Protect IP Bill (E-Parasite)...is our Government getting more & more stupid?

[Rai Ryuzaki]

Don't be naive. This isn't some dystopian government plot to control the minds of the sheeple, it's simple business and asset protection of the variety that's been around since people were trading in animal skins. The only thing these companies want total control of is their products, which they're losing when these products are released freely to venues as expansive and impossible to regulate as the internet and stolen by entertainment freeloaders.

Pirates often rationalize and mitigate the true impact of their actions with the excuse that entertainment companies are in possession of often astronomical sums of money and that their business isn't as affected by piracy as they like to claim. But we're talking cumulative annual losses of hundreds of millions of dollars caused by the uploading of movies, music and other media onto the web, which is proportionally monumental to these companies. And while one user illegally obtaining one file here and there won't be the downfall of Miramax or Interscope, what pirates are often deliberately oblivious to is the fact that they're just one more thief among legions of others, and that the parasitism of this collective is where the real damage is dealt.

If we continue to justify our (illegal) actions to ourselves and pretend that it's only fair and that we're entitled to all the free entertainment we want, what's eventually going to happen is that these companies are going to scale back on production, due either to lack of funds or as a punitive measure to combat theft, and we're ultimately going to be deprived of things that might otherwise have been made for our enjoyment. In other words, the worse piracy gets, the less available and lower-quality entertainment will become.

Bills like CISPA aren't being written because corporations are tyrannical and want to hoarde more and more properties for themselves. They're not trying to subvert or exploit consumers, in most cases; the consumer is where their profits come from. These bills are being formulated because of our own greed and entitlement. What is essentially taking place is no different from shoplifting or holding up a bank and then complaining that it's unconstitutional to be arrested for it. It's the next step that companies are willing to take to defend their rightful property and it's going to continue escalating until either we acknowledge that piracy is an illicit activity and a rampant problem and take steps to reduce it to a sustainable level, or we strangle more and more of our own rights away from ourselves by not complying with this country's laws.

You're wrong

 

[Bolt]

Haha, am I? Care to elaborate, or are you content with proving my point for me?

 

[Rai Ryuzaki]

You wanna go? Let's go

In your argument you make this sound like it's only going to affect pirates it's bigger then that. This is a very broad bill and this will actually end up hurting their business. You have no idea as to what these companies will view as pirated. This is alot of power and it will be abused. You make it sound like people who get pirated material don't buy things legally. It takes months for a decent DVD or BR rip to come out plenty of time for millions of people to give them money for their product. We know we're not entitled to free entertainment. You talk about corporations losing money, people pay money to see movies that turn out to be crap and they don't get their money. These companies make millions and millions of dollars, they have money to lobby politicians and run their businesses. I can gaurntee you that a hell of a lot more people pay for these products than pirate them. This bill is a double edged sword. People who pirate are often motivated to go and pay money, at least I am. Just because someone pirates doesn't mean they do it every single time. In your argument you admited to pirating material so aren't you being a bit hypocritical. You compare this to robbing a bank and that's just stupid. Anything I view is something I wouldn't have paid money to view or I simply couldn't view it at all. So it makes no diffrence.

I'm done arguing and will not respond to your posts.

 

[Bolt]

lI'm done arguing and will not respond to your posts.

I could go through a dissect that post line by line, but this last remark pretty much tells me everything I need to know. Your last post was almost pure conjecture with no basis in actuality and you demonstrate a nigh nonexistent knowledge of business practices and domain laws. If you're not willing to participate in constructive discussion then I have no further need to wave points in your face that you're not going to acknowledge anyway.

Suffice it to say that your contentions are one-sided and fail to consider the issue any further than from the perspective of an occasional pirate who is outraged by laws that stringently act to curtail piracy. The bottom line is that pirating entertainment is against the law, and no matter how minor a violation you think it is, you're not the one having your commodities stolen and are therefore not qualified to lay claim to what is and isn't fair. You're also only looking at this nebulous, nefarious entity you've created for yourself, "the corrupt megacorporation," and not all of the different players that stand to be affected by piracy. Corporate CEOs do not produce entertainment singlehandedly. It's safe to say that if you were a filmmaker, musician, artist or other creator having your stuff ripped off you would think differently about the issue.

