SOPA

ChrisMC · January 19, 2012, 06:18:24 PM

You're right about one thing, we have FAR worse problems to deal with in this country and this WORLD than this. That said, I do like it when a supposedly listless public gets fired up about stuff!

KingIsaacLinksr · January 19, 2012, 06:20:02 PM

Quote from: Chris-El on January 19, 2012, 06:18:24 PM
You're right about one thing, we have FAR worse problems to deal with in this country and this WORLD than this. That said, I do like it when a supposedly listless public gets fired up about stuff!

Kinda makes you wish we would get more fired up about more stuff eh? Over 7.5 million people petitioned SOPA. That shocked me to hear those numbers.

King

Bryancd · January 19, 2012, 06:21:20 PM

I'm not putting words in your mouth, you are justifying and equivocating why you have downloaded content without paying for it.

And on the Republicn debate just now all the candidates said thy do not support this legislation.

KingIsaacLinksr · January 19, 2012, 06:26:49 PM

Quote from: Bryancd on January 19, 2012, 06:21:20 PM
I'm not putting words in your mouth, you are justifying and equivocating why you have downloaded content without paying for it.

And on the Republicn debate just now all the candidates said thy do not support this legislation.

Ok, granted I should have put the line about everyone else in another post or whatever. I don't use the mob mentality to justify my actions.

And not really surprised to hear that out of the republican candidates. If they did support it, they would lose a chunk of their younger voters.

King

sheldor · January 19, 2012, 06:36:28 PM

I think SOPA oversteps and the LAST thing anyone wants is more government intervention into our lives. Doubtful this will pass but the recent "blackouts" were a bit silly. Both sides have a point. People are right - this is not as widespread as some claim.

Rick, I'll see you at the movie on Sunday.

seinfeld bootleg

Bryancd · January 19, 2012, 06:55:14 PM

Let me bottom line this. SOPA is DOA, Forget it. Piracy, however, is a real issue. Small relative to many others facing this country, but an issue non the less. This is not a moral issue, I don't think King or my younger brother, or anyone else of the many people I know and love who downloads content illegally is a bad person. What this is an economic issue. People steal content over the internet to avoid PAYING for it. For the most part, other times it's simply because it's not available via broadcast or cable or satellite in the US. People who do that are just petulant children who need it NOW! So the economics are you either pay for it or not. If you think what is offered is too expensive, vote with your wallet and don't buy it. Using the internet as an excuse to get around that simple approach of fair capitalism is BS. It's that people are TOO CHEAP to pony up what the market is demanding. Don't like it, change the market the legal way.

X · January 19, 2012, 08:39:46 PM

Quote from: KingIsaacLinksr on January 19, 2012, 06:14:34 PM
Quote from: Bryancd on January 19, 2012, 05:51:45 PM
So because the content isn't available the way you want, it's ok to get it by other means. So until someone provides YOU with what YOU perceive s a better service, it's ok to steal. And that's a common feeling so that makes it ok. And yet somehow I manage to survive without stealing content.

Do not put words in my mouth Bryan, I do not tolerate that. I did not say that because it is a common feeling that it is ok for me as well. I was simply stating it as a fact/opinion, nothing more. I also did not say that what I was doing was ok either. It sickens me to even have to do it which is why I rarely ever do it. 99.99% of the time if its not available on the services I use, then I just move on. I was using my opinion, however, to say why other people justify it. Why other people will more likely pirate it. Agree or disagree, its a problem that doesn't require a sledgehammer to fix.

@Chris. Your right. But the MPAA and etc make this issue out to be this economy-crippling affair when really, we don't even know how much damage is actually being done. Spouting off numbers is lying. I hate. Liars. And this whole SOPA and PIPA thing did not need to be shoved down our throats when there are far more important problems we need to deal with.

As I said, I don't support it.

King

King, can I ask you an honest question. We both know that people here are guilty of downloading shows. We also know that it's a crime, but you say that 99% of the time it's not on the services that you use, but what services do you actually pay for.

I'll be the first to admit I'll DL something if I missed it on my TIVO, but then again, I pay for EVERY cable channel that my provider offers, Vudo, Hulu+, Netflix, Xbox live, and Zune pass. I also own about 100+ Digital shows and movies. I know what I'm doing is wrong, but at the end of the day, my money does go to the people that I watch.

I know you said it sicken you to do it, but if that was the case, why do it? That's kind of worse than just admitting you do it because you don't want to pay. What you said reads like you can't help yourself and are torn up because you are doing wrong, yet you still do it. That's some addictive behavior.

So for the record, when I do time jump some things that I want to see, I make every effort to pay for said content down the road.

