Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Demophobe]

I steal on a regular basis. I download MP3's, movies, programs, e-books, games....anything really that is in digital form.

I am committing a crime, both legally and moralistically; I know it and wrestle with it. A few programs I have bought after downloading them, games as well, as they are just that useful to me I feel indebted to the developer or fear of using a illegal copy.

I do feel bad about the MP3's, as I am a musician and composer, and realise that I am directly contributing to the loss (or at least decay) of some art in my theft. Some software as well, especially when it's written by a small group or individual, but I know this is the same line as shoplifters: "I only steal from the big companies". It's a load...it's all theft, felt or not.

I wish I could just send the bands the cash and not pay the mafia...whoops....I mean RIAA in a purchase situation. I don't listen to a lot of indie music, in which case it's possible. I'm not sure I can send REM $8 for their latest work without feeding Godzilla...whoops...I mean the RIAA. Mixed reviews here...no easy solution for anyone.

Games? Well, some are just so bad, I am happy I didn't spend money on them...kind of "try before you buy". If the games become avaliable in Korea and are really good, I buy them.

E-books? Who cares...like photocopying a library book.

Movies? Well, I have a mixed heart on this one. Similar to music...love the artist, hate the labels/RIAA. (of whatever they are called in moviedom)

I paid for my OS and AV, as well as some other core components of my system that I count on for maintenance and PC health.

I am just wondering about others here. Not confession time as such, but just interested in what kind of software people are downloading and how they feel about it.

Let's try to refrain from any judgement on each other, as we all live in glass houses, or at least rent a room in the glass hotel from time to time, so let's not start throwing stones.

These are the golden days of the internet folks, so enjoy it while it lasts. With "Longhorn" in 2005 comes "Palladium" (Intel/MS venture), "TCP" (trusted computing platform: MS) and the "Fritz" chip, hardwired to mainboards (US government legislation). These will put a big halt on the gravy train. I urge you all to Google the aforementioned terms and see the train that's coming. It's a big, ugly train for people like me, who, since the advent of P2P, have had a field day.

[the saint]

Great post... you've really challenged me to rethink my attitude. I think Korea is a bit of a vortex. Before I came here, I would never think of using pirated software. Now, I have some and have downloaded some and I feel ill at ease about it and I'm going to do an about face on this front at least.

Music I download for free and buy. It's on the radio and I can record from that too as most of us do. TV series and movies, I have a simple five year rule. I won't download anything that is less than five years old unless it has been on TV because I figure that I could simply have video recorded it anyway. I got into this because it is really hard to get things we want to watch while living away from home.

I have to go now... more thoughts later...

[jazblanc77]

The OS on the computer is mine and I also bought McAfee AV and Firewall last year, which I no longer use. I also paid for all of my Declan Korean language software.

[the_beaver]

I feel that Adobe and Microsoft have such reasonably priced software that there's no reason to have illegal copies.

[Thunndarr]

I've come up with countless ways to rationalize my piracy. Some of them may even be valid.

Music: I don't download much music anyway, and I will still buy the cd's of those few bands I really like.

TV shows: Well, the networks really aren't losing much ad revenue (zero) from me watching a show in Korea that I wouldn't have access to were it not for the internet. As such, I don't feel a bit bad about it.

Movies: I've downloaded a lot of movies. However, I still attend movies at the theater on a regular basis, plus I still buy legitimate DVD's of really good movies that I want to own. So, I end up pirating movies that I would never consider buying (with or without access to piracy) so I don't feel particularly guilty about that either.

Software: Once again, I download games that I wouldn't consider buying, and rarely end up playing them much anyway. I also purchase certain games that I want to have a legit copy of. For apps and stuff, well, it just depends. I pretty much just pirate what I need when I need it. No moral justification there at all.

[ryleeys]

I steal digital material every day.

I do it because:

1) I ain't go the money after buying the expensive equipment to buy the stuff to put on the machine.

2) I could care less what the RIAA thinks.

3) People don't "steal" English from me every day? (I don't think about this alot, personally couldn't care... but that's someone taking what I do for a living for free, right?)

4) $20 for a friggin' cd? $50 for one video game?


Yeah, none of that makes it right... but as long as it's feasible without getting caught, yeah, I'll do it. I just think of myself as Sean Connery (in Entrapment) waiting for my lovely Catherine Zeta-Jones to steal my heart and $8 billion.

[Gord]

[MixtecaMike]

It ain't really stealin', nobody loses any physical goods and if you wouldn't have bought it anyway then they aren't losing any money either.

Living in Mexico and Central America for eight years has taught me the value of sharing, good to see that sharing & caring value exists over here in Korea too.

Now all I need is a computer to use all that shared stuf on.

