Who's to be Blamed for Piracy?

Perhaps some people aren't sure what the latest poll (The Pirate Bay verdict...) is about :)

Screen of the poll

Based on the BBC link here, a Swedish court have sentenced the 4 founders of Pirate Bay, a popular file-sharing site, to a year in jail for breaking copyright law
Now the question of the poll is the verdict fair? Who's to be blamed for piracy? What should be the right course of action to battle piracy?
Almost everyone has done their share of illegal download of movies, songs, games etc. Here are some general responses & my opinion(s) on them:

The producers, actors/actresses/singers & related parties make MILLIONS of dollars from legal sales...downloading for free wouldn't hurt much...
Hm...So? According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), 95% of music downloaded online is ILLEGAL. When you consider that online sales account for 20% of music sales, that's a lot. Revenue shrank by 7% last year.

We're not even talking about struggling artists, newbies & artists from genres other than mainstream. What about their business? Where is the protection for this group of artists?

The Pirate Bay founders shouldn't be punished: they merely provided the site, we should be hunting the people who upload the files, in the very least...
The site is an avenue for these pirates to "share their goods", removing the site will cut off their access to the world. Is the verdict harsh? I think NO. If anything, this will show other pirates out there that piracy is a serious misconduct & that they will be punished. With sterner action, we can crackdown on piracy & protect the copyright of the products.

Then what about us downloaders who just want to have it cheap?
I'm not a regular buyer of software, mp3, movies, etc hence my opinion may not be valid. Since I do feel that sometimes that CD is too expensive or the DVD isn't worth it, it may do the companies good to reduce the price of their products. Currently big music labels are cooperating with Google to provide free downloads of songs & share ad revenue with the search engine company.

So what?
In the end, it's really gonna take a collaboration between the producers & the customers to reach an understanding. Piracy is a breach of ethics & this is something we shouldn't support. It'll be hard but if we don't start it, who will? :)

Comments

Goose said…
Yea it seems with the freedom of the internet stoping things like piracy will be up to consumers aswell as authorities.

But at the same time there needs to be preventative measures about, otherwise people wil ALWAYS do the cheap and easy thing.

Im likeing the many updates :p! Keep it up rowie pweaaase!
April 21, 2009 at 2:06 AM
Rowan said…
Haha add boredom & horrible weather = unable to study = new updates haha...It's a double-edged sword, me thinks.
April 21, 2009 at 2:08 AM
CDanvers said…
shame on those who took these torrent service providers to task. haven't these so called virtuosos, the apparent anti-piracy upholders benefited enough by selling their products at a rip-off price? we'll talk once the price is slashed considerably.

and it's REALLY hard to argue whether P2P sharing over the internet is illegal or not. since the digital music industry stretches far beyond what is fathomable, it's difficult to really tell. unless there's no such technology where we can turn songs or video clips into digital forms.

for a better understanding of the whole issue, go to http://www.sslug.dk/~chlor/lessig/freeculture/piracy.html#piracy-ii
May 4, 2009 at 12:39 AM
Rowan said…
See that's why I think the prices for such products are ridiculously high. I think these people should be gracious to share their gift (acting, singing etc) & slash the prices to make it more reasonable.
May 4, 2009 at 1:26 PM
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