5 minutes after posting my previous… post, and after watching an epi(n)sode of Jerry Jackson, I am finally read to put the fingers to the keys, so to speak, and to start writing. Tomorrow, in my exam, I shall be writing formally, putting across my views in about 1000 words, in about an hour (slightly longer). As that it was I try to do with my blog, it should not be too hard, but I have not done so in a while, and my fingers may be a bit rusty.
We are reminded constantly – whether it be a short segment at the beginning of a DVD, or a sticker when you buy a music CD – that piracy of copyrighted content is wrong. Yet, as is clear from looking at just a few of the online communities who share such material between one another, it is clear that many thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands or even more, are ignoring these warnings, and deciding to download videos, audio or programs illegally. However, is what these people are doing an immoral and should it be a criminal act, or is it harmless, and not at all wrong?
To tackle this problem, we first have to consider why copyright law is in place. [Note, I’ve just taken 25 mins doing nothing :(. Better not do that tomorrow]. Copyright law is enforced to protect the owners and creators of valuable work. Films, TV Shows and music all take time and money to create and distribute, and in order to continue doing so, these people want to be paid and make a profit.
This is bad, I’m tired and I’ll just give up. I’ll delete this tomorrow anyway.
My main points were:
- Copyright is to make money for makers of content
- People download for two reasons:
- Greed
- Lack of money
- Greed, yeah that’s bad
- But not having money to spend, why not? If someone has no money for DVDs, why shouldn’t they pirate content when they want to watch something.
- No one loses out, poor person gains, and perhaps even the copyright person when the users gets money
- There’s also the idea that it is like home recording, if we can do that, why not download instead so we can watch on our computers?
I would have rambled on for a while. Piracy just for the hell of it, I believe, is wrong. But if you’re doing it when you have no money, or when it’s no different to taping a program, I don’t see there being anything wrong with that.
But that’s a load of shit, eh.
