Is Anti-Piracy Going too Far?
With all the recent news about the MPAA and CMPDA (the Canadian version) vs. The Pirate Bay and everyone else they are suing, we must wonder if anti-piracy is going too far. I am all for piracy. Feel free to download illegal music, movies, television shows, game, etc. (just do not hold me accountable; hint: use proxies).
Television is free anyways. I watch television online on nbc.com and hulu.com all the time. I do not mind the ads and would not mind it if the “pirates” included the ads on the shows record and upload to the internet. This would be great for all parties involved.
Movies are great. I watch them online, go to Blockbuster and get them, rent them on Netflix, and even spend the ridiculous amounts of money to go see movies (and the forced commercials–not trailers–don’t even let me get started on that either) in theaters if I heard good reviews. Nothing beats that huge screen.
Games. Well I do not really have time for games nowadays, but they are so expensive anyways. Yeah, those corporate whores keep saying that they increase prices to combat piracy, but then they will just continue to lose more business. How ironic. Don’t even get me started on games that make you pay monthly fees even after you have purchased the game.
Music, like movies, I own most (let’s say at least half) of what I have stored on my computer. I will admit that I downloaded the Juno soundtrack before buying it just to hear the songs. Afterward, I liked it so much I ordered it on Amazon’s mp3 service.
The moral of the story goes out to the piracy police and those they represent: Make a good product and it will be purchased. Stop trying to blame piracy for having a bad product. Your sales are going up!
[Photo courtesy of orangeek | Original post: June 3, 2008]