Torrent Seeding

[dark+matters]

I don't pirate anything as far as I know. I don't want to take things from people without their permission unless I'm pretty desperate (and I wouldn't be in the case of entertainment).

When I was a kid, people would copy my drawings and it drove me bananas. I also have a friend who is having quite the battle with someone illegally distributing their large-scale art project for free, destroying several years of full-time work and meticulous planning. The person doing it says they don't believe in (who cares) and that is why they are persistently undermining my friend's intellectual property rights.

I'm not so sure that I have a legitimate opinion on the subject though. I know what the law says and basically trust that there are reasons for it and possible consequences for not following it (and possibly no consequences aside from a little harmless fun).

 

[Minuend]

For me it's mostly about affording and convenience. There was times in my life where I had a steady, decent income where I bought a lot of books, music, games. Then there was a time of very low income and difficulty supporting myself and I didn't spend a single dime on anything besides what I needed.

I pirated a lot of games when I was a teenager, but then I got Steam which made everything more convenient and I could wait for sales which made me use that on a regular basis (questionable market scheme aside).

I don't care about the morals or feel obligated to pirate or not to pirate. I can see reasons for paying for some products, but I will very easily not care if it suits me so.

 

[YOLOisonlyprinciple]

Here's a question to ask yourself. Of those of you who have stolen something - let's focus on IP - music, software, a book, have you ever created something somebody else would be willing to pay for? Will you ever create anything worthwhile? I'm not talking about the science project you did in the seventh grade, but something that was hard, because others are trying to do the same thing and because audiences are so demanding, but you overcame all those difficulties and created something that people said "wow, I want that?"

I would like to just make 2 points:

1.
The world is changing, and you have to accept it, and companies have to change the revenue model.
If a game is any good, everyone will download it; if a movie is good everyone will download it.
Talking about ethics etc, is BS because as computing speeds increase and capabilities increase, it makes it much easier to download stuff.
It is like telling to people to not steal a wallet left on the street. just because the wallet belongs to someone, doesnt mean you can expect " it to not be stolen"
Ethics doesnt matter, ethics doesnt govern any of our actions we do. We have to accept the changing realities.
Companies have to change their revenue model.

For example which is the highest earning gaming company now?
Yes, it is the free games company, Riot's League of Legends
The game is free. They make money from "The Community" and by controlling the "gaming environment" and servers.
The key is free- if they charged money for server time like old games, people will set up new servers. If they charged for downloading, people will use torrent.
If people want to play, they probably wont pay.
But people who want to pay, will pay regardless.
I have never paid for any software product till date. But i have spent about 100$ just to buy the skins on the game because i appreciate the gaming environment they give.

I paid for what the company does for the community, what they do to keep up the experience. I pay because i enjoy the gaming culture in the game.

Companies have to now stop selling products and start selling "communities", they have to make revenue off the community, because products are just bits of code which can be easily downloaded.
The inventors of football never charge you money each time you play football, but you pay to the people who give you branded-shoes, branded-footballs etc.

The only way you make money is through community/emotions..
That is the reality. Or just try to sell to big corporations, big firms cant use free software, so they have to pay.
But dont expect a general-use software to be paid for



2.
Also, the type of torrents i wanted to upload were educational.
I dont see why exam oriented material would be unethical to upload.
Why should one have an edge over another because his parents had the money to buy these expensive books?
Why should an institution force someone to pay for standard material, which they themselves offer in the library?

I am unopinionated on commercial software & entertainment files.
But i feel it is completely ethical to download educational material.

People spend billions in trying to *educate* and *provide skill* to people and help them find employment.
But, they wont offer quality education material for free??
Rather than sending people to stupid "courses" etc, it would be much better if people who seek knowledge should be allowed to gain access to knowledge.

What do you think would be more beneficial?
- Harvard Medical School lectures being uploaded for free online
or,
- Sponsoring HMS faculty to go and teach at a college in India?

People waste so much money on option B, because medical schools can *charge* the attendees, but the best value couldve been derived by just uploading the stuff online so millions of people can see it.


