Post by Gareth on Jun 21, 2012 22:14:36 GMT
Why I pirate:
It is thanks to broken copyright law that almost every form of digital content is now locked down with DRM. Games that are buggy, a pain to open, and can only be installed on one computer; cloud-based movies that you never truly own; books and music that can be removed from a device or account at any time, without warning.
That is why I pirate: When I buy something, I want to own it. I don’t want a publisher or broadcaster to dictate how or why or when I can use something that I own.
Digital distribution systems still suck
DRM is brokenWe have made massive leaps in the realm of digital distribution in recent years. Steam and iTunes are both fantastic, buying Kindle e-books is depressingly easy, and Netflix is awesome — but if you take a closer look, most of these services are still rife with issues.
iTunes is easy to use, but except for music, everything you buy is wrapped up in DRM. You can’t burn an episode of Glee to DVD and watch it on your TV. The problem with Netflix, of course, is that you never own what you watch; like Spotify, it’s a service that you must keep paying for if you want access to your favorite shows.
Then there’s the matter of timeliness. Steam and the music side of iTunes don’t have this issue — because they’re the de facto way of releasing a game or album — but have you seen how quickly DVD rips appear on sites like RapidShare or The Pirate Bay? Have you seen how easy it is to download stuff from these sites? And you can burn your downloads to DVD! Magic.
That is why I pirate: When I buy something, I want to be free to enjoy it however I like. I don’t want to be forced into “borrowing indefinitely” or only being allowed to play a movie through iTunes, on a computer.
www.extremetech.com/computing/114493-why-i-pirate
Don't get me wrong if I like something I will buy it!
It is thanks to broken copyright law that almost every form of digital content is now locked down with DRM. Games that are buggy, a pain to open, and can only be installed on one computer; cloud-based movies that you never truly own; books and music that can be removed from a device or account at any time, without warning.
That is why I pirate: When I buy something, I want to own it. I don’t want a publisher or broadcaster to dictate how or why or when I can use something that I own.
Digital distribution systems still suck
DRM is brokenWe have made massive leaps in the realm of digital distribution in recent years. Steam and iTunes are both fantastic, buying Kindle e-books is depressingly easy, and Netflix is awesome — but if you take a closer look, most of these services are still rife with issues.
iTunes is easy to use, but except for music, everything you buy is wrapped up in DRM. You can’t burn an episode of Glee to DVD and watch it on your TV. The problem with Netflix, of course, is that you never own what you watch; like Spotify, it’s a service that you must keep paying for if you want access to your favorite shows.
Then there’s the matter of timeliness. Steam and the music side of iTunes don’t have this issue — because they’re the de facto way of releasing a game or album — but have you seen how quickly DVD rips appear on sites like RapidShare or The Pirate Bay? Have you seen how easy it is to download stuff from these sites? And you can burn your downloads to DVD! Magic.
That is why I pirate: When I buy something, I want to be free to enjoy it however I like. I don’t want to be forced into “borrowing indefinitely” or only being allowed to play a movie through iTunes, on a computer.
www.extremetech.com/computing/114493-why-i-pirate
