Oh sorry, I thought you were having a conversation, not masturbating.

Now that we all know how great you are for doing the wrong thing even though you're kind-of-sort-of against it, maybe I could just chime in to clarify:

First of all: I can read as well. I know you see a picture from a bad movie when I post. But that doesn't make your regurgitated diatribe about intellectual property rights that can be found anywhere on the internet where there is a dialog about torrents any more intelligent or original than what anyone else has to say.

Second: In no way am I deluded about the concept of intellectual property. I did not ever imply that Louie C.K.'s work has no value. In fact, I called it "stealing" to download it. I also closed my comment by saying that I probably wouldn't download the show.

And I am not under the impression that just because I can't hold something in my hand, that it has no value. All I said was that it's "silly" to think that experiencing someone's comedy can be a crime. The thing about the T.V. is merely to point out the insubstantial nature of the subject. When I go to buy a T.V., I can negotiate sometimes based on whether or not it's a floor model or still in the box. I can't ask a website for a discount if one of Louie's jokes is bad. And with a T.V., I can keep it for a while and then change my mind. Maybe I decide I don't like it and I want to sell it and use the money to pay for part of the next one. Or maybe I've decided to go to Thailand, and I sell the T.V. to my friend Bob for papaya-salad-money. The point is, the two things are different, not that one is worthless and the other isn't.

And you know what the biggest difference is? Someone should not be punished in anywhere near the same way for stealing five bucks worth of Louis C.K.'s material as they should be for breaking into a person's house and stealing their T.V.

Third: Louis C.K. is probably a multimillionaire. I wasn't trying to justify my behavior as much as correcting Kymbos for saying that he wasn't. But now that you mention it: I see that you steal based on DRM and other issues, but (and call me crazy if you want) when I steal, I take into account the financial status of the person I'm stealing from. It might not justify my behavior but it helps me sleep.

Fourth: I steal download things a lot of the time based on whether I think they are fairly priced. I loved the original Conan the Barbarian, mostly for it's kitsch-factor, but I still own the VHS. When the new one came out, I said to myself "that looks like a giant piece of crap taking a crap." So I downloaded it and you know what? I was right. Fuck them. I'm glad I didn't pay twenty-five dollars for ten-cents-worth of soda, two-cents-worth of popcorn and zero-cents-worth of nap time. And all just to grant some Hollywood producer his million dollar reward to play it safe.

One of my favorite things I've ever gotten for Christmas from my wife was the Criterion Collection edition of "Seven Samurai." I love it. It's got this great cover art that looks almost transparent even though it's printed on cardboard. I think it looks so good because it's taken from the original cellulose of the title screen but I don't know. It's also got a great supplemental book, a great CD of special features and anytime I want, I can sit down to three whole hours of good solid movie. I think it cost around sixty-dollars at the time we bought it and it was totally worth it. Meanwhile, somebody gave me the latest "Pirates of the Caribbean" DVD and the ugly yellow text on the menu alone is enough to make me want to burn it for the insult it does to people who paid good money for it.

And you know what else? I doubt that if Louis C.K. were to meet me, that he would hold it against me that I downloaded his show.

I guess I've rambled long enough. I just wanted to make the point that the issues involved with intellectual property are complicated but the concept is something that little children can grasp. So it might not be beneficial to the conversation to write off someone's point that you might disagree with simply because you want to sound righteous. Especially when in the end, you admit that it's all just stealing anyway.

PS: The last book I bought was the hardcover edition of "A Dance With Dragons". I paid the extra money because I find physical copies more satisfying, and I couldn't wait for the paperback.

Unrelated, but my favorite thing about Cain is how he's introducing a brand new Federal sales tax with his 9/9/9 plan, yet his followers are too stupid to realize he's talking about raising taxes.

>> ^KnivesOut:

2 of my favorite things: LOTR, minecraft. Yes, I'm a nerd stfu.
Skip to 30 minutes to see moria. Impressed. quality

Make that 3: Jesse Cox is hilarious and awesome. He voiced so many good video games!
Also check out him and TotalBiscuit play Terraria. Its pants-pissingly funny!

2 of my favorite things: LOTR, minecraft. Yes, I'm a nerd stfu.

Skip to 30 minutes to see moria. Impressed. *quality

How did the trip to asia go?

In reply to this comment by youmakekittymad:
hello all.

i'm david. i was a longtime lurker here on the sift before finally signing up for membership, partially due to prodding from RhesusMonk, who i've known since i was 10.

i'm 25. i grew up and currently live in new york city, and work as a ballet/modern dancer. went to college at Skidmore in upstate NY, got a degree in philosophy, and became the token catholic-school-surviving atheist of the department. after, i had a brief relationship with political work in D.C. (we split due to irreconcilable differences) before returning home and coming back to dance. the company i dance for is gearing up for a tour to macau, china in october which is pretty exciting, but that's about where the glamour ends. when i'm not being a gracefully sweaty mess, i spend time with my friends, work my silly night job, play video games, and work (slowly) towards a future in architecture, as, unfortunately, you can't dance forever and i'm not that far from middle-age for the field.

the sift is easily one of my favorite things about the interwebs, so cheers folks!

How dare you post a video with 3 of my favorite things in it!

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

Powerless to resist 2 of my favorite things smooshed together.
In reply to this comment by Zifnab:
Thanks for the promote dag.

In reply to this comment by dag:
Nerd chocolate and peanut butter. *promote

Three of my favorite things, TOGETHER AT LAST!

All my favorite things!!!!! Let the sexy times begin!

http://theantroom.blogspot.com/2006/11/ant-death-spiral.html (not mine -- linked from YouTube video).

"This is one of my favorite things about ants -- the ant death spiral. Actually, it's a circular mill, first described in army ants by Schneirla (1944). A circle of army ants, each one following the ant in front, becomes locked into a circular mill. They will continue to circle each other until they all die. How crazy is that? Sometimes they escape, though. Beebe (1921) described a circular mill he witnessed in Guyana. It measured 1200 feet in circumference and had a 2.5 hour circuit time per ant. The mill persisted for two days, "with ever increasing numbers of dead bodies littering the route as exhaustion took its toll, but eventually a few workers straggled from the trail thus breaking the cycle, and the raid marched off into the forest."

Folks interested in things like self-organization, emergant properties, complex systems, etc. etc. like to point to this as a cautionary tale. I even found a reference to a group programming robots to interact like ants that accidentally produced this behavior in their robots. Apparently you can also reproduce this behavior in the lab by placing a glass jar into the surface. The ants will eventually circle the jar and continue to do so even after the jar has been removed. I assume just army ants. Wow, I wish we had an army ant colony in the lab."

*beg for a few of my favorite things.

I think this is one of my favorite things that I've ever seen here.

Easily my favorite thing Weebl ever made: http://www.weebls-stuff.com/songs/Amazing+Horse/

>> ^E_Nygma:
wow, her eyes.


I know, like wow. Drown in them.