Not always true, I have a Kindle and love reading books on it, but there is no way in hell I'm paying the same or nearly the same price for a virtual book as compared to a physical copy. I would call that a serious pricing issue.

>> ^GeeSussFreeK:

>>
"Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem". Not always true, some cheap thief's out there, but I know I have bought more games via steam and more books via amazon then I did before them.

>> ^GeeSussFreeK:

>> ^Peroxide:
Nowadays with the money in my budget I do the best to go to the movies, shows, and buy the media that I actually like.
Before access to the internet I can recall too many bad memories of coming home with CDs and DVDs that I thought I would love, and then ended up being really upset that I had purchased them.

Laziness did it for me. Stealing games is just to hard compared to downloading it on steam. When I was a kid, driving to the store was harder than just downloading it (and it was also free). I would wager that a large majority of people wouldn't pirate if the copyright holders offered their content in the right way. I like the way valve put it, "Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem". Not always true, some cheap thief's out there, but I know I have bought more games via steam and more books via amazon then I did before them.


I noticed ME3 is going for $80. 80 fucking American fucking dollars. Not fucking likely.

>> ^Peroxide:

Nowadays with the money in my budget I do the best to go to the movies, shows, and buy the media that I actually like.
Before access to the internet I can recall too many bad memories of coming home with CDs and DVDs that I thought I would love, and then ended up being really upset that I had purchased them.


Laziness did it for me. Stealing games is just to hard compared to downloading it on steam. When I was a kid, driving to the store was harder than just downloading it (and it was also free). I would wager that a large majority of people wouldn't pirate if the copyright holders offered their content in the right way. I like the way valve put it, "Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem". Not always true, some cheap thief's out there, but I know I have bought more games via steam and more books via amazon then I did before them.

>> ^deedub81:

He didn't make one substantive argument. His speech is very vague and generalized. The only thing I got from that was that he doesn't like the current copyright laws.


It's not that he doesn't like them, but that they are no longer fit for purpose...

Things become obselete. Usually because we create better things to replace them, but also because the world moves on and they cease to be relevant.

He's also not advocating piracy, but telling the industry if they adapated and made things easier for the consumer (much like the comic that was linked indicates), people would buy more rather than pirating.

Copyright infringement is copyright infringement. As you pointed out, it doesn't easily equate. How you turn "not really the same" into "basically the same" is logic that I can't follow. It certainly overlaps with theft, and fraud, it's not black and white. However, technically, they are different crimes.

It's certainly neither legally nor morally justified. We'll never agree on where this conscience came from (God given or evolved from pack instincts) but I'm not arguing that it's not wrong.

All this has zero effect on reducing piracy. In the long, long term content producers will have to adapt, for example music album releases becoming promotion for profitable live shows and tours, which can't be stolen or pirated as they are about the experience of being there. Naturally, this won't happen quickly and there are a lot of people making a lot of money from 20th century content business models and of course they're going to drag their feet.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'fred wilson, piracy, sopa, pipa, drm, copyright' to 'fred wilson, piracy, sopa, pipa, drm, copyright, yarrgh' - edited by Fusionaut

For the record, he also said that 99% of the people on the planet are pirates, and that there are 50 Billion people on earth. Both statements are off by about the same margin of error.

"His kids only know piracy because that is how they get the content."
"Content needs to be more convenient"
"reference to a report done who's conclusion that copyright isn't working." (In his reference, he states, "basically what they said was 'we have to change copyright.'")

What content? What form of piracy? How can it be more convenient. How can content be distributed so that it's more convenient while still turning a profit? How should copyright in the digital world be handled differently and how would that benefit publishers and consumers?

An example of what his kids do is not proof of a societal trend.

"I'm willing to be the conversation was longer than 2:15 min" (if that's the case, I might be willing to upvote THAT video).


>> ^curiousity:

>> ^deedub81:
He didn't make one substantive argument. His speech is very vague and generalized. The only thing I got from that was that he doesn't like the current copyright laws.

