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« Just encourages piracy..
This is a sub-selection from Vicious circle
NOVA_UAV_Guy
Premium Member
join:2012-12-14
Purcellville, VA

NOVA_UAV_Guy to ITALIAN926

Premium Member

to ITALIAN926

Re: Vicious circle

said by ITALIAN926:

"Give us your product for PENNIES or we'll just shoplift it anyway." What kind of crap is that? Seriously.

While I don't necessarily condone it, pirating an HBO show is not something tantamount to shoplifting. In shoplifting, one steals a physical product - which there are finite quantities of - which economically hurts the store owner who purchased the product for resale.

Those who pirate HBO shows (I'm not one of them, BTW) do little to no harm to HBO, as HBO's final product isn't affected... besides most of the folks who pirate this stuff likely wouldn't have bothered purchasing it in the first place (thus no profit would have been made from them).

Now, this isn't justification for pirating products in the slightest... Just my $0.02 on where the shoplifting analogy that you offered breaks down.

ITALIAN926
join:2003-08-16

1 edit

ITALIAN926

Member

Re: Vicious circle

It doesnt break down, because when someone is pirating something, they are less inclined to subscribe to that channel, or buy an album, etc. If everyone and their mother used torrents, dont you think HBO would go out of business?

The shoplifting analogy is fine.

It costs money to produce this media. I would argue its no different than having to pay for water or electricity. Would you bypass your water or electric meter? I guess that wouldnt be classified as stealing either, right? What about going into a cable tap and hooking up coax into your house? Not stealing either right? Its just information.

Theres no justification in breaking these laws. People can cherry-coat them all they want, but in the end, its still illegal.

Camelot One
MVM
join:2001-11-21
Bloomington, IN

Camelot One

MVM

Re: Vicious circle

said by ITALIAN926:

It doesnt break down, because when someone is pirating something, they are less inclined to subscribe to that channel, or buy an album, etc. If everyone and their mother used torrents, dont you think HBO would go out of business?

The shoplifting analogy is fine.

It costs money to produce this media. I would argue its no different than having to pay for water or electricity. Would you bypass your water or electric meter? I guess that wouldnt be classified as stealing either, right? What about going into a cable tap and hooking up coax into your house? Not stealing either right? Its just information.

Theres no justification in breaking these laws. People can cherry-coat them all they want, but in the end, its still illegal.

I am not going to argue that piracy is right, or legal, or anything of the sort. But I do find major flaw in your argument. In every example you listed, there is product loss. Whether it be in the form of using electricity or water, there is a physical product that has to be produced PER USE, and is thus used PER USE. If someone shoplifts a CD, that CD is no longer available for purchase. And while not as severe, even in the case of cable theft, the extra tap degrades the signal to a degree, requiring more expense to deliver the product.

There is no such product harm or loss when it comes to someone downloading a TV show. No product is used, or made unavailable for sale to someone else. No additional cost is incurred by the creator if a copy is downloaded. Is it a lost sale? Maybe. But only if the downloader WOULD have paid for the TV show if that was the only way to watch it.

Not that any of that matters to THIS thread, since the issue at hand is HBO refusing to sell a product to those who want to buy it, thus encouraging them to obtain it as a download.

ITALIAN926
join:2003-08-16

1 edit

ITALIAN926

Member

Re: Vicious circle

One of my examples is stealing cable TV, how is that any different AT ALL from piracy?
Tapping into a cable tap DOES NOT degrade any signals. There is a specific Db loss outve that connection whether theres a hookup or not.

Camelot One
MVM
join:2001-11-21
Bloomington, IN

1 edit

Camelot One

MVM

Re: Vicious circle

said by ITALIAN926:

One of my examples is stealing cable TV, how is that any different AT ALL from piracy?
Tapping into a cable tap DOES NOT degrade any signals. There is a specific Db loss outve that connection whether theres a hookup or not.

As a matter of fact, it does. The loss is small, but it is still a loss.

Selenia
Gentoo Convert
Premium Member
join:2006-09-22
Fort Smith, AR

Selenia to ITALIAN926

Premium Member

to ITALIAN926
You are assuming it's not any of the hack job cable hookups I've seen. Some of those, I would not have been surprised if there was ghosting in antenna reception in the analog days several blocks down the road. Most the time you are not talking a professional installer who knows what he/she is doing and takes the care to shield and terminate the line properly. Some cases I have seen, you're talking about a cut wire with another wire spliced in, held together with tape That would be some ingress in the line. Glad I don't live in those neighborhoods.

Thirsty III
@verizon.com

Thirsty III to Camelot One

Anon

to Camelot One
So then, using you point, it is perfectly OK to sneak into a movie theater, live play or music concert.
Skippy25
join:2000-09-13
Hazelwood, MO

Skippy25 to Camelot One

Member

to Camelot One
More importantly, those are all criminal infractions where as copyright is a civil infraction.
« Just encourages piracy..
This is a sub-selection from Vicious circle