The solution isn’t to buy MP3s or physical media. The solution is piracy.
That’s kind of a pain in the ass. Are you really going to pirate a copy of all your legally bought digital content so when you pass on you can bequeath it to your family/friend.
There was actually an article, that turned out to be fake, about this exact situation back in 2012. But, because it turned out to be fake, nothing was ever resolved.
The solution is to ban onerous DRM. By “onerous” I mean anything more that some sort of “digital watermark” that links content to the original owner should it end up sailing the high seas.
The solution depends on what you’re talking about.
My physical media has no issues because it’ just passes to whoever.
My netflix subscription also has no issues. It’s just cancelled. It can’t be meaningfully passed on.
It’s these sticky middle ground thingies like audible or steam where it’s a wierd, owned or not owned question begins to take form.
Scott is correct. The solution is generally piracy.
How do you propose to do that? Are you going to crack the DRM on the digital content you own? So the person in your will can have a once legal thing you owned is now a pirated thing?
I’ve never confirmed this but, well the internet has told me that it’s legal to pirate any media you own as a backup, provided you don’t do any uploading.
What do you have against supporting artists?
Come on. This shit was all settled 20 years ago. Piracy does not harm artists. If anything, copyright has artists harming each other!
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You’re dodging the question by trying to make it impersonal. Why do you not want to reward the labor you love?
I reward it in many ways. In fact the case we are talking about is a situation where the work was rewarded with a purchase of goods, and then the goods were revoked! Why do the artists hate their fans so much that they won’t let them enjoy their art?
Why do you insist that there is only one specific way to compensate artists?
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You didn’t buy a work, you bought a license. With games I get there isn’t a good alternative and that sucks, but when it comes to music, film, and TV, just buy it for fuck’s sake.
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Legality != morality. Copyright law does not define moral code.
Your question “Why do you not want to reward the labor you love?” is equivalent to the question asked in the Paranoia RPG “Are you a happy communist?” The entire premise and inherent accusation is based on a pile of bullshit a mile high. Take your arguments back to 19XX where they belong.
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If you already bought the item sure, pirate it. But don’t tell me the solution is piracy for industries where you can just buy a DRM free digital file and keep it.
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The problem is the distribution of art being artificially restricted, or in some cases art being destroyed. The best solution available which not only allows the joy of that art to spread far and wide, but also to be preserved in the best way we can, is piracy. I can find almost no scenario where I have a moral objection to piracy.
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How about when piracy leads to the artist living in a van down by the river.
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You are claiming that piracy is definitely the cause of them being poor. Prove it.
Are you saying you can guarantee that in a world without piracy that the artist wouldn’t be in a van down by the river? Before piracy was possible, but after copyright law was instituted, all artists were fabulously wealthy? Despite piracy being very possible, no artists are fabulously wealthy now because piracy is ruining them all?
I was picking an extreme example. The reality, of course, is much more complex.
In a world without piracy, sure, the artist could be living in a van down by the river. Maybe their stuff isn’t all that good. Maybe their tastes are wildly different from the population as a whole and as a result they can’t make a living off it it. There are all sorts of reasons why an artist may or may not be poor, independent of piracy.
Piracy isn’t ruining many, if any artists, at the moment right now for two main reasons:
- There are still enough people paying for stuff to more than make up for the pirates.
- There is still a pretty big barrier to entry to pirate stuff vs. legitimate acquisition. My mom (or my ex-wife, for that matter, to pick on someone closer to our ages) isn’t going to download an album she likes off of the Pirate Bay. She’s going to buy it off of iTunes (hey, DRM-free!) or Amazon (ditto).
In a world where piracy becomes the primary, or perhaps sole, means of distribution of art, that’s where there could be a problem. Especially for smaller-time artists who can’t make back the lost income via touring, merchandise, etc.
Scott why are so so attached to piracy? Why can’t you pay 10 bucks for an album?
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It’s too bad Scott works for a company that doesn’t make consumer software. Otherwise maybe we should all pirate his work!
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