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Which way could a careful user not avoid contributing to that kind of climate? The "vast" good is the over 50% of downloads (my estimate) that wouldn't have be
by xlnt 19y ago
Which way could a careful user not avoid contributing to that kind of climate?
The "vast" good is the over 50% of downloads (my estimate) that wouldn't have been purchases anyway. Even if it's 5%, that's still a lot of value of movies/etc that people get that is good.
- tptacek 19y agoHow is it "good" for people to get things they place a value of zero dollars on? How does that "good" outweigh the damage they do by disincentivizing content creation? If infinitessimally small costs are OK in the case of torrents, as you say they are, why vaccinate your children? That, too, imposes a tiny cost on everyone else. Why pay your taxes? Why not send spam? Your spam messages impose a tiny cost on everyone, compared to the major spam factories.
- xlnt 19y agoIt's not a value of zero dollars. People don't buy (or rent) things when the price is higher than the value to them. If the price is $10, and the value to them is $3, they wouldn't buy it.
- tptacek 19y agoYour argument is incoherent. It observes that, at $70,000, a BMW M5 is priced too high for me to buy it. So, I should simply take it, blaming BMW for mispricing it.
- xlnt 19y agoIf you take a BMW, now the car dealership has one less BMW. That's harm done. If you download a movie, no one has one less movie afterwards. It's like using a Star Trek replicator on a BMW, not stealing one.