Today's rant
10/13/2005 02:50:00 PM
Today's rant: content thieves.
I am a (somewhat reformed) content thief. Yes, for several years, I downloaded music that I didn't own from the Internet. Horrors.
OK. Disclosure aside, here's where I am today. Confused.
For example: in the good old days (read: pre-digital), we all felt free to make mix tapes (whether with songs taped from the radio, which made for horrible edits, or songs from other tapes/CDs that we owned), and felt free (and well within our rights) to make copies of mixes and hand them off to our friends. Hell, we even made copies of whole albums and passed them around. No harm, no foul.
Things are, as if I even need to tell you, gentle reader, quite different today. The Internet allows us to quite simply share perfect copies of media - music, movies, tv shows - with an incredible number of people. This is hardly news. What I'm wondering about, though, is the legal grey-area.
I have, for going on two years now, been purchasing no less than 90% of my music via iTunes. I think it's no exaggeration to say that since the purchase of my iPod I have spent more money on music than at any other time in my life (though that's up for debate. My discovery of electronic music in the mid/late 90's was an expensive one indeed). I still make mixes, though more often than not they're now called "playlists" and don't exist on any physical media - they're on my PC, and on my iPod. I could burn them to CD if I really felt like it, but I rarely ever listen to CDs anymore. I imagine that in the next five to ten years I never listen to a physical CD again...
Anyway.. Here's the problem: the law. Fair use laws are great and all (when we're allowed to exercize them), but when they were conceived we lived in a very different world (think: Betamax). I'm not advocating, by any means, that these laws be repealed or legislated into submission any more - I think content should be MORE free, and I think that current copyright laws are overly protective (thanks, Disney lobby) and restrictive, but I also feel that artists and other content creators should be duly reimbursed for their efforts.
We're used to recording things from TV and watching them when we want. But at what point does us TiVoing "Lost" and burning it to DVD for later enjoyment encroach on the rights of the broadcasters/production companies' rights to sell the DVDs later? Do they at all? (I'm inclined to say no).
BUT, broadcast television, for example, (deprecated though it may be) is suppored solely by advertising - easily subverted these days with fast-forward and ubiquitous editing tools. Charging us for access to programs (cable/satellite provider model) makes more and more sense every day, but why do I want to pay $50/month for 500 channels when I only ever watch 20-30 shows?
OK, I'm fragmenting the discussion here - back on topic..
I opted not to downgrade my PSP not because I would have been tempted to play ripped games (basically, full versions of games whose security can be easily subverted and downloaded online) and not becuase I'm not interested in playing those games, but because I think that's a bullshit thing to do. (Note: I have not always felt this way). I no longer tell myself that I'm going to download an illegal copy of a game "for evaluation" - a dubious questionably "legal" excuse for stealing software we often used to use - because again, I admit that it's bullshit.
I don't download movies online so I don't have to pay to rent them because again, that's bullshit. I don't rip movies that I've rented (disclosure: I did do this recently) and make copies (recent example: since thrown away) because again, bullshit.
Now, if I OWN a movie on DVD I feel well within my rights to copy it and transmogrify it in any way I please for my own use (viewing on the PSP), but not to distribute it. I'll lend a DVD to a friend but I won't burn a copy for a friend.
More disclosure: this entry - a random stream of likely contradictory thoughts - is a reaction to my belief that I haven't been posting enough. Blog fodder. Imbibe at your own risk.
I also feel like I haven't made any sense. So, yeah. Awesome.
Back to work. My elbow hurts.
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4 Comments:
Its interesting how steady (and good) income can change things, ehh?
When blockbuster stops trying to rape their customers with their supposed "end of late fees" policy etc... I'll reconsider my stance.
Oh - and when I have money.
posted at 3:19 PM
Sorry babe, I fell asleep halfway through your post. But I'm sure you're right. Aren't you always?
posted at 3:48 PM
Personally, I will steal anything I can. Most of the songs/movies/games that I have received without paying for them are things that I was interested in, but would have never paid for. That's my justification, a bit faulty on the logic side, but it works for me.
posted at 9:52 AM
So I guess that means you won't be ripping any of those cycling DVDs for me?!?!? They're so expensive, though! They cost more than movies, but are shorter in length and cost less to make. And everyone wonders why our country is so overweight. When a cheap to make cyclying DVD costs more than $100 movie DVD, what would most people choose....
posted at 9:49 AM
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