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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To let your offspring have access to pirated material?

172 replies

Tak3n · 10/06/2012 20:17

On Friday I had a text from one of my friends saying how their kids teacher had come to school with a pirated copy of Avengers in for the kids to watch on the last day of term.. (they were 14 years old)

Which got me thinking; do you now think Piracy is so "the norm" that by not letting your kids see the films early etc etc that you are almost excluding them from school ground talk..

I know I have to put my hands up and say I always get my 4 year old the latest films for kids, but obviously he does not understand where they come from, and I am not sure when he is old enough if I should stop and explain to him how things work properly.. i.e cinema/rental or if it is now the way of the world to watch pirated material.

OP posts:
BertieBotts · 10/06/2012 22:33

Ohh, I see - as in, some people would download but would never dream of uploading a film from a DVD as that's illegal.

Okay, I see the connection now. Probably a bad subject to pick though as a contrast!

TotemPole · 10/06/2012 22:33

IVant, Bertie didn't mean you personally. They use 'if you're' in the general sense.

IVantToBeAlone · 10/06/2012 22:37

Thank you totempole You explained it better than me in my exasperated state.

D0oinMeCleanin · 10/06/2012 22:37

CouthyMow, your ds is having you on. Downloading Nintendo games is illegal. Technically, the cards themselves (of which there are many i.e R4, AceKard, SuperCard etc.) are not illegal. They can be legitimately used to 'upgrade' the Nintendo DS into a media player. Downloading games onto the cards is illegal. You are not able to legally download any Nintendo games onto a card, although I believe you are able to buy and download directly onto the 3DS from Club Nintendo, but not generally their new or popular releases.

You cannot access Pirate Bay from Virgin internet now. They have blocked the site. There are half a billion others and more sprouting up each day.

Those trying to prevent piracy are fighting a loosing battle. Something needs to be done that both sides will be happy with. NetFlix is alright, but most of their content is older than the likes of what you can get off download sites.

LucieMay · 10/06/2012 22:39

Of course it's the same- it is theft insofar as you are taking something that should be paid for, without paying for it. Whether the film/music resides on a disk or on your computer's hard drive, you have still stolen something. DVDs and cinema cost too much? Say I can't afford to run a car as petrol is too expensive (I'm sure most people would agree it is) does so that make it morally justifiable for me to go around syphoning petrol for free because I think the oil companies and capitalism and corporations are corrupt? And you can get very cheap second hand DVDs off Amazon etc nowadays. You really don't have to pay £18 for a new DVD. I buy cheap second hand ones from a shop called CEX then trade them in for others when I've watched them.

IVantToBeAlone · 10/06/2012 22:40

totempole Thank you, but I was responding to sunscorch who was implying that I was a pedo. That made my blood boil. Thanks again for explaining it better than I was!

JosephineCD · 10/06/2012 22:41

But if you could copy petrol, and the person you were "stealing" it from would still have a full tank, would that be wrong?

Shops like CEX buy DVDs from heroin addicts, and many of them are stolen.

IVantToBeAlone · 10/06/2012 22:45

LucieMay - so if I would not go to the cinema, rent or buy the DVD I am still stealing? In my mind I am not. They wouldn't get my money anyway. Not sure how we can link it to siphoning petrol. You get an actual item if you do that. You do not if you download and would otherwise never pay for them. It really is a weird one.

IVantToBeAlone · 10/06/2012 22:45

Good point JosephineCD

TotemPole · 10/06/2012 22:46

IVant, Ah I see, I missed sunscorch's comment.

Sunscorch · 10/06/2012 22:46

you are taking something that should be paid for, without paying for it.

What is it that I am taking?
Because from where I'm standing, nobody would be able to tell that I had taken anything at all. What I've "taken" is still there.
How can I have stolen something that is still there?

LucieMay · 10/06/2012 22:47

Iwanttobealone- the point is you're getting the privilege of WATCHING THE FILM OR LISTENING TO THE MUSIC FOR FREE, when it should be paid for! If you wouldn't buy the DVD or go to the cinema NO you shouldn't be able to watch it because the point of films/music is that they make their money by being watched or being listened to. If you're not willing to pay for that, you should not get access to it.

