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This article is an essay, located in my user page space. It may contain original research, unverified claims, nonsense, crap, and other stuff not allowed in the main space. Anything you read here is my personal opinion, and does not reflect the views and policies of Battlestar Wiki in any way, shape or form. There's too much confusion, but there's no reason to get excited. |
Razor leaks on October 30th, 2007
- No good deed ever goes unpunished. - Ferengi Rule of Acquisition #285
- Trust is the biggest liability of all. - Ferengi Rule of Acquisition #99
So one of the copies provided early to reviewers as a courtesy has been copied and distributed far and wide across the Internet. Someone earned a bunch of points on a ratio-restricted pirate haven for this one!
They were fools to give out advanced copies.
Of course it was pirated
- Never buy what can be stolen. - Ferengi Rule of Acquisition #61
- If it's free, take it and worry about hidden costs later. - Ferengi Rule of Acquisition #37
In the modern era, with powerful, media-manipulating computers and high-speed Internet connections, to broadcast something, or provide copies of media to basically anyone, is to effectively guarantee that it will be pirated, almost immediately, at a high enough level of quality that a person would never really need to purchase actual media (except to support those who produce a good product).
Did I download Razor? Hell yes. Will I purchase it as soon as it's available, to support a quality product and those who produced it? Absolutely.
I download all the episodes. It's no different than using a DVR to record a broadcasted show to avoid commercials or to watch it at a time of your choosing. As soon as the DVD is available, I purchase it. I consider it fair use to download the episodes at my leisure (I pay for cable, and they are broadcast, so what's the difference?)
Thoughts on copyright
- Sometimes what you get free costs entirely too much. - Ferengi Rule of Acquisition #218
- Only fools pay retail. - Ferengi Rule of Acquisition #141
Artists, writers, producers, etc., should be paid for their work. Having said that, copyright law in this country has gone far beyond its original intention. There is effectively no longer a "public domain", as the copyright terms keep getting extended by media companies throwing money at our "representatives". Mickey Mouse should be public domain already; not so, Disney can still make money from him, so hey, better extend those copyright laws.
The music industry is even worse, I suggest the following reading, as a start: The Problem with Music
The issue of "Abandonware" falls right in here too. Kudos to companies that actually use their brains and make older games available, either for free or even at a nominal fee. To those that simply sit on their "intellectual property", well, you could have probably had my money. Instead, I'll just take it. Maybe eventually you'll figure it out.
DRM is useless. It is cumbersome, hampers even legitimate users' ability to use their purchases, and, like all schemes, will be cracked, sooner, rather than later, by a dedicated cadre of computer geeks, many of whom do it for the same reason a dog licks his nuts: because they can.
In the end
- Never spend more for an acquisition than you have to. - Ferengi Rule of Acquisition #3
- Anything stolen is pure profit. - Ferengi Rule of Acquisition #14
In the end, you'll never stop piracy with laws. There's too many of us, it's too easy, computers manipulate media, any type of media, effortlessly, and the Internet lets us pass it around. Companies need to consider how they treat their customers, what they charge their customers, the quality of product they are producing, how much they pay the people that actually produce the content (hey! Writers' strike anyone? And musicians, I'm talking to you too) ... and so on.
It's not the 1950's anymore. You aren't in complete control of distribution anymore. Adapt or die.
- - JubalHarshaw 07:52, 5 November 2007 (CST)
- (I welcome your comments on my talk page, or on the talk page for this article.)