Did watch the same thing? He clearly says that it needs to change because it isn't working.
- Vast majority of people is a pirate is some form. When everyone is breaking the law, we need to look at the law.
- His kids only know piracy because that is how they get the content... leading to the next point
- Content needs to be more convenient, which the content industry is not doing
- reference to a report done who's conclusion that copyright isn't working.
- copyright in physical world is different. Copyright in digital needs to be handled differently
Sure they are mostly generalized, but they are coherent points. If you want more, I'm willing to be the conversation was longer than 2:15 min.

You have no idea what you're talking about. You steal stuff all day long. Everyone does. The argument you are using is not even yours. Morals is a concept which you do not own. Companies do not have the right to fill our eyes and ears with content and then tell us the experience and absorption is copyrighted. I think the internet should have the same rights as a person. If the internet gets mad at us and tries to sue us for using the content the internet gives us then we'll see the internet in court and go through due process. >> ^shinyblurry:

Piracy is a moral issue. Theft is theft, and if you steal content, you're a thief. There isn't truly any difference between pirating content and lifting it from walmart. Now I see people justifying this as if they have some right to content. Somehow, they feel entitled to be entertained. I don't see that right in the constitution anywhere. Where does this idea come from? Neither do the numbers matter, they simply reflect the moral bankruptcy of this society. It is not a wrongness of the law, it is the sinful nature of people.

So let me get this straight. According to God, it's ok for me to outright own another person, but its immoral for me to watch his videos without his permission? If he's my slave anyway, can't I just command him to grant me permission?

>> ^shinyblurry:

Piracy is a moral issue. Theft is theft, and if you steal content, you're a thief. There isn't truly any difference between pirating content and lifting it from walmart. Now I see people justifying this as if they have some right to content. Somehow, they feel entitled to be entertained. I don't see that right in the constitution anywhere. Where does this idea come from? Neither do the numbers matter, they simply reflect the moral bankruptcy of this society. It is not a wrongness of the law, it is the sinful nature of people.

As I said, copyright reform is needed. Also, the media companies have, for the most part, completely mishandled what should have been an incredibly profitable way to deliver their content. I get what you're saying about content creators spreading their own content. They're working on it! But running a business is an entirely different skill set, so distributing through a company that knows what they're doing (to the extent that they actually can pay you) makes more sense most of the time.>> ^MilkmanDan:

>> ^DrewNumberTwo:
99% of the people of the world are pirates? There's about one computer for every three people. My parents don't even know what pirating is. There are less than 10 billion people on Earth, not 50 billion. This guy's exaggeration makes it look like he just doesn't know what he's talking about.
Granted, copyright reform is needed. But I think it's a mistake to put it in a different category from physical media without recognizing that 3d printers are on track to become household items.

My parents know what pirating is, but they aren't savvy or motivated enough to browse over to PirateBay, run uTorrent, PeerBlock, etc.
However, they ARE savvy enough to fire up YouTube, where they can find "infringing" videos that get around auto-detection by horizontal flipping, etc. etc. etc. The RIAA's and MPAA's of the world would love to point at them and the hordes of people like them and and say "pirates! Cough up $1000 for every song/video/whatever"!
In the meantime, I'm living in Thailand. Piracy is my default way of obtaining media. In many if not most cases, it would actually be very difficult or impossible to "legitimately" obtain said media. If that makes me an evil criminal, so be it. But I tend to think that it says much more about the distribution system being broken beyond repair and utterly antiquated than it says about the people like me. The real content creators need to stop listening to (and paying) the AA's crying over spilled milk and start looking for ways to embrace (and fund themselves via) the pervasive and un-policeable internet, which will be the way to distribute their creations. The cat is out of the bag, Pandora's box is opened, the internet isn't going anywhere and nobody will ever be able to stay a step ahead of the pirates.
Maybe 3D printers will become a household item within our lifetimes, but we're a long ways off from Star-Trek like replicators.

Piracy is not theft.

If you lift something from Walmart, Walmart loses an item of stock. If you download a TV show, no one loses anything tangible.

(It's not like me to disagree with @shinyblurry!)

Piracy is a moral issue. Theft is theft, and if you steal content, you're a thief. There isn't truly any difference between pirating content and lifting it from walmart. Now I see people justifying this as if they have some right to content. Somehow, they feel entitled to be entertained. I don't see that right in the constitution anywhere. Where does this idea come from? Neither do the numbers matter, they simply reflect the moral bankruptcy of this society. It is not a wrongness of the law, it is the sinful nature of people.

