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If I was still writing desktop software, I would have no problem with my software being pirated. I'd make it difficult enough for it not be worth the effort for

by jameslk 11y ago

If I was still writing desktop software, I would have no problem with my software being pirated. I'd make it difficult enough for it not be worth the effort for anyone who can afford it, but I know that there's plenty of others who might not be able to afford my software, who are willing to spend the time instead cracking the software. Some kid out there might be building a future career on cracked versions of my software. Ideally they might someday be able to afford it and pay for it. That was certainly the case for me. With the movie and music industry, they went the other way. They made it difficult to buy their products and a lot easier to pirate. And now they're the ones paying for it.

brian-armstrong 11y ago
Although it's nice to hear that you would be ok with the reciprocal in this case, you can't make that decision for everyone. Personally, if I sold consumer desktop software, I'd be disappointed in people who chose to pirate. Buying movies and music electronically now is far easier than it has ever been. I don't think that's really a valid excuse, but even still, you'd be blaming the industry for a crime you're committing against it. How is that just?
- jameslk 11y ago
  I didn't say it's just. Copyright infringement is copyright infringement. People will do unjustified things when they want to and making something difficult to attain is one of the things that leads to piracy[0]. It's like a river: it will take the path of least resistance. I choose to accept that this is inevitable and try to find solutions to control the river by paving paths for it to take, instead of blaming it for doing what it does. 0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_infringement#Motivation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_infringement#Motivat...
bduerst 11y ago
>They made it difficult to buy their products and a lot easier to pirate. And now they're the ones paying for it. Historically, yes, but this has changed, hasn't it? You can typically purchase or rent a major movie through a variety of streaming-capable channels and mediums. I just rented Room on Google play and streamed to my TV over the weekend. If I bought it, I could download it to my devices for offline viewing.
- jameslk 11y ago
  Yes the industry has started to catch up, but they're still playing games that keeps piracy relevant. For example, unless I'm not aware, movies that are still in theater or shortly after still are unavailable to stream. Yet they're usually available on torrent sites. Another example is content filtering by region.
- belorn 11y ago
  If you live in the US, then some of the channels are getting close to be more convenient than go to a website designed in early 2000, figure out which link has the content, download a program that handle BitTorrent protocol, install it, wait for the content to download, figure out how to make a player play it, and then watch it. If you don't live in the US, the typical case is instead to go to the store and look in the bin and hope to find something from two years ago, or go to the cinema and chose one of the 10 shows available this month. The streaming services has something like 1/10 of the lists available in the US, if they offer anything at all.

by jameslk 11y ago

brian-armstrong 11y ago

Although it's nice to hear that you would be ok with the reciprocal in this case, you can't make that decision for everyone. Personally, if I sold consumer desktop software, I'd be disappointed in people who chose to pirate. Buying movies and music electronically now is far easier than it has ever been. I don't think that's really a valid excuse, but even still, you'd be blaming the industry for a crime you're committing against it. How is that just?

jameslk 11y ago
I didn't say it's just. Copyright infringement is copyright infringement. People will do unjustified things when they want to and making something difficult to attain is one of the things that leads to piracy[0]. It's like a river: it will take the path of least resistance. I choose to accept that this is inevitable and try to find solutions to control the river by paving paths for it to take, instead of blaming it for doing what it does. 0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_infringement#Motivation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_infringement#Motivat...

bduerst 11y ago

>They made it difficult to buy their products and a lot easier to pirate. And now they're the ones paying for it. Historically, yes, but this has changed, hasn't it? You can typically purchase or rent a major movie through a variety of streaming-capable channels and mediums. I just rented Room on Google play and streamed to my TV over the weekend. If I bought it, I could download it to my devices for offline viewing.

jameslk 11y ago
Yes the industry has started to catch up, but they're still playing games that keeps piracy relevant. For example, unless I'm not aware, movies that are still in theater or shortly after still are unavailable to stream. Yet they're usually available on torrent sites. Another example is content filtering by region.
belorn 11y ago
If you live in the US, then some of the channels are getting close to be more convenient than go to a website designed in early 2000, figure out which link has the content, download a program that handle BitTorrent protocol, install it, wait for the content to download, figure out how to make a player play it, and then watch it. If you don't live in the US, the typical case is instead to go to the store and look in the bin and hope to find something from two years ago, or go to the cinema and chose one of the 10 shows available this month. The streaming services has something like 1/10 of the lists available in the US, if they offer anything at all.