X · January 19, 2012, 08:43:20 PM

Quote from: Bryancd on January 19, 2012, 06:55:14 PM
Let me bottom line this. SOPA is DOA, Forget it. Piracy, however, is a real issue. Small relative to many others facing this country, but an issue non the less. This is not a moral issue, I don't think King or my younger brother, or anyone else of the many people I know and love who downloads content illegally is a bad person. What this is an economic issue. People steal content over the internet to avoid PAYING for it. For the most part, other times it's simply because it's not available via broadcast or cable or satellite in the US. People who do that are just petulant children who need it NOW! So the economics are you either pay for it or not. If you think what is offered is too expensive, vote with your wallet and don't buy it. Using the internet as an excuse to get around that simple approach of fair capitalism is BS. It's that people are TOO CHEAP to pony up what the market is demanding. Don't like it, change the market the legal way.

Can I download and pay for it later? I mean I'm pretty good a spending several hundred a month on my entertainment stuff. Yeah I know that's not an excuse, but it is one real example of someone that does pay for content even after they have seen it for free.

What gets me is the people that don't pay for anything and then say they do it because it's not available for them.

Jobydrone · January 19, 2012, 09:26:43 PM

Bryan, you've said several times in several different threads you used to use Napster and Limewire back when those were popular (not that long ago really). What caused your change of mind on the subject? Download a virus or something? ;) just kidding

I believe the real bite that piracy is taking is out of the home video market...pretty much every movie that comes out on DVD and Bluray is available to download illegally about a month or so before it is released in stores. Films that are still in the theater are not generally available in any form that a discerning viewer would want to watch, except around awards season when those screener copies start to float around out there.

The only way it will stop is if the government forces the Internet providers to turn in, sanction, or cut off their customers. It's not gonna happen in this country, unless Comcast, Cox, and Time Warner decide that cutting off the percentage of their users that pirate isn't going to drastically impact their bottom line. We'll see about that.

I believe that the number of people who routinely pirate isn't going to change much, and that the content providers will continue to flourish as they always have by adapting to the changing times and figuring out how to best take people's money with the new tech that comes at us faster and aster as the years go by. The music industry is doing that now, coming up with creative ways to market their products and making most of their money on tour at live shows. My prediction is that physical media is sooner rather than later going the way of the dodo, and that services like Netflix and On Demand a la carte viewing is going to be the future of how we consume our media.

ricdude · January 19, 2012, 09:27:26 PM

"It's that people are TOO CHEAP to pony up what the market is demanding."

Oddly, "Artificial Scarcity" may be a better description of the situation. The current market prices do not necessarily reflect the true economic value of a product with negligible marginal cost of production...

KingIsaacLinksr · January 19, 2012, 11:04:43 PM

@X:

I pay for Netflix and Cable, iTunes season passes once in a while and DVDs even more once in a while. The only reason here lately that I DL stuff is because I missed it and need to time jump it, rather than wait for the entire season to come out later. Even then, someone eventually gets paid by me. As for the 99% statement, I wasn't really referring to shows, just content in general. So as far as shows go, I rarely do not have access to it as far as buying it later is concerned. Its watching it within a month of its release that it gets difficult. Hulu used to have it, now they don't and no one else does either.

That entire sickens statement was poorly chosen. Its pretty much what you said. I know what I'm doing is considered wrong, but someone does get paid eventually.

I think that answers your questions X.

King

Rico · January 20, 2012, 05:30:10 AM

Again, my easy answer to all this is make content easy to get exactly what you want (not pay $100 a month for cable where the majority of it you don't watch), and charge a reasonable price. I'm liking a lot of what I'm seeing with electronic comics these days and the direction it's going. For DC comics you can buy e-versions the day they come out at full price (same price as the comic), and a few weeks later the price drops (usually it goes from $2.99 to $1.99). This allows paper comics to still be sold in comic shops and it also makes the individual content easy to get and pretty cheap. Anyway, I think most people want to do the right thing. We'll see what the future holds.

Rico · January 20, 2012, 05:45:36 AM

To lighten the mood a bit after the recent big, Megaupload site takedown....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THFZBi6nGJg#

billybob476 · January 20, 2012, 05:47:30 AM

Hehehe...I always find this funny, to lighten the mood, let's all laugh at Hitler :)

Jobydrone · January 20, 2012, 06:59:32 AM

Interesting development, apparently Whitehouse.gov and the Department of Justice are blacking out their websties in protest of the SOPA initiatives. No wait, it's a pissed off hacker group taking revenge on the US Government for what they percieve as an illegal police action on foreign soil.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/01/anonymous-strikes-back-against-justice-universal-sopa-supportersattack-on-whitehousegov-underway.ars