DHS/ICE seizes domain names of torrent sites

[Arrian]

To me, personally, downloading a product w/o paying for it is bad... I'll drop "theft" (an important caveat exists for those situations described by Asher: the customer wishes to purchase, but cannot do so b/c it simply isn't sold there). That's a moral judgment by moi.

It could be a flawed one. After all, I've borrowed books from friends. I didn't pay a cent for the book. Or hell, taking the book out from the library. Sure, the library bought the book, but so did my friend who bought the book. Either way, I get to read the book for free - the author gets nothing from me. Would I have purchased the book? In some rare cases yes. In most, no. In some cases, though, I like the book enough that I get the desire to buy other books by the author. Hmm. That would seem to be a plus for the author.

As for what to do about the issue, legally? I'm not sure. I just hope the cure doesn't turn out to be worse than the disease.

-Arrian

[Lorizael]

I'm not going to consider the 'used' side since that really can confuse things, especially when it's not something physical.

and

The, "Enough other have paid so we don't need to" doesn't fly with me.

are the same thing.

If a book is popular enough, the library will buy it and then everyone can read it for free. Because enough other people have paid for the book, we don't need to (except, I suppose, in taxes and late fees).

[ColdWizard]

Borrowing doesn't transfer ownership. Piracy creates ownership.

[C0ckney]

in my experience lending books does transfer ownership

[ColdWizard]

Then you have experienced theft.

[Sir Og]

If I download a movie, watch it and later delete it is that lending or theft?

[Dauphin]

Theft requires permanently depriving the owner of that asset. Hence, pirating software, or music or movies etc is not theft. Ever. It's piracy.

[C0ckney]

but permanently deprive in english case law has been held to mean 'assuming the rights of an owner'.

[C0ckney]

just to be clear, it's not theft. but the reasoning is different.

[Dauphin]

It's not intangible.

[Dauphin]

That is, saying the same thing, but using different words and emphases.

[MRT144]

It does affect someone else. Look, all people think about when it comes to this stuff are the big name bands and billion-dollar movies. But the vast majority of artists and writers and musicians (including my wife) barely make enough to stay above the poverty line.

Good thing they marry doctors who support and love them, amirite?

[MRT144]

HC reminds me of a slightly more coherent Giancarlo, politics wise.

Please sir, can I have another law???

THIS IS ****ING THE SLAM OF THE CENTURY AND HILARIOUSLY TRUE!

[MRT144]

there's also the case where a particular record is simply not available any more. as someone who has spent more than i care to remember on CDs/vinyls over the years, i used to run into this problem a lot. you want a particular record but can't find it in the shops/on-line, or if you can, it's someone selling it 2nd hand for an inflated price. however, if you know where to look, it's often the case that someone has put it up on the internet for free download. i don't feel bad about downloading stuff like this, since even if i bought it, i wouldn't be benefiting the artist in any way, only someone who's sat on a record for 25 years and now wants to cash in.

OOP **** should definitely be free. If I can't find my italo disco vinyls at one of the ten record stores in the entire Seattle metro area, then the owners of those copyrights can go **** themselves for their poor distribution job.

It's funny that video and computer game companies want to eliminate this second hand sale market though.

[giblets]

HC reminds me of a slightly more coherent Giancarlo, politics wise.

Please sir, can I have another law???

THIS IS ****ING THE SLAM OF THE CENTURY AND HILARIOUSLY TRUE!

Who is Giancarlo?