Unbelievable…
While perusing Lifehacker before going to bed, I ran across this article with hundreds of comments.
In case you don’t want to read:
- person uses BitTorrent to download movies
- her ISP sends her a letter stating that what she did was illegal and for now she wouldn’t be sued.
- she asks for advice about downloading movies via BitTorrent…
I found the comments hilarious, but ultimately sad. A wide range of advice was proffered to the original poster. But what was funny/sad were the justifications folks had for being allowed or having rights to download movies or music for free.
I mean, you were sent a letter saying “We know you did this. It’s wrong. Don’t repeat!” –and then you’re going to do it again? Litigation, etc., is expensive. Yeah, maybe it was a “scare tactic,” but copyright/DMCA is the law. You might not like it, but that’s what it is.
You’ll run into advice like this:
A friend of mine ran into this kind of trouble. Try buying a copy of the DVD in question (PAY CASH!!!) and then if you need to you can claim you already owned the DVD and you were acquiring a digital backup.
Ha! Why not just buy what you want in the first place? Or rent it?
One guy claims he does his downloading at work:
consider that the reason why I now do 90%+ of my downloading through my job’s T1 line behind several secure firewalls…
And finally, yes, there are some wiser folks too that understand:
if you choose to break the law, be prepared to pay the price
I mean, isn’t this pretty clear?
The customer service representative stated that if my account was found to be transmitting and receiving copyright-infringing material in the future, then my connection would be terminated.
I am not sure why folks have such a hard time dealing with copyright. Yes, making digital copies of things at no cost then charging full price for each copy does feel like a scam. But that’s the reality of applying an old-world business model on the face of modern technology.
Tonight I bought three albums online. It took seconds to grab all three; I payed between $.89-.99 per track (average) between two online stores (namely Amazon and Apple). I payed for the privilege of hearing the music, and at any time I want, on any device I want. Do I wish the tracks were cheaper? Yes.
That’s me. I think I get it. But there are teachers and students I have interactions with that do not get it. Some of it might be economic differences between us. Some of it might be blantant disregard for the economic model that allows the music/movie business to work.
Or is it just me who wouldn’t risk their job by downloading this content from work? Where I work, it’s pretty clear. We make you sign paper work that says we reserve the right to fire you if you do x, y, or z, yet it’s happening elsewhere. Where people do get fired.
Amazing. That’s what it’s come to, the inabiity to resist getting something for free.
March 27th, 2008 at 9:45 am
I used to download a little and read about it a lot. It’s a fascinating legal situation:
It’s almost impossible to prove that a downloader is aware that they’re violating a copyright, so they’re difficult to take to court. If you upload (which is basically publishing), then you’re responsible for being aware of what you upload, so you’re easier to take to court. Enter Bittorrent, which is rather brilliant but turns everyone into an uploader, so now its possible to take downloaders to court.
There’s also a psychological factor affecting sales. Even if someone is like me and doesn’t violate copyrights by downloading, they buy less music because they know in the back of their mind that the music is obtainable for free — any price higher than that seems less justified now.
Now, though, I buy used CDs, download indie music from mp3 blogs, and use Pandora and the like. I understand that online music stores are great for some people, but I can’t wrap my mind around paying close to the MSRP of a CD to get lower quality DRM files when I can buy the CD used for $7~.
March 27th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
Dave,
Used CDs are great, aren’t they? I have bought a fair number in my day. For me, a classical (specifically baroque) enthusiast, I don’t have local access to stores selling used CDs. And with many titles new from online purveyors in excess now of $22 a piece, an $8/9 download for 256kbit MP3 isn’t awful. It’s immediate satisfaction. Just as Amazon and Apple have recently upgraded to higher-bit MP3, I hope that lossless is around the corner. I’d be willing to pay $1-2 more for that.