There is no hypocrisy in my statements. I never claimed that I've never been guilty of piracy myself. The difference is that I understand how and why bills like CISPA originate, and I'm not challenging the rights of businesses and legislators to put them forward. Advocates of internet piracy want to filibuster about how their rights are being stepped on, the whole time remaining in ignorance of or flat out disregarding the rights of creators, advertisers, producers and business owners to make a fair living off of their products.

That being said, I don't think invasive internet monitoring and intervention laws are an acceptable solution. I foresee a lot of complications arising from their inevitable implementation and ultimately it will probably cause as many problems in the form of reactionary counter-measures and knee-jerk spite as it may solve. But I think people who see no merit or validity in these bills or want to portray their formulators as simply rapacious expansionists who will do anything to feed off a defenseless public are not only being selfish and delusional but willfully ignorant, which is something I can't tolerate.

 

[Loghorn]

*Reads all of Bolt's statements, slaps forehead & sighs*

@Bolt:

I suggest reading this post here.

Link.

You wanna go? Let's go

In your argument you make this sound like it's only going to affect pirates it's bigger then that. This is a very broad bill and this will actually end up hurting their business. You have no idea as to what these companies will view as pirated. This is alot of power and it will be abused. You make it sound like people who get pirated material don't buy things legally. It takes months for a decent DVD or BR rip to come out plenty of time for millions of people to give them money for their product. We know we're not entitled to free entertainment. You talk about corporations losing money, people pay money to see movies that turn out to be crap and they don't get their money. These companies make millions and millions of dollars, they have money to lobby politicians and run their businesses. I can guarantee you that a hell of a lot more people pay for these products than pirate them. This bill is a double edged sword. People who pirate are often motivated to go and pay money, at least I am. Just because someone pirates doesn't mean they do it every single time. In your argument you admited to pirating material so aren't you being a bit hypocritical. You compare this to robbing a bank and that's just stupid. Anything I view is something I wouldn't have paid money to view or I simply couldn't view it at all. So it makes no difference.

Thank you. Anyone who honestly believes that this bill exists because of piracy are very clueless corporate drones.

 

[Bolt]

Thank you. Anyone who honestly believes that this bill exists because of piracy are very clueless corporate drones.

The problem here is that people like you would rather regurgitate any pseudo-factual tidbit they gather from others, no matter how speculative or unfounded as long as it suits their position, than consider a possibility that may be uncomfortable and unpalatable. Wise up. Just because I'm outnumbered and my assertions are unpopular doesn't mean I'm wrong. In fact, a lot of the time it's an indication of the exact opposite.

It's funny that you would accuse me of being a "corporate drone" when I'm just about as anti-establishment a bloke as you're likely to find. All I'm doing is acknowledging both sides of this debate, which is something that piracy proponents and enablers don't seem capable of. That sounds a bit like being a drone of another kind to me. I don't have a stake in this ludicrous war, I just have a brain that's fully-functioning most of the time.

Here's something to chew on:[HIDE]

[/HIDE]

 

[Loghorn]

*Sigh*

Poor Bolt. I don't think that he'll ever get it.

 

[Bolt]

You're wrong

*Reads all of Bolt's statements, slaps forehead & sighs*

*Sigh*

Poor Bolt. I don't think that he'll ever get it.

Do you realize that not only are comments like these a terrible way to have your viewpoint taken seriously but they also expose how little you truly know what you're trying to argue?

You're children in a grown up discussion. If you really don't know any better, then go play your pirated copy of Lego Star Wars and leave the debate to the people who know what they're talking about.

 

[Loghorn]

Do you realize that not only are comments like these a terrible way to have your viewpoint taken seriously but they also expose how little you truly know what you're trying to argue?

You're children in a grown up discussion. If you really don't know any better, then go play your pirated copy of Lego Star Wars and leave the debate to the people who know what they're talking about.

I do know what I'm talking about. I never pirate stuff, you know. But go ahead, keep believing that this bill exists because of piracy & keep turning your nose to the truth of why they're doing it.

There are like, 95% of us that don't think like you do.

 

[Bolt]

Good thing fact isn't a matter of consensus.