Sunscorch · 10/06/2012 22:47

(For the record, I was not calling anyone a paedophile, I was saying that you can't know the motivations of a paedophile unless you are one, so to pretend that you do is spurious at best.)

BeanieStats · 10/06/2012 22:49
  1. Copyright infringement is not theft. Theft has a very specific definition in law and aside from anything else is a criminal offence. Copyright infringement is a civil dispute with a very different definition. Comparisons between copyright infringement and theft are on a moral basis not legal.
  1. There is no link between copyright infringement and terrorism, child trafficking, prostitution or anything else mentioned here. Despite the best efforts of the media industry. If you download the latest TV series from the Pirate Bay you are most definitely not supporting anyone other than the Pirate Bay through the advertising revenue they receive.
  1. The link between increased copyright infringement due to the internet and any decline in media industries is tenuous at best.
  1. Comparisons between copyright infringement are moronic.
LucieMay · 10/06/2012 22:49

Yes, you have taken the film/music- whether it is stored on a disk or on your computer, it doesn't matter where you store it, the principle is the same. If everyone just downloaded films or music illegally instead of paying for the cinema/gigs/DVDS/CDS/legal download they would cease to exist as they would be making more money.

VashtiBunyan · 10/06/2012 22:49

The issue of production of illegal DVDs and the treatment of workers, I think that could be applied to legal DVDs as well. I'm not convinced it is that ethical for us to still be buying CDs and DVDs with the working conditions, shipping, energy and materials it uses up. It would make far more sense if that material was all just downloaded, which of course could be done legally.

The illegal downloading is something that the industry could do something about by releasing all films/tv shows in the same regions at the time.

Sunscorch · 10/06/2012 22:50

they would cease to exist as they would be making more money.

They would cease to exist in their current form. People would still produce art, but it would no longer be under the control of six megacorporations.
Sounds like an improvement to me.

Sunscorch · 10/06/2012 22:52

The real reason, by the way, that the big media companies don't like downloads, is that they can't force you to watch ten minutes of advertisements before you get to the film.

The same reason that they said the video cassette would destroy the industry. Which, you'll notice, it didn't.

JosephineCD · 10/06/2012 22:53

The film companies tried to ignore downloading for FAR too long. As soon as it became viable to download films quickly, they should have been making it available legally at a reasonable price. Instead they expect people to drive to the shops to buy DVDs, in 2012!

LucieMay · 10/06/2012 22:55

People justifying illegal downloading by arguing about the morals of the film/music industry is like people justifying stealing from Tesco because they're an example of corrupt capitalism. Stop pretending you're doing it for moral reasons, you just want stuff for free. At least admit that. There is no possible moral highground you can take with this issue. You have no right to an artist's or company's art unless you are willing to pay for it (unless they're giving it for free obviously).

And it's an odd view that because something is stored in a computer's memory that it effectively ceases to exist. So because software is on a computer should we not pay for that? Should MS Office/anti virus programmes/photoshop etc etc not exist as paid products because they are simply stored on a computer and not a physical product? Some of you people astound me.

IVantToBeAlone · 10/06/2012 22:56

sunscorch I take it you don't read the news?

Sunscorch · 10/06/2012 22:57

you just want stuff for free

Then how do you explain my extensive DVD collection?

Sunscorch · 10/06/2012 22:58

And it's an odd view that because something is stored in a computer's memory that it effectively ceases to exist.

No one has said that.

LucieMay · 10/06/2012 22:59

Sunscorch- just because you already own stuff doesn't make any difference. Your attitude is that you have some inherent human "right" to own music and films for free. You don't. You have no right and the law agrees with that.

IVantToBeAlone · 10/06/2012 23:00

The real reason, by the way, that the big media companies don't like downloads, is that they can't force you to watch ten minutes of advertisements before you get to the film. Utter tosh.

See previous posts where I explained what I do for a living and then comment.

LucieMay please also see previous posts where I have explained that I DO NOT go to the cinema aside from 3D movies - mostly because when I do it is full of teenagers who do not know how to behave.