Blog - David Helkowski
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Is piracy justified?

I recently watched this Louis Rossmann video titled ... piracy is COMPLETELY JUSTIFIED

I have thoughts about pirating media such as movies and music.

First of all some context.

I own over 500 bluray movies and over 5000 audio cds. I also own... a digusting amount of additional information based things which would only be furthering embarassing to list out.

I say embarassing because I personally belief all information should be free for all of humanity regardless of the content of that information. I do not personally belief in copyright or patents.

That said, I live in Japan. In Japan piracy can be a criminal offense and you can go to jail for it. Japan is much more strict than the US about piracy. In the US if you pirate stuff often, that's just the norm.

In Japan if you pirate stuff you are a naughty criminal who should be ashamed of yourself.

I have no interest in being jailed, so I buy my media. Besides that I already own too much of it and don't really need more.

With that context out of the way, let's return to the topic. Is piracy justified when companies like Sony and the like take away content that you "purchased" by their own terminology?

Well, from my point of view this question makes no sense, because piracy doesn't need justification. Sharing information freely is moral and sensible. It also happens to be illegal where I live currently.

So, while I believe there is nothing inherently wrong with piracy, I'm for following laws. Louis can say all day and night that we can/should pirate stuff, but it does nothing to resolve the trouble you can get in for doing so.

Saying "you are justified in pirating" is playing their game. It is saying their idea of Copyright makes sense in the first place, and that because companies did naughty shit you too can do naughty shit. Essentially that's how I see it.

I don't think the logic of that works out. Sony is scummy therefore it is okay to "steal" content that Sony didn't own in the first place? How is it right to steal content because Sony was jackasses?

If Louis said "throwing bricks at Sony buildings is completely justified", that might actually make more sense.

So here is the rub. We live in society. Society has rules called laws. We should generally do our best to obey them.

If you are going to advocate for breaking laws, please stay away from me because you are not improving society, you are advocating for vigiliantism and encouraging people to become criminals because they "know better than the law."

I agree actually that the laws are bullshit. I think Copyright is stupid. I think all information should be totally free. I do not support breaking the law, because that is not the path to reforming society.

Pirating stuff in protest does not change anything. All it really does is put yourself in risk of getting in trouble.

Unless of course you think you are extra special and/or would enjoy being a martyr for the cause. That's all you. My times being a hero are done. I'm just an unusual dude who has opinions.

I thought that was the end but after discussing with AI I have some more critique. My beef with Louis' take is that I think he still believes in Copyright and he believes Sony was intentionally engaging in bait and switch behavior, and therefore it is okay to "take what should be rightfully yours."

He points at their redefinition of Buy and Purchase as being deceptive, but that is common practice for every single company offering digital downloads of things you Buy since Steam as far as I'm aware.

The reason is because you don't own Copyright on -anything- you buy unless the Copyright was literally transferred to you in writing. The same is true of the Blurays Louis is talking about in his videos.

He doesn't own the content on those either. He is licensing it.

Many of the licensing deals for Bluray movies -have- expired as well. You just happen to have a disk that still works. When that happens the companies can't sell further copies of that Bluray, and as far as I understand the law the Bluray disks that exist still may no longer meet the licensing terms. ( Update AI claims this is wrong and there is law somewhere saying you do keep the right to use that content somehow. Conveniently and as is typical AI doesn't quote its sources and is likely making this crap up )

Now we know that nobody is coming to seize your Blurays and that is part of why Louis is upset.

But notice how he says "I just illegally dump my Blurays because I believe it is right." So wait... why isn't he saying "I just illegally ripped all my streaming media so they can't take it away from me."

Nope. He's not saying that. He's saying it's okay to torrent the stuff. Torrenting the stuff doesn't just share it with people who paid for it and got screwed by Sony. It also shares it with those who never paid in the first place.

Louis implies he believes in Copyright. Yet he is justifying what amounts to retaliation against Sony and those associate with Sony. That's flawed logic and is NOT justified if you still believe in Copyright.

I'll simplify my argument for you even further. If you believe that copyright makes sense, which Louis seems to imply that he does, then it doesn't make any sense to say the following:

You see in that video Louis both says that the source of torrenting is rips, and that he rips his content. He advocates torrenting, with no acknowledgement that it is providing the content to people who never paid for it.

It sounds like he may even be ripping and torrenting his rips to others. He certainly does not say that he doesn't do this. I'll say it. I do not rip the content I own and illegally share it to anyone.

All of this is not justified through what he has said, specifically because he still blabbers on about how he believes in paying.

AI is complaining that Louis has not said that he is breaking the law. So tell us Louis. Are you sharing any of your Bluray rips or OTA captures via torrents? Are you engaging in the behaviour you've told us is totally justified. Please, by all means, show evidence for it. If you are willing to break the law should you not be willing to do it publicly? If you expect us all to become sacrificial martyrs for your cause, you first.