Stealing Star Wars

Random Posts DSCN1766 (Medium) PhotoWorks Coupons We Need a Wii for Ponzi’s Mii IMG_5372Stealing Star WarsHow to Tie a Tie Knot T304012420160 What is IPv6? IMAGE_009 Psychedelic Misprint (4) Chris My Last Day at the Iowa State Fair

Downloading the movie through BitTorrent caused me to want to see the original triliogy again so bad that I went out in bought it. Is that stealing too, I wonder?

These MPAA (and RIAA) guys don't see file-trading as a potential avenue for self promotion. Instead, when they see the “potential losses” they freak out and see red. It's, sadly, an emotional reaction, which is something difficult, if not impossible, to countert-act.
They fail to see that distributing a full work, digitally, can act as a great self-promotional tool for a physical object.

This is a touchy subject,
I don't see any comparison to robbing a bank, thats way different, because you aren't only stealing money, you are trespassing (depending on when you do it) or threatening someone, if you do it during the day. This is debatable, but I'm not willing to get into it.
I wish the MPAA would embrase BitTorrent and the internet, and not see it as a threat. I think that for every site that gets shut down, I come across 3 new ones. Obviously all of this is not going away any time soon, not by a long shot.
-Dan

This is all nonsense. To draw parallels with the physical world, if I stole a car from a Mercedes dealership, then decided I liked it and payed for it, would that be OK? Digital media is inarguably no different, a fact that I'm surprised people who participate in the digital world struggle to grasp! Films cost money to make, so does software and music. And the argument that film makers make tons of cash anyway is also invalid – banks make huge sums of money, but that does not legitimise bank robbery.
Let's face it, the internet is simply a global, interconnected TCP/IP network, nothing magic that entitles people who use it to circumvent law. Just because somebody doesn't offer you a product or service on the net, it does not entitle you to take it anyway!
Chris (UK, non-geek)
PS I'm not affiliated to the MPAA either

A bit of video has been accompanying the press release and appeared on UK TV news a few nights ago. The copy of Star Wars Sith that's widely available on the file sharing networks and shown on that news video has SMPTE time code across the top. Which means that it could only have been leaked out the back of the cutting room.
So who's feeding the file sharing networks? Cue the Doc Holliday character from Tombstone. “Ah have not even begun to plumb the depths of mah hipocracy”
Julian Bond

Distributing a copyrighted work on the Internet, with no compensation to those involved, is inappropriate, no matter how silly the MPPA's reasoning sounds in their statements. Chris, I don't think you like it if you authored a software title for commercial distribution, only to have it cracked/posted for download on the web within days of its release.

I have paid to see the movie already …please please give me the instructions and web link to download Star WaRS sITH
tHANKS

If you're going to compare it to bank robbery, it would have to be a bank robbery where:
- the 'thief' did not show up at the bank
- the money stayed at the bank
- the 'thief' made a photocopy of a friend's photocopy of the money
- the bank manager made some wild estimates about how much bank service fees were 'lost'
- the 'thief' may have liked what he saw and became a bank customer without the knowledge of the bank staff
i.e. If you think this is the same as rape/murder/armed-robbery you're out of your mind. It's more like recording FM radio onto a cassette and lending it to your cousin.

wow just found out how to do it…absolutely amazing…this is great!!!

Ummmm, the copyright laws in this land are pretty straightforward. Downloading the content is indeed illegal.
That being said, I agree that the MPAA and RIAA are being bullies. They are using their vast riches (which they got from us consumers to begin with), to pelt the little guy into submission.
Just once, I would LOVE to see some small band go to the RIAA, lawyers in tow, and say, “HEY! You jackasses! We made our music available on Napster for free in order to boost ticket sales at our concerts! Now that Napster (1.0) is gone, you took away our just and legal distribution method and hurt our concert attendance. We're suing your asses for the bazillion dollars we WOULD have made had Napster not been sued into nothingness!”
Man, that would be great! Suing the suers because their sledgehammers cut out the legitimate users as well as the pirates.
Okay, one more thing and then I'm off my soapbox…
Who says that musicians have the right to get rich off their “art?” Anyone been to an art museum? Anyone take pictures? You don't see Ansel Adams running at you full steam with his lawyers claiming you stole from him. In the end, if the artist is about the money and not about the art, then I say boycott them. I erased all Metallica from my iPod and I refuse to ever buy any of their music ever again. Money-grubbing jerks!

Copyright infringement may be illegal, but it is definitely not “stealing.”
For something to be theft, there must be a loss of property.
Potential profit is not property, and therefore, copyright infringement is not theft unless the copyright holder can PROVE actual losses due to infringement.
Despite all the industry bluster on the subject, this is something that they have consistantly failed to do.