To let your offspring have access to pirated material?

[Tak3n]

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.

I don't download movies/tv series/books/music or anything else. I think we are entering into a very entitled age, where people feel perfectly justified taking something because it's there/they don't want to pay for it/everyone else is doing it - whatever. I don't care about the legalities. The reason I don't download is because someone spent months - more likely years - creating something and I don't feel entitled to take it. If I want it I pay, simple as that.

A large chunk of piracy is caused by availability not money.

It is property theft.
It funds criminal activity.
It exploits people (see earlier link re how these are made and sold).
I'm shocked a teacher would do this - it's completely out of order.

For all of those thinking piracy is harmless, are you happy to be funding organised crime?? How harmless is that???

As for illegal downloads you do realise that money is still being made - it's just going to the website owners via advertising, instead of going to songwriters, musicians, actors and all the people involved in CREATING these artistic products you so enjoy.

Not all artists are Justine Bieber, not all actors are Meryl Streep or Cameron Diaz. To make an actual proper living wage from being a musician, songwriter, actor etc is possible, but it is bloody hard going. It is increasingly difficult when such a huge % of the population thinks its OK to steal from you.

Tak3n streaming doesn't circumvent the law at all.

Streaming is a "communication to the public" broadcast, possibly also "copying" (as a transient copy is downloaded to your computer) both of which are protected by Copyright legislation - and streaming from those sites is in breach of the law and stealing.

You can't put the genie back in the bottle. The fact is that the entertainment industry should be making things available via legal download, instead of expecting people to buy DVDs, wait months for things to come on TV etc. When new technology comes into play, it is up to people to find ways to utilise it and change the way they do business, not to just ignore it and criminalise it.

It is fun watching people make the same points that have been addressed pages ago.

It is not theft, stealing, piracy or whatever. It is copyright infringement. The two are completely different.

There is also no link between any torrent site and any kind of organised crime.

The ignorance on this thread is amazing.

I think people are taking the name Pirate Bay a little bit too literally

Yes and the know-it-alls who are desperate to justify and validate their illegal activity are pretty amazing too.

You don't think of illegal downloading as stealing from songwriters and musicians? You think it's OK not to pay the creators of the very music you are illegally taking for free and enjoying, whilst the enablers make huge sums of ££££?

Guess you need this "blissful ignorance" to validate your thieving ways. Call it what makes you feel better - you are taking illegally without paying, and seriously damaging an industry that has done more for Britain than many many others. Hold you head high and keep downloading illegally - just take responsibility that your selfish actions are not without repercussions. Just because you can't see you 'victim' doesn't mean they aren't there.

You do realise that some of the people pointing out it isn't theft are doing so because it technically isn't, right? It's not justification for doing it, it is still illegal, but that doesn't make it theft.

If the "enablers" are making huge sums of ££££, why on earth aren't the songwriters and musicians "enabling" it themselves?

I'm not saying it's right, but I do object to people accusing other people of theft or criminal activity when it legally isn't. It's legally copyright infringment which is a civil crime.

Also, I think that if you read the act and look at who's been prosecuted, it's actually not even illegal if you download for your own use - it's uploading/sharing which is illegal.

I think that the producers need to realise that they need to make paying for their content as easy and pleasurable as pirated material - eg. no forced FBI warnings, able to skip adverts and move between devices (if that's what I've paid for)

oooh this thread has just reminded me that if i was so inclined to DL then I maybe happily watching TrueBlood Season 5 premiere tonight.

I was just about to say that Chunky - it's actually uploading or sharing which is illegal, not downloading. But you are getting it from an illegal source unless it's been officially released for free by the publishers.

Josephine nobody makes money out of it, unless they're charging for it (which would kind of defeat the point).

You know, if this kind of technological advance worked on anything else, food, for example, or water or cars or clothing, it would be a miracle. You can copy something, the original is left intact and you can copy it infinite times (as long as there is space) and it takes no more resources than the original. And indeed, this seems to be supported when we're talking about educational not-for-profit resources, advertising, or things where the copyright has expired. The problem comes because in the past when this kind of duplication was unavailable to the general public, entertainment companies could make huge profits out of generating and distributing this material.

I think that the companies need to realise that their previous way is now unfeasible. Let stuff be available free of charge or for a nominal fee or subscription, and make the money in another way.

You think it's OK not to pay the creators of the very music you are illegally taking for free and enjoying, whilst the enablers make huge sums of ££££?

No. That's why I then buy the stuff that I enjoy and want to watch again.
Just like many other people have said they do on this thread, and millions of other people do.

DH has a friend in a moderately successful band, not mainstream but well known within their scene. They deliberately put some of their music up on sites like PirateBay as it helped get their music out. So they obviously didn't see it as damaging to them, instead they found it helped them.

" You don't think of illegal downloading as stealing from songwriters and musicians?"

Well no. Because it isn't - however you want to cut it.

The simple fact is that the electronic age has driven a coach and horses through the media industry's business model. I feel no more sympathy for them than I do blacksmiths or typesmiths.

The smart ones will adapt and no doubt do very well but fundamentally the idea of using copyright to limit distribution of electronic media is dead. In an era of no cost reproduction the only value that media has is convenience. The times of charging £15 for a CD are long gone im afraid.

You don't think of illegal downloading as stealing from songwriters and musicians? You think it's OK not to pay the creators of the very music you are illegally taking for free and enjoying, whilst the enablers make huge sums of ££££?

Most people on this thread aren't talking about music but TV and film. I don't think they should be bundled into the same argument. The issues are different.

The music industry has moved with the times. I can't think of any justification for downloading music.

this thread has just reminded me that if i was so inclined to DL then I maybe happily watching TrueBlood Season 5 premiere tonight.

This wouldn't be so common if the makers/schedulers didn't make the UK fans wait so long.

There are plenty who would download these shows legally and pay for it if the service was available.

LAUGH at people beliving it "funds terrorists/criminals"...you do realise about 99% of illegal film watching is done by downloading it off a free-to-use website, rather than markets and shady back alleys.

Watch "Don't Copy That Floppy" on Youtube and see how our industry has totally stopped because of people stealing th- ...oh wait.

btw I buy music, films etc I just think people are so up their own arses.

To all of you using P2P sites make sure your anti virus software is up to date.I have just had to rescue a laptop that was riddled with viruse from torrent sites and to the non techy it was unusable.

I especially liked the post from the MNetter that pointed out that drug dealing etc funds itself and doesn't need pirated stuff to hold up the financial bottom line.

Yes, your guy who sells you DVDs down at your pub is part of a big operation buts it questionable whether they are tied into mafia hitman types. Online, its a different matter.

I have geeky friends who delight in buying some software, cracking the copyright protection and posting it online for others to download for free. They got friends in the US who will record TV programs and then post them online, once again for free.

I'm not saying that it is ok. I'm just saying that its often ordinary people file sharing as opposed to mafia types out to make tons of money