4 ms·

"Piracy isn't stealing, that's intellectual property lobbyist propaganda." You're correct, but it's worse than theft. When you steal a car, just that car is

"Piracy isn't stealing, that's intellectual property lobbyist propaganda." You're correct, but it's worse than theft. When you steal a car, just that car is stolen. Piracy devalues the original product...something theft can't really ever do. "I would happily download a car: zero cost reproduction of useful things makes society as a whole richer." But how much did it cost to produce the first car? and do you actually think anyone would put that much time and effort into the first car if they didn't a way to make a profit or at least their money back? In your world, technology will only go so far..which is a disservice to humanity. "The content industry needs to figure out a new business model to adapt to the information age" They have: streaming services. Your mentality is why we will only have services that we pay for in the future and won't be able to install software or get a Blue ray. "I'd much prefer a kickstarter or patreon-like model where superfans could fund and watch and participate in development." Which wouldn't even get close to the amount of money needed to develop this kind of content. You aren't being rebellious. You are just giving excuses as to why you would rather just download something for free instead of paying for it. I remember in the 90s the excuse du jour for music piracy was that it would help independent artists. It's only made it so most independent artists can't really make a living anymore and pushed everything to large corporations.

cwkoss 7y ago
Culture is public. By arguing that it should be privately owned, you are effectively saying that poor people shouldn't be allowed to participate. Disney's business model has been destroying the potential of thousands of great artists who failed to reach cultural relevancy because their parents were barely making ends meet and couldn't afford to buy in, and the cultural language is now locked behind a gate with a toll (if it can be licensed at all). Why are the greedy profit motivations of a giant multinational corporation more important to you than poor children's cultural participation? You aren't being a rational realist, you are just being selfish and classist. Disney built their business on the back of the public domain. Every single great movie they made builds off the work of others. Now they are trying to silo these once-free properties behind IP laws to shut the door behind themselves. Can you name single great work of art created by Disney that isn't mostly derivative? Reflect on why you can't: they are monetizers of existing culture, not creators of originality.
- wolco 7y ago
  Any personal photos you and your family take are part of culture. Should they be public or do you get to decide? Much of culture is private. Poor people not participating in Disney content doesn't take into account the content on public tv or libruaries that will loan dvds either. The price of a month of Disney+ will make things cheaper as well.
  - takeda 7y ago
    That's not how it works, copyright doesn't protect privacy, those are two separate things. Disney is a company that took folk stories that lived in public domain, packaged it and released as their own. That's ok, the works were public domain anyway. The problem is that after that, they continue to lobby in a way that no future works will ever enter public domain. Our constitution says that copyright needs to expire, there is a loophole though, because it doesn't say when it should expire, so every time Mickey Mouse copyright is about to expire they lobby the congress to extend it further. The copyright originally lasted 10 years, now it's 120 years after author's death.
- quacker 7y ago
  > Can you name single great work of art created by Disney that isn't mostly derivative? Reflect on why you can't: they are monetizers of existing culture, not creators of originality. You sort of have a point, since this is Disney we're considering, but this is a slippery slope. Most _everything_ is derivative work. Should I pirate all commercial software that's powered by open source software? Should I never pay for a modern book with a hero's journey storyline simply because it's not original? And I shouldn't pay artists for their covers or remixes of other songs? So unoriginal. And why should I buy tickets to any new Batman movie? Batman's part of our culture and the story is probably taken from the comics. And I should never profit from my business unless it's MY original idea. If you dislike Disney (for good reason), then boycott them. But that doesn't give you the _right_ to pirate their content nor should you encourage others to pirate.
  - cwkoss 7y ago
wolco 7y ago
Piracy doesn't devalue it increases the value. It creates growth and spreads word of mouth. The correct ratio of piracy to purchased copies will make a worthless product into a successful one. Independent music was more popular in the early 2000s when piracy was high. You share music for it to be successful. With streaming independent music gets lost and crowded out if it exists on the platform.

cwkoss 7y ago

Culture is public. By arguing that it should be privately owned, you are effectively saying that poor people shouldn't be allowed to participate. Disney's business model has been destroying the potential of thousands of great artists who failed to reach cultural relevancy because their parents were barely making ends meet and couldn't afford to buy in, and the cultural language is now locked behind a gate with a toll (if it can be licensed at all). Why are the greedy profit motivations of a giant multinational corporation more important to you than poor children's cultural participation? You aren't being a rational realist, you are just being selfish and classist. Disney built their business on the back of the public domain. Every single great movie they made builds off the work of others. Now they are trying to silo these once-free properties behind IP laws to shut the door behind themselves. Can you name single great work of art created by Disney that isn't mostly derivative? Reflect on why you can't: they are monetizers of existing culture, not creators of originality.

wolco 7y ago
Any personal photos you and your family take are part of culture. Should they be public or do you get to decide? Much of culture is private. Poor people not participating in Disney content doesn't take into account the content on public tv or libruaries that will loan dvds either. The price of a month of Disney+ will make things cheaper as well.
- takeda 7y ago
  That's not how it works, copyright doesn't protect privacy, those are two separate things. Disney is a company that took folk stories that lived in public domain, packaged it and released as their own. That's ok, the works were public domain anyway. The problem is that after that, they continue to lobby in a way that no future works will ever enter public domain. Our constitution says that copyright needs to expire, there is a loophole though, because it doesn't say when it should expire, so every time Mickey Mouse copyright is about to expire they lobby the congress to extend it further. The copyright originally lasted 10 years, now it's 120 years after author's death.
quacker 7y ago
> Can you name single great work of art created by Disney that isn't mostly derivative? Reflect on why you can't: they are monetizers of existing culture, not creators of originality. You sort of have a point, since this is Disney we're considering, but this is a slippery slope. Most _everything_ is derivative work. Should I pirate all commercial software that's powered by open source software? Should I never pay for a modern book with a hero's journey storyline simply because it's not original? And I shouldn't pay artists for their covers or remixes of other songs? So unoriginal. And why should I buy tickets to any new Batman movie? Batman's part of our culture and the story is probably taken from the comics. And I should never profit from my business unless it's MY original idea. If you dislike Disney (for good reason), then boycott them. But that doesn't give you the _right_ to pirate their content nor should you encourage others to pirate.
- cwkoss 7y ago

wolco 7y ago

Piracy doesn't devalue it increases the value. It creates growth and spreads word of mouth. The correct ratio of piracy to purchased copies will make a worthless product into a successful one. Independent music was more popular in the early 2000s when piracy was high. You share music for it to be successful. With streaming independent music gets lost and crowded out if it exists on the platform.