Online Piracy- How Much Do You Owe?

None. It is not illegal to record off the radio or tv, why is the internet any different? Furthermore copyright terms are unreasonable,outrageous and they destroy the spirit of what the laws wre intended for in the first place. 20 years is plenty of time to make money off whatever you write. Your grandchildren should write their own songs if they want to be rich.

If copyright was reasonable then Hollywood would not be able to constantly remake awful movies and good shows would not need to have the music ruined for dvd releases like Beavis and Butthead or Married with Children.

Until copyright is retuned to a decent period then I am not going to obey it. No one else should either.

reply to post by Pirateofpsychonautics


I had a similar conversation with my cleaners husband earlier this week. Every now & then he gives me a DVD with 2-3 movies on it, most that arent even available to rent yet, I guess I have about 10-15 movies thanks to his illegal downloads, though Ive only watched 2.

1. I never asked for them;
2. The quality is crap & he has all the best programs (apparently);
3. I said to him there will always be people like me who like to have a shelf full of movies, so if he did give me a movie I really loved, I would go out & buy it;
4. Point 3 in consideration, just a few months ago I paid $34 for Close Encounters. Surely it could be a bit cheaper by now, I was a kid when it came out & I'm 40 now.

His argument was he has paid to see movies in the cinema. However, the movies he has given me (plus however many more he hasnt given me) I bet he hasnt paid to see in any way. His theory is, he has already paid enough at the cinema & video store so far that he never has to pay for another movie ever again.

I guess thats a nice idea if the only people trying to make a living/invest in a movie were only the people who made movies from way back then. How about the new people ?

When he gave me the last DVD I said something like 'isnt there a law trying to be passed for you ?' He had absolutely no idea, & then gave me his "I've already paid enough" excuse.

Being on a pension, I FULLY agree that people like Lucas etc dont need to earn another cent, nor the next few generations of his family, but knowing someone who is trying to make a movie, this does hit the new people (pre-file sharing) hard, & I wonder how this will hit us. Maybe there are some people out there with great stories to tell, but they must be asking whats the point when anything they make will be taken for free & leave them in debt.

No, I dont agree with SOPA etc, the laws passed in the USA will hit all of us some way, but I do wonder if we are hurting ourselves. Downloading movies from the net could be doing more harm than we think, I have no issue with hitting the big names, but is it doing too much damage to the small up & comers who may have something really important to share ?

Fine, lets get something back from the billionaires, but maybe adding a time limit will help the new people get a chance.

Ah yes, if we cannot get it for free we will go out and buy it... Also in many places personal use is allowed. It was for the longest time in here too untill very recently. We also pay a huge casette tax too.

First off, I'm assuming MOST of us, if "our files were pulled" would be serving ridiculous life sentences. However, the one thing I've never understood, and maybe someone can explain this to me, is how is downloading a CD carrying a heavier sentence than walking into a store and physically stealing something. It's essentially the exact same thing. People are getting fined $250,000+ for downloading a DVD that retails for $19.99. You're actually causing more harm by actually going out and stealing. If you were caught stealing you would most likely, be asked to return the item, charged with petty theft, sentenced to probation, or with a good lawyer get off with a fine, yet people caught downloading music or movies have been sentenced to 10+ years, and as we've seen with Megaupload 50 years, and he didn't even upload the illegal files. How has a half decent lawyer not won with this argument, I'd love to hear why, outside of the "copyright laws" BS.