In today’s New York Times they have an article pointing a finger at the true culprit for spreading movies via the P2P networks, the studios themselves.
Now, I don’t think that if the studios own folks hadn’t been the ones spreading the movies that they wouldn’t have ended up on the nets, but it does give one pause, specifically will they be suing themselves for their piracy? Will heads roll? Will the Piracy Menace(tm) be rooted out?
Will it matter?
No, it won’t. Movies will still end up on p2p networks and those who are wont to download them will get them all the same.
This brings up another pet peeve of mine. Why do people think that shutting down or hobbling P2P networks will reduce copying. People have the taste for it and so long as people have free will and a fast enough connection there will be large scale illicit copying of music and movies (I refuse to call it piracy, mateys. Arrr), whether it is over SMTP, HTTP, on outrageously inexpensive disks, or on cheap optical media.
P2P Copying Begins at Home
You're right
It's not 'pirating', it's 'stealing'. It's okay to get something for nothing, because the suits are greedy and the products that the artists make aren't worth them getting compensated. After all, once revenues start going down, those executives will suffer - oh, wait, no they won't. But it's still okay because the downloaders are greedy, and will do whatever they want to do at anyone else's expense, which is acceptable as long as they're not executives.
People had a taste
...for slavery too, didn't make it right, and didn't mean that society couldn't evolve to overcome behaviors.
I am not comparing one to the other, I am showcasing an example of when society evolved to develop higher ethical standards and modified common opinion.
People had a taste
and those darn cops, pulling us over for speeding, how dare anyone try to impose rules on us and make us obey the law!
People had a taste
You know you just compared slavery to stealing music, right? Lame. If you notice, I didn't say that it was right to copy music, I said people have a taste for it.
Chris
Copying is not theft
Theft means depriving another of property.
When a copy is made, the original is not taken or lost, so comparisons to shoplifting or stealing make no sense.
Business models that rely on the assumption that distribution of information is lucrative are anachronistic.
Authors/artists should be paid, but not repeatedly for a single work; instead, patrons should contribute en masse.