It makes zero sense to say it is unethical to upload educational material if it can benefit a large number of people..

 

[Jennywocky]

I just want to say that because of STEAM I'm able to get games at more reasonable prices and I've now for some years stopped pirating games completely. So for me, torrenting has always been about not being willing to pay a premium on entertainment or books.

Textbooks are the worst and the universities and publishers monopolize and jack up the prices intentionally. No, I never gave two shits about finding a pdf book online when I was already borrowing money for college and they wanted $200+ for a textbook I'd rarely have to use; screw 'em.

And music - unless it's an indie artist, they usually make plenty of $$$ playing live and getting views off their youtube music videos and whatever else they do for insane amounts of cash. I'll pay Indie Artists, but that's because they actually need money to keep doing what they are doing.

There are some youtube channels I've donated to because they need the money in order to spend the time creating their show (there's a fallout one for example). So I don't mind paying for something like that.

Yeah, when I look back on it, I tend to approach things in a similar way.

I haven't actually torrented much, but typically if it's something I discover I like, I'll be willing to buy an official copy with the extras. Consider it the "shareware" approach. If I don't view/hear it first, I'm 99% unlikely to buy it at all, so in the end what's it even matter whether I download it or not? By testing it out, I'm actually increasing their chance they'll get a sale from me, because otherwise they won't see my money at all. I'll do the same with MP3/MP4 files, I'm willing to spend a buck on a song (download) that I realize I like, to get a better quality copy; but if I never listen to it first, I'm not going to have bought it anyway so locking me out from hearing it seems counter-productive to their aims.

The college textbook market is pretty crazy. I never searched at length to see if it's just the vanity/small press angle of it that jacks up the costs so badly or whether it's just institutions milking a captive audience for all they can squeeze from them; but regardless, the money we are required to spend on textbooks seems absurd.

I found Steam a good deal as well. I'm just past the point of enjoying spending $60-80 on a game anymore, unless it's something I'm really crazy about. I used to do that on occasion, and I'm just over it. Some of the Steam prices during sales times are pretty remarkable.

I don't particularly like the attitudes fostered in a consumer society, my view is that there's a lot of people that sit on their asses and demand to be fed with much or any investment. That's not good for the producers and it's not good for the consumers. But how proper exchange manifests in a given culture is up for discussion. I do think we need to separate the juggernauts from the people who aren't making much at all for their efforts; for every rock star in the music or book publishing industry who are living high on the hog, you get hundreds who are mostly just eking by or just creating on the side because they can't afford to live on their income. I think that's the crux point where, if you think something is worthwhile, it's good to chip in and support your favored artists.

 

[Haim]

Here's a question to ask yourself. Of those of you who have stolen something - let's focus on IP - music, software, a book, have you ever created something somebody else would be willing to pay for? Will you ever create anything worthwhile? I'm not talking about the science project you did in the seventh grade, but something that was hard, because others are trying to do the same thing and because audiences are so demanding, but you overcame all those difficulties and created something that people said "wow, I want that?"

The problem with any law,while it nice on paper and sometimes theory it does not work well in partial realty.

You make servel total separation,while this separation is in your brain not reality.
If I torrent something I don't buy anything,not necessary true!you can buy decent amount of content and pirate decent amount of content.
If there is a great game I buy it.if I see it as an investment to more awesome games.
If I create something,I don't pirate,also not necessary true.

Consuming culture is important,you need to consume culture in order to create something with quality.Pirating benefit creators also,if you downloaded a tool and that made you start being a creator,some animators start by pirating animation tools which in end they will cause them to buy animation softwares.
This is not zero sum game like normal stealing,pirating can make your product known and make you more customers.

If everyone would follow the law blindly,unrich people will be less cultural,I don't think only rich people deserve decent amount of culture.
As a kid you can't buy many games.
Less true in the present but there is problem of consuming content from other countries,there is not anime channel or something like that in my country.
Also trying to buy newly released games in a local store is a pain,not to mention the overprice.