| | I do not condone piracy, this essay is simply a philosophical/sociological viewpoint and should be read as such.
Yeah, the great debate. I know that piracy is a touchy subject...almost as touchy as religion or abortion. You get the people on one side bitching about losing money, and people on the other bitching about how no money is being lost. I will direct you to an interesting picture I came across yesterday.
 Now, really think about this. Really think about how it is not, theft in the literal sense. I mean, you're not walking into a store and picking up a cd.
This crazy person who drew this (is not only a genius but) has a fucking point.
I'll come back to this drawing when I've explained the concept of theft a little more precisely.
I live in Texas, and am a Criminal Justice Major, I am not a law major, nor do I claim to know how to properly interpret law. I simply study the nature of Criminals, Deviants, and Delinquents. (Rather interesting field if you ask me.) However I do own a few books which state the various laws in each state, and even...a book on theft. Titled "Shoplifting: What you need to know about the law." Yeah i know, it is a dated book, but it is better than nothing.
In the back of the book there is a Statutory Appendix. This statutory Appendix lists the definition of Theft as written by the state of Texas' Penal Code.
(begin quote)
"§31.03 Theft
(a) A person commits an offense if, with intent to deprive the owner of property:
(1) He obtains the property unlawfully; or
(2) He exercises control over the property, other than real property, unlawfully.
(b) Obtaining or exercising control over property is unlawful if:
(1) the actor obtains or exercises control over the property without the owners effective consent; or
(2) the property was stolen and the actor obtains it from another or exercises control over the property obtained by another knowing it was stolen...."
(end quote)
Now you see where this gets weird. I mean, the Texas legal system is so vague at times...but this seems pretty clear. The real question is where do we draw the line between a criminal act and something that isn't criminal in the legal sense of the word. The problem with the RIAA, MPAA and such is not that they're suing people...it's perfectly fine to sue people. People do it all the time. The problem is that they are trying to call it a criminal act and put restrictions on information. They have the biggest problem suing for insane amounts of money.
That's where the problem lies. You see Provision B Section 1 being violated...but what about Provision A? What is unlawful and lawful control? For instance a friend can sell me a copy of a cd, but he can only charge me for the cost of burning a cd...say.....10 cents for the cd and 15 cents for time and labor. Yes burning a cd is pretty easy now...but it still takes time. "What are you going to sue me now for working for you? My time ain't free." Is what I heard a friend tell his boss before he quit. The boss wasn't goin to pay him for his last 4 hours of work...because it wasn't a "complete workday".
What about just giving out the cd? Is that unlawful? ...if anything you're losing money and time.
Being a musician, I understand the dangers of piracy...but really think about it. The record companies are suing the people not the musicians themselves.
Wait a minute, I know what you're thinking....Metallica went apeshit when they found out their songs were being shared. Let me remind you how long Metallica has been on the scene, and then let me remind you that they actually make a pretty good profit off of their album sales. (Why else do you think they haven't toured as much in the past 10 years?)
I'm going to explain something to you, that you probably had an idea of, but didn't fully know or understand. When an artist signs onto a record deal, they essentially "sign" their rights to own the songs for the next 15-30 years (depending on how copyright and rights ownership works), why the fuck do you think Michael Jackson was able to buy the Beatles song rights? That's right, the artist doesn't own the rights to the song, all they do is record it...hand it over to the suits and then make a measly1%-10% off the album sales. You read right 1%-10% (sometimes 15% but that's rare too). Don't give me that "Artists have to be paid like everyone else." Practice what you preach big wigs.
The artist makes most of their money off of touring, and that isn't subject to piracy. There are bootleggers/tapers but they usually are hardcore fans and collectors who own every single album, single, dvd, or bootleg available.
The record execs are the ones who make a shitton of money off the record sales, so when they sue people for insane amounts of money they really are just suing for insane amounts of money. There is no way to accurately measure how much monetary damage one song cost to share.
Now let me get back to the picture. Theft removes an original. Piracy makes a copy. Let us sit on this for a few minutes.
Now think about piracy as a massive way of backing up information. Not just any information but...culturally significant information. I know it's a stretch for some of you, but if you really think about it it makes complete sense.
Imagine theres a major catastrophe...let's say the apocalypse came. Any kind, take your pick. Well...hundreds of years later, the race picks up again, and they find these things called computers in the rubble and ashes. In the computers they find thousands of files...and most of the computers have the same files... DVDs and CDs are burned and long gone, and all that is left is magnetic media which had not been turned on in ages.
So they press a few buttons, an os boot screen loads up and...they learn what the buttons do. Wouldn't that be interesting...seeing that: "whoa this culture really thought this moving picture was good?" Or the language may be forgotten and they use the music...movie...and digital book files to help decode the language. Hell we need decoders to help "decode" ancient languages. it would be nice if we had a few movies to actually help us out.
It's not entirely bad.
-Jake
(i might come back and edit this later)
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| | Posted 7/8/2009 1:20 PM - 1 View - 0 eProps - 0 comments
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