The Student Room Group

Let's talk about piracy

:biggrin:. Alright so most people regard piracy as theft/stealing, personally i believe that the creators deserve their royalties (but considering the amount of money made by the artists, companies etc, it probably is not a substantial loss) but i don't think piracy is necessarily theft. The creators still have possession of the original, it's only COPIED not stolen. For example if i took a screwdriver without consent from a friend, did a 3D print of it to get a copy and gave back the original to him/her. Is that stealing?. What do you think?
(edited 7 years ago)

Scroll to see replies

Original post by Paranoid_Glitch
:biggrin:. Alright so most people regard piracy as theft/stealing, personally i believe that the creators deserve their royalties (but considering the amount of money made by the artists, companies etc, it probably is not a substantial loss) but i don't think piracy is necessarily theft. The creators still have possession of the original, it's only COPIED not stolen. For example if i took a screwdriver without consent from a friend, did a 3D print of it to get a copy and gave back the original to him/her. Is that stealing?. What do you think?


You dont appreciate what intellectual property is.
1. It is theft because they have the intellectual property rights

2. Stealing from wealthy people is just as bad as stealing from the poor, worse if you ask me
Original post by 999tigger
You dont appreciate what intellectual property is.
I definitely do, obviously i wouldn't want someone to take credit or copy something i worked so hard for to create. But if they did so i wouldn't look at it as theft, I'd just feel bad and see it as being morally wrong.
Original post by Paranoid_Glitch
I definitely do, obviously i wouldn't want someone to take credit or copy something i worked so hard for to create. But if they did so i wouldn't look at it as theft, I'd just feel bad and see it as being morally wrong.
I believe that pirates appreciate the ingenuity, hard work and creativity by the makers. Due to regional licensing i just feel that they pirate because they have no other choice.
Reply 5
Original post by Paranoid_Glitch
I believe that pirates appreciate the ingenuity, hard work and creativity by the makers. Due to regional licensing i just feel that they pirate because they have no other choice.


Haha! What do you mean these criminals have no choice? Piracy is a crime and some of these pirates sell on copies for knockdown prices (I'm very sure they don't give this all back to Artist/Studio)
Original post by umar39
Haha! What do you mean these criminals have no choice? Piracy is a crime and some of these pirates sell on copies for knockdown prices (I'm very sure they don't give this all back to Artist/Studio)
Well yeah they probably might not. But what other choice do they have?
Original post by The Sexathlete
1. It is theft because they have the intellectual property rights

2. Stealing from wealthy people is just as bad as stealing from the poor, worse if you ask me


That's an interesting perspective, how come worse?
Pirates conquer ships fair and square. You got nothing on 'em! Arrrr, matey!
Original post by Pinkberry_y
That's an interesting perspective, how come worse?


Poor people spend it worse.
Original post by The Sexathlete
1. It is theft because they have the intellectual property rights

2. Stealing from wealthy people is just as bad as stealing from the poor, worse if you ask me


Intellectual property is not physical property, yes it can be "stolen" but it's not something that is often taken by force and with great suffering. It's essentially a victimless crime. And no, you're wrong, stealing from poor people is worse than stealing from the wealthy.
Original post by The Sexathlete
1. It is theft because they have the intellectual property rights

2. Stealing from wealthy people is just as bad as stealing from the poor, worse if you ask me


1. Their breaking the law, not stealing just copying.

2. I wouldn't think so. Stealing from a poor person is way worse. If food was stolen from a homeless person, they barely have money to buy another meal, and would probably starve for a few days before they might get anything, if they don't they die. If you stole from a wealthy person food they would probably be able to buy another meal, that would relatively cost little to them. Point being it would not hurt them as much.
Original post by The Sexathlete
Poor people spend it worse.


Bulshit. How can you spend something worse if you don't have a lot of it? There are many many wealthy people who I can reference who have pissed away their fortunes, money that could be spent better on...... improving the lives of poor people for instance.
Original post by Danny the Geezer
Intellectual property is not physical property, yes it can be "stolen" but it's not something that is often taken by force and with great suffering. It's essentially a victimless crime. And no, you're wrong, stealing from poor people is worse than stealing from the wealthy.


You're wrong because the costs associated with developing intellectual property are frontloaded.
Think about it.

If piracy were legal, no-one would buy legitimately and the creator would entirely lose out.
Original post by The Sexathlete
You're wrong because the costs associated with developing intellectual property are frontloaded.


I don't know what that means so...
Reply 16
Definition of theft.E+W. (1)A person is guilty of theft if he dishonestly appropriates property belonging to another with the intention of permanently depriving the other of it; and “thief” and “steal” shall be construed accordingly.


By the definition it seems rather hard to accuse anyone of nicking anything in this regard...
Original post by Alexion
Think about it.

If piracy were legal, no-one would buy legitimately and the creator would entirely lose out.


Yeah....very well. But it's the small artists I feel most for., not the corporations or the larger artists.
Original post by Danny the Geezer
Yeah....very well. But it's the small artists I feel most for., not the corporations or the larger artists.


Yeah, the small artists really rely on it more and so each instance of piracy is gonna hit them harder...

Huge artists and corporations aren't really gonna lose out on a lot but they've still earned it.
Original post by Danny the Geezer
I don't know what that means so...


Lets say it costs £1,000,000 to produce a song, even though the final product is just a load of data on a CD which can be copied for basically zero cost, it's intuitively obvious that every time it's copied the production cost is divided between each copy and if you make a copy you didn't pay for, you're forcing everyone who makes a legal copy to pay extra due to your criminality.

Quick Reply

Latest