Seven Crimes With Smaller Fines Than Pirating

Film is subjective. Common sense is not. Pirating is stealing. Flat out. Plain and simple. Any justification drivel about it is just pathetic. HOWEVER…

What is even more pathetic is how studios have treated their customers like dirt and pursued them like war criminals. Don’t bloody tell me I can’t back up a DVD I bought and paid for. Or suing little Billy’s family into ruin because Billy downloaded “Dude Where’s My Car”.

To put this into perspective… take Jammie Thomas for example. She didn’t download a movie, but she did download a whopping 24 songs. So about 2 CD’s worth. She got hit with a $2 million dollar fine. TWO MILLION DOLLARS.

Perhaps instead of downloading music or a movie… you should murder someone… because the fine is cheaper. Check this out:

1. Child abduction: the fine is only like $25000.

2. Stealing the actual CD: the fine is $2,500

3. Rob your neighbor: the fine is $375,000

4. Burn a house down: The fine is just over $375,000

5. Stalk someone: The fine is $175,000

6. Start a dogfighting ring: the fine is $50,000

7. Murder someone: The maximum penalty is only $25,000 and 15 years in jail, and depending on your yearly salary, would probably be far slighter a penalty that $2 million.

So somehow the RIAA and MPAA have bought enough government reps that your punishment for wronging them is by far more severe than taking a chid. Yikes!

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Robbie

The main point of everyones wrongness is that it is not stealing. it is copyright infringement. its the same as copying a book and handing it out o a class, not eery kid paid for the book and normally they would have, so the company loses money.

stealing is more of a term where you take something that is not yours and the person loses it. copyright is when the person has it but you copy it, and they want compensation for their hard work.
efe potoy

@ Jeremy K.

i must have said stealing requires deprivation. thanks for the correction.

and still, sharing doesn’t cause deprivation. you say “you are depriving somebody of something, the money they are deserved for that copyrighted material they own.” you assume that people would definitely pay for that material if it wasn’t shared. well, assuming is half-way to a mistake. and who can say, for sure, the copyrighted material is worth the money asked?

if there is a crime there must be a victim and nobody can prove that there is a victim because of sharing. if you have proof, enlighten me.

if there is something people like out there they support it, according to their ability (if they choose to) if nobody supports it, it fades. nothing should be taken for granted including the money paid for a movie ticket. it must be illegal to charge beforehand for a mystery box.

PS: great set of info sources there for the definition on stealing(theft). i wonder what proudhon had to say about theft.
Avi

John -

The idea behind the “piracy” (an incorrect use of the term to begin with…) penalties for illegal downloads is based on a theory of compounded damages that works something like this: 1) We lose a metric s-load of money on illegal downloads, 2) It is only economically feasible to pursue and prosecute a VERY small percentage of those that download illegally 3) Since we can never afford to catch and prosecute everyone, then we will only go after the most blatant and easiest to catch 4) Once we have them, we can make them pay restitution for the damage they cause, and, while we’re at it, we’ll make them pay for the damage caused by all the other illegal downloaders that we haven’t or won’t bother putting out the cash to track down and prosecute; after all, this guilty downloader obviously used and benefited from the services of all the other guilty downloaders and is therefore liable by association.

The legal logic all makes sense up until step 4; you cannot hit someone with compound damages based upon association with another actually liable party. Its cuckoo, but the EntLaw legal lobbyists have somehow convinced someone to buy it.
Joe

Hm…. why not just spend the 20$ for the movie than spend 2,000,000 and possible jailtime?
Brendan

Piracy is stealing, there is no arguing that. However there have been many times in the past where it necessary to do something ILLEGAL to inspire social change.

If anyone here thinks that digitally viewable media (iTunes, Hulu, etc.) would not be where they are today if not for piracy they are simply retarded. All of these digital services are available as a RESPONSE to piracy and if not for piracy we would probably be waiting another century for the industry to catch up.

The fact is piracy is more a form of civil disobedience than anything else.

Personally I have pirated stuff, I won’t be shy about it either because services that were made available to others were not made available to me. iTunes is only now offering TV Shows to Canadians, so in the past couple of years I have gotten TV shows and movies by other means. Now that they offer these services, however, I am indeed paying for them.

The fact is nothing would have changed if piracy wasn’t so strong. Piracy was the call from consumers for media providers to get their act together- and some of them have. That is all.
Karma

If downloading a movie is ilegal, then downloading a song or even a bloody picture also is, so… who can tell me that has never ever downloaded a single tiny little pic? Why is there any difference between downloading a whole movie and an image? In both cases you are “taking” something without having paid at. If you buy a movie and show it to your friends, are you breaking the law? They didn’t pay for it.

Of course I know piracy will eventually doom entertainment industry, I don’t like it (I don’t actually dislike it either), but there is nothing you can do about it.

And I say this because I reckon you would have to consider other cases than the US. If you’d just walk two blocks in any place in south america you’d see what I mean. They sell it on the street, more than that, they display copies on the street… on main streets by the way. Sellers just lay their copies on the sidewalk, so you can approach and check them. The main problem ain’t them, they are like small dealers to teenagers. The thing is that people is idiotic, they don’t care about movies, they don’t mind if the copy has a shitty quality or (even worst) if it is dubbed, they just want to watch it as soon as possible and spending the lesser amount of money on it.

