Aardvark

[Bruce Simpson]

This column is archived at: http://aardvark.co.nz/daily/2010/0319.shtml

The ridiculous claims of the studios seems to go from crazy to insane.

Now they're trying to switch from the name "pirate" to "thief" because they believe that pirates have a certain romance associated with them that may endear them to the general public.

They also claim that the reduction in sales volume is totally attributable to piracy -- yet most of the people I've spoken with would attribute it more to a fall in the quality of their offerings.

And when they can set unrealistic projections for sales figures and simply attribute the shortfall to piracy, how can we trust any of the figures they throw around.

How long before the industry (as we currently know it) collapses under the weight of its own stupidity, laziness and greed?

[virtualkiwi]

Actually I tend to agree - stop calling piracy 'piracy' and call it theft as it is, and make the punishment appropriate for the crime.
That would put an end to multimillion dollar fines unless content owners could prove beyond reasonable doubt the number of copies stolen added up to that value.
If a fine for misappropriating someone's intellectual property were treated the same way as shoplifting, most offenders would probably get a fine of maybe a few hundred dollars, low enough that they could actually pay it, but high enough that it would make more sense to buy the material in the first place.

[Bruce Simpson]

The term piracy is inappropriately applied.

A pirate is someone who makes their living by stealing the property of others -- which is certainly *not* what the vast majority of "illegal downloaders" do. They download material for their own personal use and those who upload, seldom do so for money or profit.

Therefore, they are *not* pirates, even if they are copyright infringers.

However, the term "thief" isn't a good one either -- since they don't actually steal anything.

If you illegally download a track from a server somewhere -- does that file disappear from the server? No it doesn't.

If someone rips a CD and puts it up on the Net, does the copyright owner lose possession of the intellectual property or lose the ability to make *any* money from its sale? No they don't.

Therefore, the correct term for those who swap music illegally (by what ever means) should be "copyright infringer".

[ringbark]

When I was a lad (and dinosaurs roamed the earth) I bought a *lot* of music with my limited disposable income.
I could also have spent it on beer or cigarettes or magazines. Some of it did go on magazines (no, not that sort).

I now have teenagers of my own. They have the same options but also:
- computer games
- other software
- lottery tickets
- fast food
- cellphone credit (calls, texts, ringtones)

Now, they can't stretch the money to all of these, so they choose. Some music, yes, but compared with me at the same age, less - because they have all these other cool things to buy instead.
You can't compare music sales then and now, because they have more choice where to spend.

Like I remember a Lotto spokesman saying: his competitor isn't the gee-gees or the pokies - it's a Big Mac or a magazine - discretionary spending around $5.

[Simon]

Even REAL pirates don't cop the same punishments as the entertainment industries want copyright infringers to.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/piracy

"If the pirates aren't detained for prosecution — and most are not — they are disarmed and put back out to sea on one craft. Harbour said that while the aggressive tactics are not a long-term solution, they force pirates to find new vessels and weapons before they can launch more attacks."

Apparently that's an aggressive tactic. What ever happened to blowing them out of their pantaloons?

It's only a matter of time before the old fashioned, greedy media types die off and people of the younger generations, where digital copying is the norm, take over. The unfortunate thing is what laws will we be left with and be unable to get rid of that the dinosaurs have bought?

[barryl]

Agreed,

Their claims are mind-bogglingly absurd and shows how out of touch they really are. For me they are about as advanced as the folk who manufactured chains and shackles for slaves and then bitched about the American Civil War stuffing up their business.

We MUST all adopt the skeptical approach. ---- "Nice story now PROVE it"

The more irritating aspect is that neither Sony (who have a nice little quid each way by flogging music as well as the hardware to copy/pirate/thieve music on) or the RIANZ will answer emails on how they justify this "magical maths" In fact, they get downright huffy when aggressively challenged, Oh, BTW, asking nicely does not work either.

However I see at their website http://rianz.org.nz/rianz/rianz_contactus.asp they also have a nice 0800 number. 0800 88 77 69.

It behooves us all to call them repeatedly and demand answers to their "magical maths" If even 1/10 of NZ did that, they would have a problem.

[Sophocles]

[Who?]

Is this not similar to the introduction of photo-copiers?

I don't have any numbers or facts but I would guess that the price of printed media today as a percentage of income is significantly less that what it was prior to the photocopier. Are there are numbers to back up my claim?

[Gokiwi]

When the ratbags from the recording industry misuse data that goes towards politicians, then one wonders if this might not be the same as perjury - i.e. parliament (in the Westminster model) is the highest court in the land and to willfully mislead a court by developing results based on the ratio of 1:1 (clearly rubbish) is a perjury.
Won't happen i guess but given that the fans & the artists all hate the record companies - they are going to get theirs one day very soon.

[edwin]

[Bruce Simpson]

[Gokiwi]

i have to agree with edwin.
the work involved in copying a CD is minimal. wheras a photocopy of a book or copying a CD onto tape was a lot of effort. Also the difference (for most people, listening to most devices) is minimal between MP3 and say a WMV.
Also re the cover art:
a) the menu is not the meal and
b) most programs like nero will offer you images of the cover art so you can get them at the same time if you realy do think the menu is the meal

[Gokiwi]

One other thing about MP3 Bruce.

If you realy want the same quality music then there are ways round it when copying from a CD-
a) download a FLAC (free losless audio codec)
b) www.exactaudiocopy.de
c) www.accuraterip.com

The above c/o PC World April 2009

[zkarj]

[Gokiwi]

[quote]t was a bit of work researching and setting up, but the results were great and pretty quick. These days I'm on a Mac and I just make do with iTunes' ripping.[/quote]

Was that with www.rockbox.org ? - said to be good, though i have not used