Apple and a Return to the Piracy Issue

The root of the piracy problem is the outdated capitalist system that the companies use.

I've quoted Gabe Newell from Valve before about piracy being a service issue not a pricing issue.

Now, I'm no fan of Apple for reasons I'll get into some other time and I'm no fan of Steve Jobs, living or dead. But I will recognize Apple for its great advancements in the way music is sold through iTunes. You can buy musics for $0.99, TV shows for $1.99 and movies for $12.99. From 2003 to 2006 iTunes Store sold over 1.5 BILLION music files. Clearly, people are willing to pay for stuff they could easily illegally download. The problem is not the people but the industry. They dont want to make changes that will threaten their profits so they hide behind current broken copyright laws.

Short post today. Just got back from serving as an Officer of Elections for the Republican primary here. 17 hours of continuous duty.

EX mode Boss Monster: MPAA

So it seems like we get to see the true form of this beast. After the KO we gave those bills last week, one of the masterminds behind the scenes, MPAA, came out with this gem:

"Those who count on quote 'Hollywood' for support need to understand that this industry is watching very carefully who's going to stand up for them when their job is at stake. Don't ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don't pay any attention to me when my job is at stake."

These words spoken by Chris Dodd, MPAA spokesman. It's been an open secret that big business lobbies for buys legislation but its always been more or less "under the table". Apparently, there's no need for that kind of cloak-and-dagger stuff now, MPAA just threatened the politicians directly.

Voter apathy has plagued the U.S. since I before I was born but I hope the action all of us netizens have been galvanized into will translate into poll participation when the time comes.

Already Bad with DMCA, Straight Fucked With SOPA/PIPA

Megaupload got black-bagged on Thursday. This is what will happen all the time under SOPA/PIPA. We're not on the slippery slope anymore, guys. We're going over the edge, make no mistake about that.

On the plus side, both bills got shelved because of our show of opposition! The People ain't so retarded after all, eh?

Still, the problem hasn't disappeared. We've only won a battle, not the war. Those big companies are still circling and they still have DMCA. The link will take you to more information. It's a good article.

Piracy is crime, no doubt about that. Criminals do what they do. But guess what? Censorship isn't the right way to fight it. Let's look at this fact: A lot of people pirate music. Yeah, you know who we you are. And, yes, people used sites like Megaupload to do it. But guess what happens now that you've taken that site down? Music pirates everywhere cry out and reluctantly buy stuff?

Naw, man. They go somewhere else. Hear this, record companies: It's easy to download music. Let me say that again. It's easy to download music. Oh, did you notice the word I left out? I didn't say "illegally". Betcha didn't notice that the first time, didja? But have you heard of iTunes? Do you know how much money iTunes pulls in? Oh, hey look at that. Millions of dollars that people didn't have to spend but did anyway. How do you explain that? People are WILLING to pay money for products they want. Revolutionary and shocking, I know. Don't tell me they didn't know how to download mp3s either, man. That's weak.

Change always threatens part of the Establishment. It's a fact of reality. Get with the digital times or you'll go the way of Kodak, you guys.

SOPA/PIPA

I considered doing one of the "go dark" things but I think my little blog here would better serve the cause with some information.



Here are some good links for more. Since you're here visiting my blog I'm going to make the assumption that, unlike most Americans, you read things you don't have to and might even like reading things.

http://www.fark.com/2012/sopapipa/
http://blog.reddit.com/2012/01/technical-examination-of-sopa-and.html
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R41911.pdf

If you don't live in the U.S. just know this: if you frequent sites with domain names of .com or .org your virtual "neighborhood" falls within our grasp.

I don't know about you but I look across my Bookmarks toolbar and I see this.

http://chadrocco.deviantart.com/art/SOPA-PIPA-Executive-E-Motions-280090484

The big companies backing SOPA/PIPA didn't want "their" money going to the artists then and they aren't concerned about any money going or not going to artists now.

You know what? I don't think anyone really believes the propaganda these big organizations are putting out. Really, they just want you to do nothing. They win that way, too.

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Over the past few days I've become more and more cognizant of the fact that things weren't simpler when I was a kid, I was just ignorant and blind. That's not self-deprecation, by the way. Honestly, I believe that at that age it isn't good to have all kinds of heavy issues laid on an undeveloped mind. A part of growing up is discovering that reality isn't so simple after all. Yeah, now that I'm on this side of 20 I can see that a lot of these "adults" never grew up when they were supposed to.