Get used to the fact I believe I am helping to advance culture
The only reason I post about encouraging the spread of knowledge is that it’s fun and I believe in it. I feel no guilt and am justly proud of my posts. Stupid hurts. Learning is cool and spares people painful lessons. If you think I am lying about how lack of knowledge hurts, explain to me how pleasant being ignorant is for you. I am still all ears.
You’re trying to elude here… This conversation is not about being ignorant, it’s about being a thief.
Libraries are a free source of knowledge, this is where I get most of the books I read, I used to borrow music as well when I wanted to discover new stuff. There are ways to knowledge that are free or affordable.
I guess this is the quote of the day, I’ll stick to it as well :
Intotheblue is almost on the mark. Books aren’t as analogous to software as paintings are… we should see FTL stealing paintings before we give his rants any more heed.
Sharing a programming book is spreading knowledge.
Stealing a programmer’s work is theft.
You’re only hearing what you want to hear.
My definition of “thief”
An easy request, so here is my definition of theft.
“To remove something from someones possession without an agreed transaction, so that the previous owner is denied it’s further use.”
I bought 1000’s of dollars of cassette tapes and CD’s that went to shit. Good luck asking for a replacement because I had paid for the copyright.
Live by the sword then die by the sword. To this day, faulty records, tapes, DVD’s , are worth shit. They sold me the media, not the copyright, as shown by their actions. Now I do not choose to buy their media, because the content is available for free. I feel no guilt about this. I have always been proud not to be a stupid sap, as much as I have managed. It’s not always easy, so I try to help others, as others have helped me to become what I am.
Maybe if you could show me a link to a site that would let me download for free a copy of the song or movie on my crap media (that I have already paid for), if I were to send them the bad media. It would cost them nothing, why is this not being done ? They won’t do this, because the entire industry was built on giving the artists 5 %, and the media distributing corporations the rest of the $. Now, today, I don’t need their media. Cry me a river. Then float upstream on your tears of sympathy for corporate profit lost by blowing wind into your own sails. Or try to stop the free sharing of digital culture. It would be easier to cry the river, I guess thats why that is the only intellectual tack taken in this discussion so far.
So you insist on justifying your thievery?
And trying to make me out to be stupid as a result of the fact that I don’t agree with you?
Two words.
One of them is off.
I agree. Where we disagree is in that you will still be on the theft side.
Maybe I would feel less guilty about my own downloads if so many people offered me copies of theirs too. Or maybe I feel the way I do because I only have about 45 GB of music. I delete the stuff I don’t like as I come across it. 
Compressed movies, then. We just recently got our first Blu-Ray player. BIG files! Do the same rules apply for you there? All motion pictures and TV shows must make a profit at the box office before being given away for free. Or no profit? I’m trying to figure out your version of the business model. A lot of my favorite movies cost millions of dollars to make. I hope the studios keep making them, but they will have no reason to if they can’t protect their own intellectual property.
The genocide argument was pretty effective on the “everyone else is doing it; therefore it’s okay” thing. But for another analogy, here’s a short one:
Eat shit! Ten thousand flies can’t be wrong.
That was job obsolescence, and has nothing to do with copyright or intellectual property rights. Entirely different motivation. If labor unions existed back in those days, printed books might still be illegal today! But not for any of the reasons in this discussion.
I believe in it too. Are we still talking about the same thing here? A Led Zeppelin track is knowledge that needs to be free? What do the members of Led Zeppelin think about that? Some bands are happy to distribute their material for free. Others aren’t. That should be up to them, shouldn’t it? Your argument would have to be that it is not; and if they don’t want people copying and distributing their stuff, they shouldn’t put it on the market in the first place. No, I think Led Zeppelin (or bands that still exist) should be in charge of how much they charge, not you and your friends.
But this is where the music debate is different from the software one; record companies. They are the buffer between the artists and the consumer. It’s the record companies making most of the money, and at the same time being the biggest hard-asses. Software companies, not as much. But the software companies are the direct creators (for the most part) of the intellectual property in question.
Your argument seems to boil down to “If I can copy it, it should be free” or something like that. