Online Piracy- How Much Do You Owe?

I don't often care to speculate however, a plausible idea/method of enslavement in relation to a NWO ploy (don't worry, I giggle at these myself) that has been playing on my mind for some time now is the tangible value of illegal downloads and just how culpable we as individuals are.

If you were to have your file pulled and be put on trial for online media piracy, what sort of sentence would you face?

The Herald Sun (Melbourne, AUS) suggests that in Australia, for every legal download, twenty illegal downloads occur which, obviously results in the loss of BIG money for key stakeholders. Key stakeholders being (typically) the major record and film companies.

Through technology we are more closely monitored than ever. If somebody produced a history of your illegal downloads you have (or haven't) accumulated, how liable would you be for a fine you can only ever dream of repaying or imprisonment?

With the average cost of CD's being $16.99 and the average cost of a DVD being between $16-25, aided and abetted by technology those numbers stack up pretty quickly when you talk downloads. I'm sure many people out there could do some time if prosecutors so had the intention.

I am not trying to sway people to cease their downloads however, what if we were all put on trial? Again, merely speculation but with some hefty consequences.

Thankfully, I don't think the resources exist to administer such trials but it is an interesting thought.

reply to post by Pirateofpsychonautics

I most respectfully take the fifth...

Too much.
Do we see coalitions of celebrities complaining about downloads?
or just the companies not making their cut on it?
Or as big of a cut?

I don't think i can calculate over the past 10 years how much i have seen and gone through and deleted. As it stands right now i probably have about 1tb of data in assorted things. games, movies, tv shows, music. Accumulated over the last... 3 years? I don't download often, so it took awhile to fill.

Most of it i've only watched once. If that.

reply to post by Pirateofpsychonautics


Sir, you make an excellent point that I have been pondering for quite sometime.

I have been an advocate of piracy for a very long time. I have actually written essays on why piracy is beneficial. Like every subject there are always +/-s. My favorite + is that there are actual economies based on piracy where individuals pirated and hacked software and later were inspired to take up a career in software/computers. I would use a personal example where I have used software illegally, learnt how to use it and bought it.

It also is a major drain to the economy because there are actual downloads that wouldn't have happened if it weren't so easily available for free. Also, if piracy was illegal maybe people would make better use of their time and go outside.

My 2cents.

Originally posted by AzureSky
Too much.
Do we see coalitions of celebrities complaining about downloads?
or just the companies not making their cut on it?
Or as big of a cut?

I don't think i can calculate over the past 10 years how much i have seen and gone through and deleted. As it stands right now i probably have about 1tb of data in assorted things. games, movies, tv shows, music. Accumulated over the last... 3 years? I don't download often, so it took awhile to fill.

Most of it i've only watched once. If that.

That may be so but,

The man was arrested following a raid on his home, during which police discovered 10 optical disc burners connected to a server with one terabyte (1,024 gigabyte) storage capacity. Four hundred and eighty-six movie "masters" were stored on the server.

Copyright Council of New Zealand

That guy was jailed for 2 years. Granted he profited from the distribution of pirated movies but, the crime is still there and NZ is a pretty lenient country.

See what I mean?

reply to post by Pirateofpsychonautics


I see what you mean.
But i don't have master copies.
And i don't even have an optical drive on my computer.

And where i live, there is no law saying i can't download (however, it is illegal to upload) weird huh?
So i don't.

I get the whole intellectual property thing. And if you like an artist or movie enough to buy it, then do it. I do.
But who are the ones bitching about money? Its not the musicians, its the huge record labels that are chomping at the bit. If you make good music, people will buy it.

Im not surprised people download britney spears.
I wouldn't waste money on that (lol).

How much does a musician make from a live show?
Especially big bands? Well. Tickets anywhere between 40 - 200 dollars a pop. anywhere between 2000- 100,000 people..
Seems like a 10 dollar cd is nil at that point.
Not that a musician gets much of the profits from a cd (last i heard 14%?)

Im considering just doing iTunes.

Another example:
I paid to see AVATAR in theater.
Avatar made over 2billion in the box office alone.

They don't need my 50 bucks for a blu-ray.

reply to post by Pirateofpsychonautics


So the average CD costs the consumer between $15-$20 and they cost about $1 to produce... So why the several thousand percent markup?
Look at the markup on EVERYTHING. Being from the USA and living in Australia the cost of living in Sydney is ridiculous and it's the most basic form of extorsion simply because people will/have to pay it.

I'm an advocate for online piracy, these corporations, individuals and whoever else are not losing a dime over online piracy, people still pay money to see films in the cinema or pay to go to concerts. No one is "losing" money. Personally speaking, I should have slapped Lars Ulrich in the face when I had the chance.

Haha when Azure Sky said that it isn't the musicians whinging all I could see was a huge Metallica logo on my head..look, I'm not going to cease anything I may or may not do either but my question remains; if your card were to be pulled, what penalty could you expect?

Lars SHOULD have been slapped.

When the RIAA tried to sue Limewire for $75 trillion in revenue loss, I did some quick calculations and came to the conclusion that it was just physically impossible.

It would have to involve every single man, woman and child on the planet downloading between 600 - 800 CDs worth of music.

I have no idea how they came up with that figure.

Originally posted by Pirateofpsychonautics
Haha

when Azure Sky said that it isn't the musicians whinging all I could see was a huge Metallica logo on my head..look, I'm not going to cease anything I may or may not do either but my question remains; if your card were to be pulled, what penalty could you expect?

Lars SHOULD have been slapped.

He is the only one i remember coming out about illegal downloading.
But really. it depends on how much each item is worth, and how much jailtime.

If it was illegal here, and i suppose i could get 2 years? or maybe just an uber fine?

reply to post by Pirateofpsychonautics


Lars should be publicly slapped by everyone on the planet.. Even Lars wants to slap Lars..
Anyway.. How much would I owe?... Including fines? Enough.. I can only really remember hearing of one woman who was fined in the USA for downloading music illegally, she appealed her small fine (which was only a few thousand dollars) and was given a hefty fine (Close to if not over a million if I recall). Catching online pirates is like looking for Jimmy Hoffa, it sounds plausible until you actually try it.

Originally posted by Pirateofpsychonautics

Online Piracy- How Much Do You Owe?

I am owed.

I do not owe.

Money is a lie.

Land ownership is a lie.

The artist is owed gratitude, not servitude.

Originally posted by zroth

Originally posted by Pirateofpsychonautics

Online Piracy- How Much Do You Owe?

I am owed.

I do not owe.

Money is a lie.

Land ownership is a lie.

The artist is owed gratitude, not servitude.

Granted, but I wasn't disputing the validity of the system or not..

Does streaming count? Like in watching movies online?

Maybe if the states cracks down on online piracy, those who download because they live below the poverty line maybe can be organized to find ways how to access the profts they make for all those corporations they work for minimum wage for, when they cant numb themselves on free movies, porn and series anymore.

reply to post by Cassius666


Yeah... That's what the poor do. They numb themselves on porn and free movies.. That's how they heat their mansions in the winter... I'm so glad you decided to join in.

Not all do it, but if your live is less than ideal you are more prone to escapism.

Online Piracy is a fallacy! You can't lose money you never had in the first place. The whole false premise is based on the ridiculous idea that had someone not borrowed a file from thier internet friend they would have paid money for the file instead. Yeah prove it. No money has been lost by any of these idiots. In fact it is free advertising for them and if anything they should be paying for the advertising instead of claiming imaginary losses that simply do not exist!

The people I really feel sorry for are the big corporations....Warner Bros, Columbia pictures, MGM etc.......also the poor individuals affected by this heinous crime.....Tom Cruise, Kate Winslett, George Clooney, Ben Stiller et al.

And I haven't even touched on the likes of Sony and all the big music producers!

Next time you download a freebie song for your ipod, spare a thought for the poor Madonna's, and Justin Beiber's of this world!


You should all be ashamed of yourselves......stealing the very food from the tables of these poor companies, actors and musicians!.......shame on you!

reply to post by Argyll


MOST of the end user "pirates" are teenagers. That is a fact. If you're expecting that demographic to pay out the butt for stuff, its not gonna happen.

What they should be going after is the ones who SELL pirated stuff, not grandma who has some kids over download a few mp3s on her laptop that she cant even use herself to tell the weather.

megaupload was an easy target due to the way it was run. id expect the current trend of black-listing the US from internet access to gain more wind.