Fuck YOU, pirates.

[The Curmudgeon]

If it's one thing I can't fucking stand, it's piracy. I get downloading the odd track here and there, I'm not some holier-than-thou purist, but it seems people don't appreciate fucking anything anymore cos they just stole it from the net. I remember talking to a guy who downloaded Paranormal Activity and said he watched the first half hour on his laptop, got bored and skipped to the end. He said it sucked. I bought it on Blu Ray, switched off all the lights, turned off the phone and watched it with my wife in scared silence. That's how you fucking appreciate a film, dickhead.

Anyway, leave it to game companies to find a way to stick it to cheapskate losers who won't pay for anything. Warnings won't work. Polite requests don't do shit. But fucking with their minds and the games themselves? Now you're talking.

www.cracked.com/article_19162_6-hilarious-ways-game-designers-are-screwing-with-pirates.html

[nellabella]

Most people dont care what other people do unless you are connected to the (music/movie) business and then you would care because pirating cuts into your profits. Besides no one knows how many times you can listen to a CD and watch a DVD before it wears out. Dont stress over the little things is my motto.

[The Curmudgeon]

Ahhh Nellabella, you're obviously new here!!

I know it doesn't affect me, but it still pretty much offends me on every level. It always makes me laugh, bitterly mind, when people say they "love" movies or music then talk about how they just download shit. Doesn't sound like love to me.

[nellabella]

Yeah but real movie lovers play hooky for a movie matinée where they get real close with a bag of imitation buttered greasy movie theatre popcorn watered down Pepsi and a cool Peppermint Patty.

Me? Im a bad girl.

[trashcanman]

I abhor piracy, but support certain aspects of it. I feel that if you are a "true fan" you should be eager to donate to the cause of your favorite music/film/game/whatever. I WANT Fugazi and OK Go to have my money. I WANT Tarantino's films to top the box office. If the stuff we love makes money, the artists will be given more freedom to make even awesomer and more far out genius. But if they consistently do not make money, they will be forced into the mold of garbage like Bay flicks and whatever shitty music is selling at the moment or perish in obscurity. But on the other hand, I strongly disagree with the methods corporations are using to conduct witchhunts and randomly sue the parents of children who download things for millions of dollars they don't have , effectively ruining their lives over a few gigs of readily available information that the kid probably didn't bother listening to or watching. The contents of that article is the correct way to deal with pirates. Either that, or go after the people who uploaded the content to begin with. LEAVE THE REST OF US ALONE!!!!

I believe Madonna rocked some piracy asskickings as well.
www.myce.com/news/Madonna-launches-new-anti-piracy-campaign-swears-to-music-pirates-5763/
I've also heard that some artists release dummy versions of their songs that, after a few seconds of music, blast a noise designed to blow out speakers. Good stuff.

I personally only usually pirate music I already own. Rather than spending an hour ripping the entire discography of Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, or The Who, it's a hell of a lot easier to just download 3 torrents and have them appear on my computer without pulling out two dozen CD's and spending hours doing nothing but feeding them into my computer. I also occasionally find tracks and albums that are not available to buy as torrents. So piracy has actually become a pretty invaluable tool for me as a music fan, and not a penny is lost to the artists I love. I can't speak for anybody else, but I would urge that people use it responsibly and don't forget that an artist can't thrive without compensation for their work. I figure most pirates are probably rocking Kesha (that's right, no $) or the Black Eyed Peas anyways. If Doctor Dre or Metallica want to cry from on top of their fucking piles of gold, fuck 'em. I'll pirate those bitches all day long if I want to. But give love to those who earn it, fellow fans.

[missscrumptious]

I hate piracy! Buy a cd or a film it's not difficult. I love music and movies. I have a very large collection (ones that I have actually PAID for.

[Mrs_C]

If you like a car you wouldn't jack it. If you want a tube of pringles you would pay for them. If you want some jewellery you wouldn't go in and hold the salesman at gunpoint. If you want a boyfriend you wouldn't steal somebody elses. So If you want to listen to music or watch films you pay for it otherwise they don't have the money to make more music and films.

[nellabella]

Im not going to say I havent done it because I have but I dont downloaded anything thats worth buying and keeping. I have a few that are my must haves which I purchased and watch a zillion times over because I cant get enough. The stuff thats crap I delete and say 'thank god I didnt buy that or thank god I didnt pay to see it'. Ever since the VCR and movie rentals - people have been coping. Who doesnt have a Dirty Dancing cassette somewhere in their basement collecting dust because cassettes are now obselete. The internet isnt any different. What about people who use the libray to borrow movies? Are they stealing too? Sorry but if the music and movie biz wants the consumer to pay then give consumers what they want and they will pay. I want what I paid for and if they are going to put out crap just to make money - Im not going to pay for it. I want quality not just music and movies but everything I purchase has to be good quality. I dont buy crap. I can watch a shit load of movies on Netflix for almost nothing. WTF needs to buy anymore and like I said before there isnt enough out there worth buying anyway. Go after the pigs who pirate and sell on ebay like the Chinese.

