Immorality of Piracy/Jailbreaking

[Cianyx]

It's really the manufacturer's responsibility to do this because they're the ones who potentially lose/profit from my participation or lack thereof.

I don't see how this makes it their responsibility. Might make good fiscal sense, but that doesn't mean it's their responsibility

Meh. There are lots of strategies -both creative and commonsense- that could be implemented (corrupting pirated files, the Radiohead thing, setting up online stores, hell even just making prices reasonable and stocking DVDs in region 4.) which work or would probably work. If manufacturers actually engages more with the changing market rather than just file lawsuits, maybe they'd be making more money.

I disagree. The only viable solution that the music (the movie should be fine) industry can take, would ultimately destroy them. That is, embrace digital downloads. Corrupting online copies would be ineffective due to the sheer amount of music being shared, the Radiohead thing is essentially giving it away for free, I must admit online stores has succeeded (iTunes), but for how long? and reducing prices may help, but you're trying to sell to a market grown up on piracy. They've lost the war. They just won't admit it.

It's illegal, yes. But should it be? That's what I mainly meant by this thread, apologies - I didn't make that clear.

Do you like software/music? If you do you won't support piracy[1]. If everyone steals, then the industry will die - and no more music for you[2]. There's also the fact that you should always provide some return for the people who make an item available to you[3].

Would you like it if you made some software and everyone pirated it[4]? If everyone discredited your work in making it and simply stole it? No. Of course you wouldn't. So stop doing this to others.

1. That is a false statement for a lot of music or gaming fans are involved in piracy. Some of the biggest fans, as I said before, pirate music. Many musicians also support piracy.
2. That is assuming that music is composed solely to make become pop music and make money
3. Absolutely correct. If I find something good, I would perhaps catch them when they come around, purchase some merch, promote and discuss it. All methods, I would say, far more beneficial than a purchase.
4. Think about it this way. If they were to buy an album, chances are, they wouldn't. The chances of people listening to music through downloads are a lot higher.

[Eriny]

You have a good point, maybe they did miss the window? I think iTunes does extremely well though, particularly because people are afraid of viruses you get from torrenting and P2P sharing, or they don't know how to use it. Also, I hate downloading entire seasons of shows or entire albums, it gets annoying and long, particularly if I have a slow connection.

On top of everything else, I'm uncomfortable with the level of profits the music industry and the record industry has and I feel that it doesn't represent my values (or probably most peoples values) when the recording company gets rich and the artists themselves receive almost nothing. The same with books, although I hate reading from a screen so I won't be downloading ebooks anytime soon.


Come to think of it, if money represents what you value (and I suppose literally, it kind of does), personally I should be paying more for entertainment (not a great deal more though) but mostly to the artists themselves rather than the big companies, they do put in a fair bit of work and you have to credit them for that, but the artists were much more involved in the process. However, I should also be paying more for ambulance drivers and teachers and such. I suppose the reality of things is that value doesn't necessarily lead to $$

Um yeah, of course.


You wouldn't steal a handbag.

You wouldn't steal a car.

You wouldn't steal a DVD.

...

PIRACY IS STEALING!

Cliche, but true nonetheless.

Do you like software/music? If you do you won't support piracy. If everyone steals, then the industry will die - and no more music for you. There's also the fact that you should always provide some return for the people who make an item available to you.

Would you like it if you made some software and everyone pirated it? If everyone discredited your work in making it and simply stole it? No. Of course you wouldn't. So stop doing this to others.



EDIT:

Here I'm assuming you wouldn't steal a DVD. What is the difference between pirating a movie and taking a copy from a shop?

I don't think that all stealing is necessarily morally equivalent on the basis of utility. For instance, if I steal a chocolate bar from a local corner shop, that $2 or whatever I didn't pay would make far more difference to the proprietor than if I stole the same chocolate bar from coles. The act of stealing damages the corner shop so much more than it damages coles. If stealing is wrong because it causes damage to other people, then you have to at least acknowledge that there are a wide range of levels people can be damaged. As such, not all stealing is the same.

In fact, I would say in a lot of circumstances stealing can be morally neutral or even morally good. For instance, if you're homeless and nobody is giving you any money and you steal a loaf of bread from a major grocery store, it has minimal damage on the store and it means you can eat that day. If you stole it from a family or even if you stole it from a small local business, it might be different though. Likewise, if a company is known to have done something evil (there are lots of examples, but just pretend that this hypothetical company did something that everyone agreed was evil and crossed a line in terms of human rights) it might not be enough to boycott that company. It might be better to steal things from them to show them that what they did was unacceptable. Stealing is one of the few ways little people can exercise power over big multinationals (admittedly, mostly of consumer goods, not so much multinationals that don't actually deal with the public) and I'll bet sometimes that power comes in handy.