>> ^deedub81:

He didn't make one substantive argument. His speech is very vague and generalized. The only thing I got from that was that he doesn't like the current copyright laws.


Did watch the same thing? He clearly says that it needs to change because it isn't working.

- Vast majority of people is a pirate is some form. When everyone is breaking the law, we need to look at the law.
- His kids only know piracy because that is how they get the content... leading to the next point
- Content needs to be more convenient, which the content industry is not doing
- reference to a report done who's conclusion that copyright isn't working.
- copyright in physical world is different. Copyright in digital needs to be handled differently

Sure they are mostly generalized, but they are coherent points. If you want more, I'm willing to be the conversation was longer than 2:15 min.

>> ^DrewNumberTwo:

99% of the people of the world are pirates? There's about one computer for every three people. My parents don't even know what pirating is. There are less than 10 billion people on Earth, not 50 billion. This guy's exaggeration makes it look like he just doesn't know what he's talking about.
Granted, copyright reform is needed. But I think it's a mistake to put it in a different category from physical media without recognizing that 3d printers are on track to become household items.


My parents know what pirating is, but they aren't savvy or motivated enough to browse over to PirateBay, run uTorrent, PeerBlock, etc.

However, they ARE savvy enough to fire up YouTube, where they can find "infringing" videos that get around auto-detection by horizontal flipping, etc. etc. etc. The RIAA's and MPAA's of the world would love to point at them and the hordes of people like them and and say "pirates! Cough up $1000 for every song/video/whatever"!

In the meantime, I'm living in Thailand. Piracy is my default way of obtaining media. In many if not most cases, it would actually be very difficult or impossible to "legitimately" obtain said media. If that makes me an evil criminal, so be it. But I tend to think that it says much more about the distribution system being broken beyond repair and utterly antiquated than it says about the people like me. The real content creators need to stop listening to (and paying) the *AA's crying over spilled milk and start looking for ways to embrace (and fund themselves via) the pervasive and un-policeable internet, which will be the way to distribute their creations. The cat is out of the bag, Pandora's box is opened, the internet isn't going anywhere and nobody will ever be able to stay a step ahead of the pirates.

Maybe 3D printers will become a household item within our lifetimes, but we're a long ways off from Star-Trek like replicators.

Lots of religious discussion in the last half dozen years or so. Maybe notice it more because I'm older, but it seems more prevalent.

I saw a quote somewhere else by Napoleon Bonaparte, so I looked up his quotes and found two I thought were interestingly applicable to the current climate.

Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet.
Napoleon Bonaparte

Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.
Napoleon Bonaparte

We're coming off of the biggest financial crime of our lifetimes, with no one being punished. And they aren't even trying to stop it from happening again, they are fortifying the regulations that made it possible for it to happen in the first place and attempting to add more craziness with SOPA/PIPA to solidify control over the only location everyone can have a say and organize -- the internet.

So, I have to call into question all of this religious posturing that is becoming the forefront of the debates and "hot topics" in most traditional media coverage. Anything regarding rights of gays = religion based arguments, abortion = religion based, etc......everyone is affected by the economic meltdown and financial theft that occurred. And they address it by skipping back to "Those damn gaaaaaaayyyyss" or "ABORTION --- RAWRRR" and anytime they can't flip over to those we get the piracy! and It's your fault for buying a house during the bubble! oh and OWS rapes people so you can't believe in any of that.

And the OWS argument makes me laugh, because they'll have you believe the whole movement is made up to allow rape to occur and it's a legitimate reason to call their ethics and argument into question. But when Gingrich was asked a question in the debate allowing him to respond to his cheating on his wives and leaving at least one of them in a bad situation, it was applauded when he refused to answer and how that was bad form to question his morality based on those acts. When you could say, he just wants to be President so he can get more on the side with the secret service to facilitate or some other overly dismissive thing they do to the OWS.

The whole process is insulting, they speak of stability but create controversy to take focus away from issues that going unaddressed whom 70% or more of the citizenry agrees needs to be addressed. And I suspect it's not because they don't see there's issues, it's because they want those issues to remain....it makes it easier to stay rich if you can exploit them.