[adpz]

To the OP - I hear your pain - I have been there - but make note of the section on North Korea:

Reprinted, with my permission:


The so-called pro-pirate argument essentially goes back to the fact that tings in a digital medium are basically infinitely copy-able at virtually no incremental cost. This isn't of course true, but let's take that for the moment.

So - it goes - that downloading a copyrighted work and not paying for it is rather just like listening to the radio in that your listening to it is not illegal and you aren't "taking" anything from anyone else.

In practice, of course, this is not quite. To the notion of a digital copy having no cost and no value: even if it cost $1 to produce Britney Spear's last album, no matter how many digital copies were made of it, the cost of those copies would never be zero. Additionally, as we all know, the actual cost of running these industries is much higher - even leaving ALL profit potential aside. So, when you steal a digital copy and excuse yourself because you make the claim that it is worthless, you are trapped by the logic that in fact the item does have a cost - no matter how small. So then, after that, you can put your Pirate flag down and realize that you are really just complaining about the price, cheap bastard.

The only way a digital copy would be free is if no paid work ever went into the product. This obviously occurs but I don't see Pirates sending me emails asking me to torrent recordings of me at my singing lessons. As it is, no industry can support itself by being free - that's really a rule of nature - as there is no such thing as a free lunch.

Perhaps the Pirates should look at a place like North Korea, where involvement in the arts is not renumerative to the individual in any way to get a picture of what it looks like when nobody gets paid to do arts. When's the last time you can across a great North Korean pop tune? Okay, a North Korean tune? No, hmm, well perhaps you know their national anthem . . .

Another way to look at the above: consider my lawn. It is populated with millions of blades of grass, that essentially grow on their own. They have the sun and rain and cost me nothing. I even have to CUT them because there are so many of them. Still, under no circumstances can you come onto my lawn and pick that grass. Why not - because even though the grass has no appreciable value, even though the grass is essentially infinite, it is MY grass. And 100% of jurisdictions recognize a right to private property - yes - even in North Korea you can get arrested for stealing a car.

And THAT's really what the Pirate pups are squealing about - they don't like copyright because they don't like private property and the digital version of it is the one place they can complain about it without being throw in jail.

As I wrote last night, they are obsessed with the need to be able to Remix culture. Their Jesus, Lawrence Lessig, tells them so - and ALL culture must be free so that they can remix. I'll ask it again, show me the great cultural works of this remix generation. After all, they've cracked plenty of stuff already. Where are the great works of art? The great films? The great novels? The great scores? The great performances? The great songs?

They are nowhere to be found except in the heads of these individuals. I used to draw boobs on the pictures in my textbooks in high school - should I submit those to the Museum of Modern Art?

Where is all this great remix stuff?? After all, again, 1000's of profound masterworks are already in the public domain - or did you guys not get that far down the Wiki page - copyright isn't forever you know - just like adolescense . . . C'mon you slackers, turn your hard drive off, put the pizza down, and show me some great works. Oh, and then after you finish that, you can FINALLY get around to explaining to me the added benefits of how not having copyright is going to solve the world's REAL problems.

Another point is their refrain that all of who can't make any money are just going to have to try harder to find another way to do so: firstly, I invite any Pirates to come down to my town where usually on weekdays there are a small group of men protesting because they have no work. Please, go tell them with the same snarky tone what you have told us. Don't worry - well don't worry TOO much b/c you'l still be able to type even without any teeth in your mouth.

Anyway, let's see how forcing musicians to do other things for a living might impact how you feel about the music they make: let's take two restaurants, both that produce the finest French food in the world.

The first one just serves the finest French food - sounds good. The second one serves the finest French food, and also happens to serve the best Chinese food in the world, and also the finest Brazilian churrascaria. Not only that, but the waiters give you excellent lapdances at $9 a minute, give each other lapdances for $5 a minute; the busboys give footrubs for $6 a minute, and the chef will show you his wedding video for .99 a minute. And if that is not your thing, you can watch Premier League for .9 cents a minute on 70" flat-screens and toke on the exquisite hookas that they'll roll up to your tables for .009 cents a minute. So, tell me, where is the food going to be better?

Lastly, all of these skinnies take pleasure in the view that they are providing US with a problem. I can tell you that the much problem you are making is the one you are making for yourself. Do you think your disdain for law, your contempt of the average man, your hatred of society comes to you at no price? It is, apparently, infinitely reproducable, so that shouldn't bother you - but when you make yourself the worst kind of curmudgeon - guess what - other people notice.

Of course, we don't know you yet as you hide in your bedrooms in the anonymity of the internet. But please, for the few of you who work, please go to your jobs and complain loudly about how want thigns that that other people have, and that you don't even want other people to have it. Please, wear your Pirate T-shirts to job interviews. If you happen to have any desire to work in the audio industry, please tell all the prospective employers or clients about how great pirating is.

When you see someone watching a film that they rented, turn it off and show them the pirated version for free. When someone is listening to a tune on their iPod, please turn it off and download a pirated version for them. When you go on a date - no, watching Fast and Furious 1 2 and 3 does not count - please tell the unlucky girl all about the great society that awaits theives like yourselves.

Then, if you have done a really superlative job, once you have turned 30 and have no job, no girlfriend, no money, and no children, I will send you - at my cost - the collected works of Erich Fromm. Of course, you may have saved yourself from personal damnation by having read these works about how an individual can relate to a modern society without sacrificing their humanity, but I guess they don't do torrents of books that lack some T&A. Oh well, life's unfair.