4 ms·

Have you ever listened to the radio, gone to a theater, been to a nightclub or music venue, watched a movie on television? Of course there is a business use cas

by wfo 11y ago

Have you ever listened to the radio, gone to a theater, been to a nightclub or music venue, watched a movie on television? Of course there is a business use case for movies and music. A theater or TV station could pirate movies and show them for profit. A nightclub or DJ service or radio station that plays songs is running a business based on that music. You asked "how would you feel if someone violated the GPL". My answer is that well the GPL can't be violated for personal use so it's not relevant at ALL to this discussion. Another software license? Most SW devs would say "if it's for personal use, who cares?" If software and music/movies are so fundamentally different w.r.t. piracy as you claim (since nobody can have a business based on music or movies? What?), you should have no trouble understanding why it's absurd to try to compare them in order to convince people piracy is bad. And I never said we should remove copyright for anyone in particular (though perhaps we should remove it altogether -- piracy has a few minimal negative effects, many positive ones, I'm not convinced the cure isn't worse than the disease). I'm explaining why your analogy is misguided and rhetorically ineffective.

bduerst 11y ago
>piracy has a few minimal negative effects, many positive ones If you really believe that you should read this article by a developer who ran an experiment on pirating his own game [1]. 94% of day 1 users had pirated the game and were not contributing to the fixed costs of generating the IP. Not all users were going to pay full price, but the developer could have run discounts later to capture most of those users. This was a DRM-free game with a demo, so there were none of the typical excuses for pirating. http://www.greenheartgames.com/2013/04/29/what-happens-when-pirates-play-a-game-development-simulator-and-then-go-bankrupt-because-of-piracy/ http://www.greenheartgames.com/2013/04/29/what-happens-when-...
- wfo 11y ago
  Yes, one time an indie flash game was pirated a lot (for the record I actually bought that game at the time). That's exactly what I meant when I said minimal. It sucks for him, but compare that to the people whose machines were bricked by DRM. Compare that to the people whose lives have been destroyed because they downloaded or their kid/grandmother downloaded an MP3. Consider the damage that's been done to the free and open internet and the consequences if one of the constant attacks on it in defense of copyright like SOPA should succeed. Consider all of the culture that could have been created if it wasn't illegal to use someone else's ideas. Consider what we've lost because wealthy capitalists can own and trade our culture/art/thoughts.

by wfo 11y ago

bduerst 11y ago

>piracy has a few minimal negative effects, many positive ones If you really believe that you should read this article by a developer who ran an experiment on pirating his own game [1]. 94% of day 1 users had pirated the game and were not contributing to the fixed costs of generating the IP. Not all users were going to pay full price, but the developer could have run discounts later to capture most of those users. This was a DRM-free game with a demo, so there were none of the typical excuses for pirating. http://www.greenheartgames.com/2013/04/29/what-happens-when-pirates-play-a-game-development-simulator-and-then-go-bankrupt-because-of-piracy/ http://www.greenheartgames.com/2013/04/29/what-happens-when-...

wfo 11y ago
Yes, one time an indie flash game was pirated a lot (for the record I actually bought that game at the time). That's exactly what I meant when I said minimal. It sucks for him, but compare that to the people whose machines were bricked by DRM. Compare that to the people whose lives have been destroyed because they downloaded or their kid/grandmother downloaded an MP3. Consider the damage that's been done to the free and open internet and the consequences if one of the constant attacks on it in defense of copyright like SOPA should succeed. Consider all of the culture that could have been created if it wasn't illegal to use someone else's ideas. Consider what we've lost because wealthy capitalists can own and trade our culture/art/thoughts.