Copyright violations RANT thread

[Almeria]

Ok, this is a thread for all the people like me who are fed up with dealing with people at work/school who continually violate copyright law.

We can evangelize and be a good example until we’re blue in the face, but unless we’re in a position to prohibit such activity at our workplaces/schools, there’s a limit to what we can do about it. We can, however, have a thread to come vent in.

My current irk: I just started a new job, and was considering bringing in some cd’s to listen to during the day, and possibly copying them to my computer so I didn’t have to lug them from the car each day. I consider that to fall under fair use–only one copy would be in use at any point in time. However, I found out a few days in that one of my coworkers has gigs worth of mp3’s; a combination of his music, illegal downloads, and music harvested off of others’ computers in the company. So, if I copy my music to my computer–and probably even just leave a cd on my desk overnight or while I’m at lunch–there’s a great possibility that he will steal a copy. Since I can’t trust him to not steal it, and “dude, don’t take my music” doesn’t accomplish much with him, I’m resorting to only bringing in music in the public domain. I know it’s a product of the Fall, but I truly hate that we have to curtail legal behavior on our part due to the illegal and immoral behavior of others!

ARGH!

Who’s next?

 

[ktm]

Almeria:

Ok, this is a thread for all the people like me who are fed up with dealing with people at work/school who continually violate copyright law.

We can evangelize and be a good example until we’re blue in the face, but unless we’re in a position to prohibit such activity at our workplaces/schools, there’s a limit to what we can do about it. We can, however, have a thread to come vent in.

My current irk: I just started a new job, and was considering bringing in some cd’s to listen to during the day, and possibly copying them to my computer so I didn’t have to lug them from the car each day. I consider that to fall under fair use–only one copy would be in use at any point in time. However, I found out a few days in that one of my coworkers has gigs worth of mp3’s; a combination of his music, illegal downloads, and music harvested off of others’ computers in the company. So, if I copy my music to my computer–and probably even just leave a cd on my desk overnight or while I’m at lunch–there’s a great possibility that he will steal a copy. Since I can’t trust him to not steal it, and “dude, don’t take my music” doesn’t accomplish much with him, I’m resorting to only bringing in music in the public domain. I know it’s a product of the Fall, but I truly hate that we have to curtail legal behavior on our part due to the illegal and immoral behavior of others!

ARGH!

Who’s next?

Why don’t you get an MP3 player, and then he can’t steal the music without stealing the physical device, which hopefully he would not do?

 

[chevalier]

I would be careful about calling copyright infringement theft alongside with stealing records. Bear in mind that copyrights, especially in their current shape and effect, are a construct of positive law and one heavily influenced by interested lobbies. You don’t have much of natural law there. If anyone steals someone’s music, it’s the media companies who do their best to cheat the artists out of their pay, always lagging behind on royalties, offering less than due and complaining all the time about piracy while paying gazillions to the management. The whole problem didn’t exist before those companies made it in and it’s mostly in their interest that copyrights exist. It’s simply their way of making sure their questionnable business runs smoothly.

The laws of various countries deal with the subject in various different ways, which surely says something. Sure, it’s wrong to copy instead of buying it properly, but let’s look where the problem starts instead of condemning “immoral people” to hell.

 

[Edwin1961]

Recently, a couple of weeks ago, I started to download music with tne “New” Napster.
After fighting over and figuring out how to use it, it’s pretty easy.
I am now VERY comfortable with the ‘pay to play’ that is what it should have been all along. (Sometimes you can find an album for under $6.)

Normallly, you are charged $0.99 a song, but if you buy an album with 15 tracks and pay less than $15, then you got a bargin!

I have a thread started way back in August about his whole issue of copywrite and copying. It’s under the title “21st Century Technology”

Peace,
Edwin