They are 'shutting' Pirate Bay. Good or Bad?

[pErvinalia]

I'm not denying it or excusing it (other than to point out the minimal nature of my participation in it). Well, I am excusing some of it (in the case of TV shows) under the reality that I am not depriving the owner anything given the show isn't even shown in Australia and there is no way I can legally pay to watch it.

Other than that, I don't care. I certainly don't care when a selfish libertarian tries to paint me as morally wrong. Physician, heal thyself!

Wow. That's a remarkable display of narcissistic self-interest and a complete lack of morals AND ethics.

Ironic coming from a libertarian.

Maybe the producers of the show don't WANT you to see it? Why is your desire to see it more important than their rights?

I haven't harmed them in any way at all. But we must defend capital at all costs, eh Seth?

And you are painting yourself as a morality-free cupidinous thief, not me. I'm merely pointing out the inherent hypocrisy in your self-rationalizations.

I don't care. And as I said, you are a selfish libertarian. Being lectured in morals from a libertarian is laughable.

I'll bet the street thug doesn't care that you want to keep your wallet, or your teeth. He probably thinks you're being "selfish."

Here's hoping one of them uses your own "reasoning" against you sometime soon.

I'm sure they'll try. Not surprisingly, no one has ever tried it yet.

[Seth]

I'm not denying it or excusing it (other than to point out the minimal nature of my participation in it). Well, I am excusing some of it (in the case of TV shows) under the reality that I am not depriving the owner anything given the show isn't even shown in Australia and there is no way I can legally pay to watch it.

Other than that, I don't care. I certainly don't care when a selfish libertarian tries to paint me as morally wrong. Physician, heal thyself!

Wow. That's a remarkable display of narcissistic self-interest and a complete lack of morals AND ethics.

Ironic coming from a libertarian.

Just because you know fuck-all about Libertarianism and think it's a selfish political philosophy doesn't mean it is, it just means you're ignorant...evidently willfully so.

Maybe the producers of the show don't WANT you to see it? Why is your desire to see it more important than their rights?

I haven't harmed them in any way at all. But we must defend capital at all costs, eh Seth?

You have stolen their property. That it's not for sale to you doesn't mean that you have any right to take it.

And you are painting yourself as a morality-free cupidinous thief, not me. I'm merely pointing out the inherent hypocrisy in your self-rationalizations.

I don't care. And as I said, you are a selfish libertarian. Being lectured in morals from a libertarian is laughable.

I know you don't care, and therein lies the whole point. It's because you are a useless proletarian dependent class drone who has never labored to create something with which to buy food, clothing and shelter for your family only to have it stolen and distributed by someone else free (or for their own profit), thus depriving you of what is rightfully yours.

"I don't care" is a very typical phrase heard from dependent-class fucks who just want what they want no matter who else they have to enslave to their greed.

[pErvinalia]

[Animavore]

There's plenty of artists who have embraced piracy. So not every artist thinks that it is stealing. Some understand well that piracy actually increases their sales in the long run by getting their material to a wider audience than they would usually. This one-sided view that "piracy is theft" and that's that doesn't hold water in the real world. It's also free advertising, promotion and spin-doctoring.

Two examples would be Game of Thrones, the piracy of which leads to way more DVD and Blu-ray box-sets than they would reasonably get through their paying viewership, and Radiohead who, realising they would get pirated anyway, sold one of their albums on their website where people had the choice to pay whatever they wanted for the album, including absolutely nothing. They sold more on that album than any of their previous.

They way to beating piracy is not to try "destroy with extreme prejudice", this is as a massive waste of resources and public spending as the ill-fated "war on drugs", it's to use it to your advantage.

What was that saying? "Adapt or die", or something like that.

[Clinton Huxley]

"Game of Thrones, the piracy of which leads to way more DVD and Blu-ray box-sets than they would reasonably get through their paying viewership"

How do you know? We've no way of knowing how much it would have sold if piracy wasn't possible....

I tend not to pirate things but that is mostly because I just can't be bothered and I'd never get round to watching/listening to the stuff anyway.

[Animavore]

"Game of Thrones, the piracy of which leads to way more DVD and Blu-ray box-sets than they would reasonably get through their paying viewership"

How do you know? We've no way of knowing how much it would have sold if piracy wasn't possible....

I tend not to pirate things but that is mostly because I just can't be bothered and I'd never get round to watching/listening to the stuff anyway.

We know because its viewership is almost doubled by piracy. This leads to real-world sales of box sets. People don't go and buy box sets of TV shows they've never seen.

EDIT: linkage http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/120289- ... compliment

[Clinton Huxley]

Who says its viewership is doubled by piracy? That sounds like a post-hoc justification to me.

I'm not making a judgement on this issue. Given that companies try to rip off their consumers every chance they get, it's all part of the game.

[Animavore]

Who says its viewership is doubled by piracy? That sounds like a post-hoc justification to me.

I'm not making a judgement on this issue. Given that companies try to rip off their consumers every chance they get, it's all part of the game.

It's simple maths. We compare its viewing polls vs the amount of downloads and the two are almost the same

[Clinton Huxley]

Not sure that's convincing. It's always been pirated so you can't know how popular it would have been without piracy.

[Animavore]

Not sure that's convincing. It's always been pirated so you can't know how popular it would have been without piracy.

But how would all the non-HBO subscribers watch or care to watch it without subscribing? They're not going to subscribe or buy box-sets just because someone told them it was great

[Clinton Huxley]

Word of mouth, getting picked up by a free to air or other broadcaster, people buy the box set. As far as I know, people did buy box-sets before piracy was invented. I've got a Blackadder video somewhere....

So far people have expressed the opinion that piracy increases sales but I've not seen any proof...

[JimC]

Not sure that's convincing. It's always been pirated so you can't know how popular it would have been without piracy.

But how would all the non-HBO subscribers watch or care to watch it without subscribing? They're not going to subscribe or buy box-sets just because someone told them it was great

It is reasonable to assume that piracy could be a factor in making the show popular, but it is very difficult to accurately assess the effect on sales of box sets...

[Animavore]

Word of mouth, getting picked up by a free to air or other broadcaster, people buy the box set. As far as I know, people did buy box-sets before piracy was invented. I've got a Blackadder video somewhere....

So far people have expressed the opinion that piracy increases sales but I've not seen any proof...

But sure Blackadder was free to watch on the BBC. It's not like someone would tell you about it in the pub and when you ask them what station it's on they tell you a station you can't watch. This does happen all the time with Game of Thrones. Plenty of people I've told about it and they asked what station? And I've told them, Sky Atlantic. And they've went, oh, don't have that.

I'm not sure what proof, exactly, you're looking for that piracy leads to sales. Do you want us to rewind time and run it again without the piracy and come back here and compare the figures?

[JimC]

Yes.

[Clinton Huxley]

I don't want you to do anything, old chap. I just don't think you can conclusively claim that piracy increases sales. Causality is not proven.