[mythtv-users] Torrentocracy

[Thor Melsted]

Dex West wrote:
>Copying is because people can get away with and don't have to pay.  CDs and
DVDs and all 
>other consumer goods are based on supply and demand. 
>People (who don't steal or share media) are willing to pay for the 19.99
for dvd. 

This is partially true, but this is a symptom, not a cause.
Why do people think stealing is a better alternative than paying?
That should be obvious... It's cheaper.

If CD/DVD prices were fair, the incentive to steal would be far less.

I'm old enough to remember when the first CDs came out (I still have a ton
of vinyl, literally).
When CDs came out, one of the big arguments for the consumer was that they
would sound better.  One of the arguments inside the industry was that they
were far cheaper to producer than vinyl albums.  So producers viewed this as
a win-win situation.  Customers would be happier, and they'd make more
money.  Somewhere along the way, they lost sight of the first part of that
equation.  Today it's all about money, the customer be damned.  There
wouldn't be iTunes if it weren't for filesharing.  
Just like there wouldn't be videostores today if it hadn't been for the
massive demand of movies on tape back when Betamax was all the rage.  In
fact, that's WHY Betamax failed and the inferior VHS format prevailed... The
running time on the tapes were long enough to hold a whole movie.
Digital content distribution is still in its infant stage, much like when
releasing movies on videotape was starting out in the late 70's and early
80's.  It took a while for the industries to catch up, and people were
copying and sharing then just like they are today, except the circle of
friends numbered in dozens, not millions like today thanks to the internet.
So, this has the potential of being a bigger problem, but only if the
industry keeps making the same mistakes over and over.
Part of the problem is also knee-jerk reactions.  The industry is terrified
of making the same mistakes it did when CDs came out (with no copy
protection at all), so they're going nuts over ways to protect their
content, so much so they're widely overstepping their bounds and are trying
to limit our rights as consumers.  That has to stop, and we're the only ones
who can stop it.
We can stop it with two ways:  
1. come up with a fair compromise (compromises are few in politics these
days, but it used to be how things got done).
2. stop illegal filesharing.

Realistically, #2 is never going to happen, the world is too big, and the
culprits are too many to cope with, so we have to go to #1.  Copying will
always exist to some extent, the best we can hope for is to minimize it, by
A. diminish the incentive to copy and B. increase the value of what you pay
for.

Anyway... This is so far off topic I can't even see the original topic
anymore...  I suggest we stop here and if anyone needs to continue this, we
should do it off this list.

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