It is said that the internet is the most democratic media. You can’t control internet users all over the world. If what they do is wrong (or at least you think it is wrong) don’t attack them (certainly don’t call them “pathetic”), because they won’t listen what you have to say. (By the way I don’t think you are right, law is not clear at all when it comes to multimedia copyright issues, but…)

“I wouldn’t steal a car, but I would certainly download one from the internet”
efe potoy

piracy piracy piracy. it’s not piracy. it’s not stealing. stealing means to deprive someone of something.

it’s sharing. when you share music, movies you don’t deprive nobody of them. on the contrary you make someone have ’em too.

you wanna make money from movies? show them in a theater and charge for tickets. what a revolutionary idea, right? if the theater is up to par people will want to experience the movie there. you wanna sell the copies? do so. if people think your product is worth a second round, or maybe they like the extra features, they will buy, kching! you made money.

and that’s what is happening now too. and the profits are going up too. ( hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3ic5575a8c4f61aadd68a0d344f476d5da )

can anyone argue, with facts and studies, that’s “in spite of” sharing. maybe it’s “with the help of” sharing. can anyone know for sure, and can back it up? speak up.

if you have no proof that sharing hurts the business, and still b!tching about it then YOU are PATHETIC.

you wanna make money from music.

you are talented? play on the street, people will donate if they like the music, or play at a bar-pub-cafe-etc, if you can make the manager believe you are good enough. and if the crowd too hugs you, you are almost famous my man.

you are not only talented but creative too? go to the studio, record something, put it on the net, if people like it, there you have a crowd, give concerts. kching!

you are a record company? go f**k yourselves. no one needs you anymore you leeches.

now another issue. some days ago there was an article on a blog (maybe this one) about the ticket prices. i watched wolverine recently and it sucked for me. what will happen to my 10$ and the 2 hours of my life. i want my money and my time back. is that too much to ask? i mean, at first glance it looks crazy but if you think about it, they sell you a hype with no money back guaranties. when i buy a set of knives from telemarketing i can return them their scrap metal for full money back, no questions asked, but when you buy a ticket the story is different.

and i ask again what about the 2 hours of my life. is this not a crime? when a government wrongfully prisons someone, the victim is paid a compensation. what about me? i’m not kidding.

last words: just because you made a movie and i watched the movie, it doesn’t automatically make me owe you something. it might even make you owe me something.
- http://www.thestub.ca Rodney
  
  And despite how long winded and ignorant this whole comment is, all he did was prove that you can babble empty justifications all you want but that still doesn’t change the FACTS.
  
  Piracy is illegal. You have done nothing to disprove that. All you did is describe why you feel justified in your crimes.
  
  Tell it to the judge and see how that goes.
  - efe potoy
    
    what are those “FACTS”? since i’m so ignorant enlighten me.
    
    “Piracy(i prefer sharing) is illegal.” what a discovery! i’m not arguing it’s not. i’m saying it’s wrong that it’s illegal. see my previous posts about law.
    
    and i don’t remember admitting to any crime or promoting it.
    
    PS: sharing is not illegal throughout the world but you think that u.s.a. is the world. so narrow minded.
  - Jeremy K.
    
    “stealing means to deprive someone of something.”
    
    American Heritage Dictionary - Steal
    “To take (the property of another) without right or permission.”
    
    Merriam-Webster Dictionary - Steal
    “to take the property of another wrongfully and especially as a habitual or regular practice”
    
    Dictionary.com - Steal
    “to take (the property of another or others) without permission or right, esp. secretly or by force: A pickpocket stole his watch.”
    
    The list goes on, but I think you get the point. Your definition is not a definition, it’s merely an often outcome. Whether music, movies, software or whatever, if it is copyrighted then it is owned. If that owned property is distributed in a means not authorized by the owner/s of that copyright, then those that get it are stealing it plain and simple as going by the definition of the word “steal”. And honestly, you are depriving somebody of something, the money they are deserved for that copyrighted material they own.
RansomBetty

Way to go hypocrite Campea! He claims he has a legal right to burn a copy of a movie he bought? Yet it is illegal to circumvent the copy protection on the DVD. So if John is making a “backup” of a movie he is using software that removes said copy protection. He is committing piracy!
- http://www.judymoodymovie.com John
  
  Oh RansomBetty, your ignorance really is entertaining.
  
  I would suggest you look some laws up before making a fool of yourself.
  
  In Canada, it is LEGAL to make an archive back up of your legally purchased and owned DVDs.
  
  I own nothing that I did not pay for. So explain to me how this is piracy?
  
  And even if I did it in the US… yes, that would be violating a law there… but it’s still not Piracy.
  
  Wow… you really are dumb aren’t you?
  - RansomBetty
    
    I am simply making a point John. If you make a “backup” of a DVD regardless of if you bought it or not you are breaking the law. It is piracy once you make that “backup” regardless of how you intend to use it.
    
    pi·ra·cy : the unauthorized use of another’s production, invention, or conception especially in infringement of a copyright.
    
    The movie studios do NOT authorize you to make “backups” of DVDs. If they intended that DVD Copy X Software wouldn’t have been sued into oblivion by movie studios. Studios make no profit from your “backups” and therefore would go after you in the same way they attack people who they catch downloading over the internet. The problem with you is that you make blanket statements about what piracy is without even realizing that you are breaking the law yourself. So by your logic it is ok to take an extra ice cream bar as long as you’ve paid for the first one?

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