I have a few questions on piracy... I am playing the devil's advocate here as I typically do, and my opinions may not reflect the suggestive nature of the questions.
Here are some scenarios:
Members of most websites are typically entitled to download the images or movies to their hard drive for their future enjoyment. So is it still piracy if someone later downloads the same photos or videos off of some pirate site since they were previously entitled to do so because they were a member of that site. I could see this going either way. If they simply didn't have time to download that content before but they really liked it, maybe they should get another subscription so they can grab it.
Is it not piracy for the producers of content, be they musicians, web masters, or Hollywood big screen producers to make shit content and market it as something else? For example, I was at Hollywood video looking through the "new releases". As you all know, they stock heavily on various new releases that are big name movies that will draw many rentals. Well this movie called "War of the Worlds" was on the shelf and they bought like 20 copies of it to rent out. This wasn't the Tom Cruise version, it was some crappy B movie version I could barely stand to watch 15 minutes of. That is piracy too, just a legal kind. Buyer beware right?
What about competing web sites that advertise updates and then don't do any updates? I have read a lot of reviews of sites where updates just don't happen. I also know that in some shemale and straight adult sites, the webmasters, knowing that many people stay no more than 90 days, continually rotate the same content over and over making it appear that updates are happening when in fact they are just giving people the same stuff. I read about some of this on gofuckyourself (GFY.com) and found out a bit more talking to some webmasters of the pump them and dump them web sites based upon just traffic and not member retention.
I think there are two sides to everything. Obviously there are people who rip us off as webmasters, but there are also webmasters who rip off the public. We could get into the dramatic airbrushing of models on boxcovers so much that they don't even look like the same person, but that is more acceptable and standard in any segment of the entertainment industry.
I also have bought more copies of Master of Puppets than I care to admit. Two were cassettes damaged through wear and tear from being in the car, another was a CD stolen out of a car, another in a box lost during a move... Now wouldn't I be entitled to downloading those same songs for free since I already paid for them 4 or 5 times? I personally think so. Could I prove that I owned them, no. Also, how many times have people bought a CD and found that two songs on the record were good. Buy either of Ricky Martin's CD's and you will know what I mean. When musicians put out such crap as filler because they have a hit single, they own part of the pirating problem.
I think the majority of consumers know good product when they see/hear it and are more likely to not rip off people who make the better product. For example I own a DVD box set of Raiders of the Lost Ark series, Star Trek series, and Lord of the Rings series and many more. Alternatively, I'd be more likely to rent and rip a copy of UltraViolet. How do people feel about having to buy Star Wars episodes 4-6 on VHS, VHS with enhanced sound, VHS with revised footage, on DVD, on digitally remastered DVD, on HD DVD, etc... Is that fair to the consumer? Maybe, maybe not.
Personally, I think the best of both worlds is lifetime licenses documented on somebody's server somewhere. I think Itunes probably does this. I believe Napster now does this. No lost or stolen CD's or DVD's. You buy it, you own it. They need to keep the prices reasonable as well. The media companies are more likely to realize they now have a monopoly and then raise prices to $30 a copy. A downside is I am not sure that someone wants ButtBanging Shemale Sex Sluts on their owned movie history for the rest of their lives. I have no idea how to do this with website content and I don't think it fits into the same mold.
I'm also pissed off because when I was first starting out I bought several hundred dollars of content from a company and they closed shop after the big 2257 scare. I had to remove all of that legal, licensed content from my server. That was annoying. A personal thank you to the content producers out of Florida who did that.
Lastly, I don't think it is ever ethical to burn or rip copies of someone's product and then resell them. That is just completely wrong.
