How do you Justify Torrenting?

edited July 18 in Tech
I'm sure that at least a few of you torrent copyrighted material, and I'm curious what your opinions are on this article. It upends a lot of the typical arguments people use for torrenting and gives a unique perspective on the matter.

http://thetrichordist.wordpress.com/2012/06/18/letter-to-emily-white-at-npr-all-songs-considered/

Thoughts?

Comments

  • edited June 2012
    Haven't read it yet but I generally don't torrent stuff and friends that used to sometimes have sorta quit. They done got jobs and have money now. Plus there are many legal channels to purchase things as online downloads. Of course some things get to be difficult to find legitimately at all. Look for the game Dungeon Siege II without the expansion for instance and you'll find there are very few new copies available and they might be listed as high as $300. There's a Steam version but that's not compatible with the expansion. Also, used copies are barely better than stealing.

    Of course your link appears to be mostly about music. I've think I received a CD as a gift once? Never bought any music myself, but I also don't have a music collection to speak of. I have a few scattered songs around that are largely video game music remixes posted for free. My friends are similarly not big on music.

    Suffice to say this issue from the music perspective does not heavily impact me or my closer friends.
  • edited June 2012
    I've torrented a few movies at college, and in all cases it was the "I'm only watching it because it's free, I wouldn't have actually paid money to go see it" situation -- if a movie comes out that I want to see, I'll go to the theater or rent/buy a DVD because watching a download is typically lower quality. And if the torrented movie actually ended up being good, I might buy the DVD anyway.

    I've done the same with seasons of TV shows that my friends and I liked to keep up with at school. If we weren't able to watch it live, we'd torrent it and watch it that weekend. Dorms don't typically have premium on-demand cable whatnots, so it was the way to go.

    I don't have Netflix because it isn't something that I would use often enough to justify the recurring price... the problem is, services like it are shutting down the actual rental stores, which makes me more likely to torrent a movie because I'm unable to go rent it on impulse.

    As for music, I buy a fair amount of CDs. Generally, my practice is that if I only like one or maybe two of an artist's songs, I'll just go someplace and download them, but if I like several of their songs, I'll go out and buy the whole CD. Buying the CD gives me the opportunity to discover even more songs of theirs that I might like. Now that I have a job I'm more likely to buy a CD just for one song, though. It's the whole "you're not going to make money by stopping piracy if the pirates don't have any money in the first place" thing.

    The songs I have on my computer that weren't paid for are typically:
    a) Rare stuff that I'm not going to find in a store.
    b) Video game soundtracks and the like that aren't sold in the first place.
    c) Songs that were freely distributed.
    d) As above, one or two songs I like from an artist that weren't enough to convince me to buy a whole CD.

    When I do pay for individual song downloads, it's usually for small-time bands and remixers. I don't think the big names are going to miss my 99 cents for that one song of theirs I have in my library, especially since they've typically been making money off it for forty years or so. At the same time, I'm not one of those people with 11,000 songs on their hard drives. My library is a little over a thousand songs, and the number of songs that I could and should probably go pay for is less than 150.
  • edited July 2012
    Gonna be torrenting tomorrow night, specifically the first episode of Season Five of Breaking Bad.

    The reason, simply put, is that no UK channel airs the show, aside from a small network having aired season one. If I could get the show easily here without having to wait months after a season ends to get the DVD, I would. But I cannot.
  • edited July 2012
    I torrent everything, no man can stop me
  • edited July 2012
    Hmm, yes, please tell us more.
  • edited July 2012
    Hello new, totally not the RIAA person!

    I feel this is somehow relevant:
  • edited July 2012
    This Internet videotape appears to have been edited from copyrighted material! Which, uh, we're totally cool with.
  • edited July 2012
    I don't torrent much, mostly it's audio books I already own physical copies of and old music (Shostakovitch mostly). I also "pirate" anime I watching it online, though most of it is on Hulu or similar sites now, so not much of that either.
  • edited July 2012
    I don't know about this Not RIAA guy. He doesn't look like a pirate to me. Hey Not RIAA! If you're so good at downloading, why not download a copy of tomorrow's episode of Breaking Bad for us? I mean, it's not like you'd LIE to us, right?
  • edited July 2012
    I only justify torrenting Justin Timberlake's "Justified". Justin would want it that way.
  • edited July 2012
    I have Netflix and I pay for a VPN so I actually use it from Hong Kong. I feel I've built up enough karma to occasionally download new shows like Breaking Bad, since I can't see them anywhere else.

    The distribution channels are clearly there, it's a backwards business model that refuses to adapt to technology. That's why I pay for Netflix. As for shows like Game of Thrones, I would have happily paid HBO for a streaming service, but they refused to make one available. So I torrented that shit.

    So yeah. Basically, I'll pay if companies are willing to get with the times, but if they don't want to adapt, then I won't give them my money.
  • edited July 2012
    Wasn't Breaking Bad added to Netflix's instant streaming just recently?

    Though I suppose you probably have a different selection in China.
  • edited July 2012
    It was, but they don't add episodes whenever they're released, only in season clumps, so unless you're willing to wait for the end of the season, and an undefined amount of time thereafter so as not to cut into DVD sales, netflix isn't a good choice.
  • edited July 2012
    Netflix isn't offered at all outside of the US. I can't use it without a VPN.
  • edited July 2012
    Both true statements, fair enough.
  • edited July 2012
    False. Netflix is available in Canada, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Columbia, The United Kingdom and Ireland as well as the United States of America.
  • edited July 2012
    Shows how trustworthy you are Ryan. Trying to deprive non-Americans of Netflix through misinformation.
  • edited August 2012
    You can't trust Bruce. I mean come on. "Canada"?

    That doesn't even sound real.
  • edited August 2012
    My Face When Americans call The North American Colony "Canada"