[trashcanman]

The difference between jacking a car or stealing a boyfriend is that there is no physical thing you are stealing with piracy. It is simply data you are downloading. It is only stealing in a theoretical sense. That is legally tricky. When blank cassettes came out, you heard the same hullabaloo about it bringing down the record industry. Why buy a tape when you can just record it off the radio or have your friend make you a copy? The industry survived. Then it was used CD's. Why buy the album new when the store down the street is selling it for half price with the artist getting no cut? When you take a mixtape from a friend or even watch a video on youtube, you are as much stealing music as when you download illegally. Why buy the single on iTunes when you can just go on youtube and watch the video it whenever you want? This is all a very blurry line, but the fact is that the people worried about all of this are already all richer than God and want for nothing. Most artists smaller than U2 only get a teensy cut of album sales IF THEY ARE LUCKY and subsist primarily on merch and gigs. That is why you don't hear Bad Religion, Primus, or Anthrax speaking out against piracy. If it gets their music out there (and it clearly does) it will actually work for them by making new fans of people who may otherwise have passed them by and bringing them to the shows where they profit instead of the record execs and producers.

In spite of all this, I still strongly disagree with people who perceive piracy as just a way to get something for nothing. Misscrumptious (welcome, madame) is not mistaken, and neither is Mrs C's latter point. If you want something, you should buy it. This is how economics works, and it's just common decency. But i don't believe piracy is anything near the problem that corporations pretend it is. The industry is changing for the worst and it is becoming harder to find good new artists. I have adapted by going back in time and digging up old artists, but other people are just downloading everything they can searching for something that is not garbage. If the industry went back to promoting quality and diversity amongst a stable of artists that can have long-lasting, evolving careers instead of spending ever fucking last penny they have promoting one or two flavor of the months, their health wouldn't be declining. Because when Britney or Miley self destruct after the label put all of their eggs in those baskets, they are left with nothing whereas in the old days, Aerosmith, Springsteen, Dylan, Heart, and any number of future legends would be sharing the same label and all consistently putting out quality music almost annually so a few flops would be no big deal. The label could afford artist creativity and could take chances on new and different acts. Now, if you don't fit into the mold dictated by focus groups and current sales trends, you don't have a chance. And when people get sick of the flavor of the month, neither does the music industry. They languish until they find a new one. This is why record sales are down; not piracy. And on the movie front, most often the movies I want to see the most are not playing at any theater within an hour's drive from my town. But every single theater between here and there will have Vampires Suck or some such bullcrap. And ticket sales are down? I can't imagine why.

[nellabella]

Apr 24, 2011 22:05:37 GMT 2 Mrs_C said:

If you like a car you wouldn't jack it. If you want a tube of pringles you would pay for them. If you want some jewellery you wouldn't go in and hold the salesman at gunpoint. If you want a boyfriend you wouldn't steal somebody elses. So If you want to listen to music or watch films you pay for it otherwise they don't have the money to make more music and films.

Stealing your best friends boyfriend is a moral thing. Stealing a car is criminal. Its not a crime to pirate movies unless the intent is to sell then its a crime. Lindsay Lohan stole jewelry and nothing happened to her.

[The Curmudgeon]

What gets me, though, isn't people like Nellabella who download things to see what they're like. It's people who say they "love" a band or that a movie was amazing, and they're content to sit with a copied version of it.

Someone once argued to me that when they downloaded the artists album they were doing them a favour because the music was being heard. Now, this wasn't some megastar like Madonna or Britney, rather an indie label UK band. So you don't pay for their music and you wouldn't go and see them live, but somehow THEY benefit by you ripping the album and listening to the single you've heard off it. Riiiight.

[trashcanman]

What a doof. When I download something and dig it, I'm repaying it in some way, shape or form. That's just how I am. Either I'm buying it outright, or reviewing it, or probably both. I know there are idiots out there who are entirely childish and selfish (more than not, for sure), but that's pretty much life in general. But there is a ton of stuff I've bought and plan on buying after downloading it first that I otherwise would have passed on entirely if i didn't have the option to check it out for free.

[nellabella]

How often do you purchase a CD and love all 13 tracks? CDs are not pricey anymore but if you only like one of two tacks - are you getting what you paid for?

[missscrumptious]

Fair point nellabella.
Like curmudgeon, I don't mind people downloading music to see if they like it etc. But how can somebody say they "love" an album or a band and settle for a copied version. That doesn't look like real love to me.
If you download an album but you go to see them live fair enough you are still paying for their music so to speak, but like mr c said it's not "benefiting" anybody if you download and don't go to gigs/concerts.

[trashcanman]

I actually tend to love every song on the albums I buy because I only have time/money for artist I love anyways. Then again, I'm a guy who listens to everything from death metal to acoustic folk so I'm not hard to please. If I only want one song, I'll get the MP3 from Amazon.