application for $30/month, shut up and take my money.

What what whaaaat?

[Rudee]

Originally Posted by CaramonLS

Honestly?

Nothing pisses me off more than seeing my cable / Internet bill for each month being about $129, and realizing that I haven't watched a single thing on TV apart from maybe a couple hours of NFL football or a non-existant Flames game and maybe a little bit of Sportscentre.

Buahahahaha!!! Really? Of all the things that can piss a person off, not being able to find anything on the boob tube pisses you off more than anything else? lol. In your situation, nobody's fault but your own.

[CaramonLS]

Originally Posted by Rudee

Buahahahaha!!! Really? Of all the things that can piss a person off, not being able to find anything on the boob tube pisses you off more than anything else? lol. In your situation, nobody's fault but your own.

You misunderstand - I really only use it for the things I mentioned above. Otherwise I have little use for the TV.