A special case of piracy

[aquohn]

Alright, now we all know downloaded copyrighted material is wrong, firstly, because it is theft, and secondly, because it circumvents laws established by valid authorities. But consider the following case: let’s say I buy a DVD, then lose it in my basement. Now I can spend three days and three nights scouring the basement for the DVD, or I could download a copy from the internet. Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that the salary Iose during the time I’m scouring the basement is equal to the cost of leaving my computer on while the movie trickles in at 1 kb/s. Is it wrong to do so?

 

[austenbosten]

Alright, now we all know downloaded copyrighted material is wrong, firstly, because it is theft, and secondly, because it circumvents laws established by valid authorities. But consider the following case: let’s say I buy a DVD, then lose it in my basement. Now I can spend three days and three nights scouring the basement for the DVD, or I could download a copy from the internet. Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that the salary Iose during the time I’m scouring the basement is equal to the cost of leaving my computer on while the movie trickles in at 1 kb/s. Is it wrong to do so?

Say this, if you lost your car…do you just steal one from the car factory, since you already bought one?

You losing your DVD is your responsibility, not the companies.

 

[edwest2]

Alright, now we all know downloaded copyrighted material is wrong, firstly, because it is theft, and secondly, because it circumvents laws established by valid authorities. But consider the following case: let’s say I buy a DVD, then lose it in my basement. Now I can spend three days and three nights scouring the basement for the DVD, or I could download a copy from the internet. Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that the salary Iose during the time I’m scouring the basement is equal to the cost of leaving my computer on while the movie trickles in at 1 kb/s. Is it wrong to do so?

Yes. You lost it so buy a new one.

Peace,
Ed

 

[Rhuarc]

Say this, if you lost your car…do you just steal one from the car factory, since you already bought one?

You losing your DVD is your responsibility, not the companies.

Now imagine if you stole that car from the factory, and as you drove off it was still in the spot where you left it. Educate yourself, I can download a file a million times and it will still be there.

 

[austenbosten]

Now imagine if you stole that car from the factory, and as you drove off it was still in the spot where you left it. Educate yourself, I can download a file a million times and it will still be there.

I’m sorry I didn’t know I needed an education in theivery. Forgive me

 

[Filippo_Bruno]

Piracy is when you forcibly take over a seagoing vessel, often murdering the crew of said vessel in the process.

In contrast, you are describing copyright infringement.

 

[austenbosten]

Piracy is when you forcibly take over a seagoing vessel, often murdering the crew of said vessel in the process.

In contrast, you are describing copyright infringement.

No it’s not, it’s when you wear a peg leg, an eyepatch and your say things like “Argh Matey!”

 

[bzkoss236]

I’m not entirely sure how this might apply to movies, if there are any similar laws, but (last I checked) some video game companies will allow you to keep a video game ROM and emulator if you already own the system and the game in physical format (cartridge/disk). I’m not sure what the views from the movie or music industry are in regards to downloading a digital copy of a movie you own, but I feel part of it might be proving you own the movie as well. A lot of production companies are including digital copies on disk of their movies. I would search google for some legal information. Since the issue with this lies in the legal authority, the morality of it would depend on what the law says.

 

[FIU_student]

It would still be illegal. You only purchased the right to own the physical DVD and view the actual movie from said DVD (with many rights, such as the ability to earn money from a showing, reserved).

You can’t transfer it to a format that wasn’t authorized (ex. stripping the movie and saving it to your hard drive). Or access another format.

So that’s the law. What’s moral doesn’t always perfectly match with what’s legal. A fun experiment might be to ask this forum if it’s a good idea to have a showing of a DVD movie as a church fundraiser. I’m sure most would say yes, though this would be illegal (most probably wouldn’t realize).

My heart says your example would be both illegal and immoral. When the DVD was purchased there was an agreement between the buyer and the content holder. Just because the buyer lost the DVD that doesn’t give one the right to go back on their promises.

I know that nobody really loses anything, and a agreement with a big faceless corporation isn’t as important as a handshake agreement with another human.

When everything is in the cloud this issue will become moot.

 

[Holly3278]

Piracy is when you forcibly take over a seagoing vessel, often murdering the crew of said vessel in the process.

In contrast, you are describing copyright infringement.

Piracy and copyright infringement are synonyms.

 

[Godfollower]

Alright, now we all know downloaded copyrighted material is wrong, firstly, because it is theft, and secondly, because it circumvents laws established by valid authorities. But consider the following case: let’s say I buy a DVD, then lose it in my basement. Now I can spend three days and three nights scouring the basement for the DVD, or I could download a copy from the internet. Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that the salary Iose during the time I’m scouring the basement is equal to the cost of leaving my computer on while the movie trickles in at 1 kb/s. Is it wrong to do so?

To put it another way: I know it’s stealing to download without a license, but what if it’s because I want to save money, time, and effort?

austenbosten;9578732:

Say this, if you lost your car…do you just steal one from the car factory, since you already bought one?

You losing your DVD is your responsibility, not the companies.

Now imagine if you stole that car from the factory, and as you drove off it was still in the spot where you left it. Educate yourself, I can download a file a million times and it will still be there.

Now imagine that you trespass on my land without doing any damage. It’s still trespassing, even though the land is still there, and even if you do no damage at all – whether you do it once or a million times.

Copyright infringement is illegal. Under the scenario described in the OP, the hapless DVD owner pays for one copy but ends up with two. The fact that he has temporarily lost one of them doesn’t make his action of illegally acquiring the second copy somehow legal.

Or, to put it in Catholic terms: you can’t do evil (in this case, download illegally) so that good (in this case, watching the DVD without having to straighten up the basement) may result.

 

[maxdouglas402]

the best thing to do is review the company’s copyright policy and then call the company. I just downloaded workout videos from a piracy website and started to feel guilty knowing I didn’t pay the 100 dollars Im supposed to. I then called the company to admit my wrong doing. They informed me stuff like that happens and it is ok to do the workout.

It’ll take the burden off your shoulders knowing if you can or cannot watch the dvd.