SOPA/PIPA and piracy
Jan. 19th, 2012 07:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
etheratiI just need to say something here, because so much of what's on my dash over on Tumblr(not so much over here, but what the hell) is making me feel vaguely ill.
First, of course SOPA and PIPA are horrific piles of shit. They are the worst example I've seen of laws governing the internet being made by people who do not understand it; they are egregious and if they were to pass, we would all be completely screwed. (They won't, because Obama's already promised to veto them and they don't have enough support to overrule, but I digress.)
That said, guys? Piracy is still an actual fucking problem. Everyone saying 'oh but if it weren't for piracy I wouldn't have legally bought z y and z'? Yeah, that sounds familiar-- those are the justifications I used ten years ago, when I was young and ignorant and trying to excuse running napster when the real reason was that I didn't want to spend the money, or be bothered bumming a ride to best buy, etc.
The music industry is a piece of shit. The RIAA is a piece of shit. No love lost there. But was I buying music from good acts to encourage the industry to give us something worth buying, or protesting the legislation that gave the RIAA blanket power to do things like suing twelve year olds? No, I was sitting there gleefully downloading from napster, then audiogalaxy, then kazaa, on and on, not realizing that I was being part of the problem, not part of the solution.
Bottom line: You do not get to decide something someone has created is YOURS NOW without paying for it, unless said creator has explicitly allowed it. IP is worth something. People's creative effort is worth something. There is no justification for piracy that isn't actually just an excuse.
Do I sometimes do it anyway? Of course. But I don't pretend it's okay, I don't make excuses. I'm impatient to see something that won't air in the US for months, or I'm just too lazy to go to the store, still. I'm not being revolutionary. I'm just stealing.
SOPA/PIPA are horrible, and they are the worst imaginable way to try to 'do something' about piracy. But that does not mean that the pirates are the heroes, here. :\
First, of course SOPA and PIPA are horrific piles of shit. They are the worst example I've seen of laws governing the internet being made by people who do not understand it; they are egregious and if they were to pass, we would all be completely screwed. (They won't, because Obama's already promised to veto them and they don't have enough support to overrule, but I digress.)
That said, guys? Piracy is still an actual fucking problem. Everyone saying 'oh but if it weren't for piracy I wouldn't have legally bought z y and z'? Yeah, that sounds familiar-- those are the justifications I used ten years ago, when I was young and ignorant and trying to excuse running napster when the real reason was that I didn't want to spend the money, or be bothered bumming a ride to best buy, etc.
The music industry is a piece of shit. The RIAA is a piece of shit. No love lost there. But was I buying music from good acts to encourage the industry to give us something worth buying, or protesting the legislation that gave the RIAA blanket power to do things like suing twelve year olds? No, I was sitting there gleefully downloading from napster, then audiogalaxy, then kazaa, on and on, not realizing that I was being part of the problem, not part of the solution.
Bottom line: You do not get to decide something someone has created is YOURS NOW without paying for it, unless said creator has explicitly allowed it. IP is worth something. People's creative effort is worth something. There is no justification for piracy that isn't actually just an excuse.
Do I sometimes do it anyway? Of course. But I don't pretend it's okay, I don't make excuses. I'm impatient to see something that won't air in the US for months, or I'm just too lazy to go to the store, still. I'm not being revolutionary. I'm just stealing.
SOPA/PIPA are horrible, and they are the worst imaginable way to try to 'do something' about piracy. But that does not mean that the pirates are the heroes, here. :\
