What baffles me is the amount of rationalisation. I come from Russia, where piracy is a social norm, and if you pay full official price for entertainment products, you are either a sucker, or a rich person asserting your wealth status (I don't imagine much has changed). But Russians never attribute themselves downloading movies and cracking games to some higher purpose: we just like free stuff, and gaming the system for personal gain is a national pastime.
The Internet is a link between all of us, so that your experience can be my experience. It's naive to think you can segregate people into those with and without access to your precious information. Thanks to the Internet, we are all one entity. You can't hide information from yourself.
in HN-speak: "The main goal of a developer should be to get the product/code in front of many people. If the price would be lower, I would buy it. Ergo, the price should be lower and if not, im just gonna take it"
Hi i have a bug in my movie. Can you tell me how to watch the last part? My movie doesn't start? (support)
I agree with your other points.
We completely agree with the don't make me steal manifesto which explains the issue in European countries: http://www.dontmakemesteal.com/en/
I have a problem with the entitlement or even "right" to consume a product or service if you have other opinions on the conditions of such consumption.
I say it again, if you don't like the conditions, don't buy. If you don't like a product in the store because of its price, it's apparence, it's production environment, what you do it to use your buying power and market pressure to force alternatives. If those alternatives do not spring up, that probably means that a sufficient amount of people are fine with the conditions of the product or service for the business to disregard people like you.
Sure, but there's no (real) competition. They all behave the same. If I could buy movies with no copy protection, it would influence my decision a lot.
"If those alternatives do not spring up, that probably means that a sufficient amount of people are fine with the conditions of the product.."
Maybe. Or maybe people downloading "vents" enough of the frustration people have. Downloading are the alternatives, maybe the only alternatives.
I'm not doubting people download to "vent", but isn't that independent of the moralic discussion of whether someone should be entitled to download?
"..but isn't that independent of the moralic discussion.." Well, one could argue that since they refuse to make an alternative, people can resort to the only alternative there is.
So, there are some companies that do allow for the movies to be shared.
Oh, now here's a fun situation we find ourselves in. The movie company themselves openly encourage people to share the movie. Now people are sharing the movie. Are you going to pay for the movie as well, to encourage them to make more movies so that they can continue their share the movie practice? Hm...
Common arguments are (as quoted from the text)and my symbolic translation to the HN world:
> "Movie theater incomes are in most cases enough to cover the production costs. Their business remains viable even if people continue downloading their movies"
in HN-speak: "Developer salaries are the highest in the economy, so their careers remain viable if people start copying their code"
> "Isn’t the main goal of content producers that their content is seen ? Well. If you would charge less for a movie I would be glad to pay for it. But prices for buying movies online are just abusively high."
in HN-speak: "The main goal of a developer should be to get the product/code in front of many people. If the price would be lower, I would buy it. Ergo, the price should be lower and if not, im just gonna take it"
> "If I buy a DVD I have the right to do what I want with it"
in HN-speak: "I know the terms and licenses of the code I am using. However, i dont like it, so im just gonna do whatever I want anyways."
My view is that this is just like any other market: If you don't like the product or the way its sold under specific conditions, you always have the freedom of not buying it. No one is forcing you to anything.
Also, before this whole downvoting madness starts, please consider that I'm just trying to voice my opinion and argument for my stance.