[peppermint]

I'm a big supporter of things like Project Guttenberg that makes a lot of books available in electronic form, once the copyright laws expire (75 years after the authors death, I believe)

[the saint]

[Demophobe]

Well, "sharing" means supplying things that are indeed "yours" to others for their use, as per your consent as the "proprietor" of said goods. "Sharing" stolen things, as in things that you obtained outside the specified channel for "ownership", just can't be right.

If I steal a car and lend it to a friend who indeed knows it's stolen, who is wrong? Who is wrong legally and morally? Legally, you will both be in the clink....morally, again, you are both in the wrong. You just can't have things that you didn't pay for, whether it's amounting to if you get caught or not. Shoplifting, for example.

If I wanted to borrow the above mentioned movie, but had no VCR, would I go to Wal-mart and steal one? No, yet I have no trouble downloading WinVCR from P2P to watch the movie I just bought or downloaded (stole).

The fact is that the word "sharing" is a ruse, and everyone, including hollywood and the RIAA knows it. The percent of legally "shared" material on P2P networks is miniscule compared to the outright theft of digital material.

I have stolen property on my system, and just yesterday did a format and re-installed some of my hot progs. I am still not clean on this issue, so I am not calling people down on this...I am blowing the whistle on myself as well.

Does it come down to who is losing? A big company? Who cares? A rich band? Who cares? Hollywood? Who cares? The RIAA? Who cares? Well, not caring doesn't change the fact that it's theft, and so really, it's totally a moral issue and decision. The stuff is out there on the tree of the internet, ripe and ready for picking. One can get anything at all on these networks....anything. It is total anarchy.

If you pick the fruits or not is a wholly personal choice. As long as the internet has existed, there have been circumventions for legal ownership. I have been taking advantage of these since 1997, and I just feel like it's time to pay the piper. This was the whole reason for this post, was to guage my feelings as of late with the masses to see where this grey area turns black.

The times are changing soon enough, and I'm sure that many out there will use the future as impetus to carry on stealing freom the faceless, anonymous, "nobody is losing" internet. "It will be gone soon, so grab it while you can". Interestingly enough, this may well be the catchphrase of riot looters.

Anyways, it's theft. Getting something that you haven't the legal or moral entitleship to have, be it on your hard drive or in your garage. I am turning the boat around, granted in a slow arch. I am doing it more for moral reasons than for any, but to each their own.

[ryleeys]

First, the RIAA is a frickin' farce. They screw over so many people including the stars, the customers, the kids making the CDs in Bangladesh... to hell with them. Call me Robin Hood.

Second, a situation which has me exceedingly pissed off. Major League Baseball and the NFL are screwing people over as well. Radio is free, right? Well, not if you live in another country. Both MLB and the NFL have made it impossible to listen to baseball or football games online without paying ridiculous prices. Now, what really is stupid about this, is that MLB and the NFL don't even provide the equipment to generate the radio broadcast... so, you've got a situation like WBAL in Baltimore. They provide the announcers, the technicians, the equipment, etc. and MLB is the only one allowed to make money off of the broadcast online. Crazy. And the NFL has gone one step further... They won't even allow ESPN.com to show highlights of NFL games the way they show highlights of MLB games. Also, the NFL allows Canada and Mexico to purchase NFL Sunday Ticket (access to all NFL games) on cable... but through a corporation deal, only people with the DirecTV satellite dish can get Sunday ticket in the United States. So most of the time, you're stuck watching a regional (i.e. crappy, like Arizona vs. Dallas) game that the network broadcasts, while the rest of the world (including freakin' Iran, which gets the top games every week) gets access to the top games every week.


I really really really hate MLB and the NFL (and the NCAA, for different reasons).

I see no reason not to add the RIAA to this list for being an organization of money grubbing no-talent hacks taking money from people that can barely afford the ridiculous cost of CDs and keeping it for themselves, instead of giving it to the artists that made the CD possible to begin with.

[wylde]

as micheal jackson says... yea i'm bad, i'm bad..

i haven't paid for any software since windows 95 and i have around 450Gb stored on this pos..


yea. i'm bad.

but, if i bought all the shit i have used in the past, i would be broke.

[eamo]

My take on this.

The record industry warned "home-taping would kill music" back in 1967 when the cassette-recorder first came out. It didn't. Record companies and musicians still got extremely rich yet people home-taped like there was no tomorrow.

If the product is good and reasonably priced enough people will buy it.

My uncle has been using a computer for years yet he still buys every piece of sofware he needs and he buys all his music/movies legally. He doesn't know things like Kazaa exist!!! I don't think he would use them if he could. He's too 'straight'. He doesn't like doing anything 'illegal'. I'd say there's a lot of people like him out there.

[the saint]

Hi, I'm saint and I'm a filesharer...