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1Hello guys, Thought I would add some of my opinions and thoughts to this debate about copyright infringement. First of; I have had my own pirate ship in the past and have sailed the seven seas with it for sure but I tend not to any more. My old galleon is in safe harbour and is never really used anymore. Some of my reasons for stopping originally were that 99% of what I downloaded, I never really even used or benefitted from. I did a lot of it just to download itself, the sense of self it gave me perhaps in the early days - It made me feel leet inside.
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3I like to think of physical objects and intangible services that are offered by people and companies throughout the world are no different than that of digital media. I believe that in the system we live within, it is perfectly right for people to ask for money for goods/services they deliver. It is how our entire economic system works is it not? People need a roof over their heads and all work in part to earn a living. Our entire existence is ruled by the need for money. Downloading and using content that was not freely given therefore to me at a very basic level is still stealing and theft, you are stealing a service or creation that was not freely given whether that exists as 01010111 or a physical object like a table. You are benefiting from something and the creators can receive nothing back in return – this is the case when people simply download to get something free.  If everyone were to do this which of course will probably never happen, the companies would clearly go bust. As many people still pay for content and do not pirate, and that many pirates still purchase things and due to some buying things once they have trialled them – these companies can still make money.
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5Stealing a physical thing from a person is far worse and is a different than piracy. Stealing a physical item from someone is personal and causes harm to that person directly in more ways than just the loss of that item. You often see people saying that when they download something, this is not a loss of sale as they perhaps would not have brought the item otherwise. I think this is accurate in part but also hard to know how many things would result in purchases if there was no way to pirate the item. I think people would perhaps even use credit cards to buy certain things if they had no choice – desire is indeed powerful. Of course though, the amount of lost sales from your collections may be lower. It would be very rare to be 50 downloaded items = 50 lost sales.
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7If the items are over charged or I don’t like them and would never buy them I feel justified downloading for free is also often raised as a belief here. In the physical realm – it would be almost unthinkable for pirates to steal clothes or TVs just because they cannot afford them. Why is it so easy to justify downloading digital items? The idea that the people who create them do not suffer as there is no lost sale in regard to poor people being unable to afford them may be true however the line on what means poor and how easy it would be to prefer not to buy x digital item as you feel poor compared to rich people but in reality you could afford some digital media. With the argument of why should I pay for something I don’t like or did not enjoy – you cannot really use this argument in the physical realm although it could be argued that a 30 day return policy could be used but with digital media – they would need to trust you do still not possess that digital item. Piracy v normal stealing is impersonal and mostly anonymous with no consequences usually to the downloader. It can result in no loss of sale sometimes for sure but is it still right to take something you may enjoy or benefit from without giving back anything?
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9If you cannot afford digital media, surly there is enough free content on the internet already? Hollywood movies are certainly not a need for a happy life. If you do not like the product then don’t buy it? The arguments for how fairly priced content are in my opinion another debate entirely. People also seem to talk about the cost of shipping media is so cheap, the digital costs are almost nil to deploy so why do we pay x amount. Are you forgetting that the cost of physical manufacturing is second to the cost it took to produce the content itself. What is a fair price is debatable for sure however.
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11The effect of piracy at its current levels etc. may not be terrible but the basic idea and premise of getting something for free which was not given if done by the majority would result in harm coming to so many people who produce that content in the forms of losing jobs or lack of innovation. We live in a world where you need to profit for the most part from creations. I would love to live in a world where people make things solely to benefit others, if you were to benefit from my product then I would be happy etc. We need the profit motive also though, I cannot feed my family without money.
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14James