Job Discussion Forums

khmerhit · Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2003 1:23 am Post subject: Do you Download?

Do you copy---Do you download---Do you care???
Should file sharing be a felony?

In Cambodia, illegal photocopying is rampant. Schools, NGOs and governments alike are complicit in the day to day breach of copyright.

Bootleg videos can appear in the markets on the same day as they
are released in the West. Music companies are running scared:

Quote:
8/5/03--Sixty-seven percent of Internet users who download music and 65% of users who share files say they don't care about copyright. Young adults and students are still among the most likely to download music and share files. They're also the least likely to say they care about the copyright status of those files. (Source: PIP's Downloading, Filesharing and Copyright Data Memo)

What do you think?

www.pewinternet.org
Shocked

dduck · Joined: 29 Jan 2003 Posts: 422 Location: In the middle

This is a really big subject. I think it needs to be separated into a number of individual issues, e.g. anti-AIDS drugs patents and music copyright are completely different moral issues.

Firstly, in relation to the AIDS disaster in South Africa, I find it abhorrant that any company would try to claim copyright protection in the courts, such that African companies are prevented from producing cheap anti-AIDS drugs that South Africans can afford. We shouldn't lose perspective on the value of human life.

Music copyright could hardly be more different. But sadly, the odds are stacked against the multi-national companies who try to manipulate us into buying the latest manufactured 'Pop idol' hit. The internet offers a freedom that the record companies don't seem prepared to deliver. I can't imagine this 'abuse' stopping anytime soon. I think the way forward for them is to try to find a way to harness the demand rather than attempt to kill it off.

Iain

Wolf · Joined: 10 May 2003 Posts: 1245 Location: Middle Earth

As someone without a credit card living in the PRC, if I despearately wanted to buy a legal copy of a DVD, CD, software program, etc, I'd have to bodily travel to Hong Kong or Taipei, and even then I wouldn't be guaranteed of not picking up "bootleg."

In my region of the PRC there is no such thing as un - bootleged DVDs, software programs, etc that I can see in major retail stores (that's right bootleg is sold in stores.)

It so happens that I haven't bought any yet, but I'll be buying my own computer soon. If I want it to run, I'll need to install bootleged software.

What's a canine to do?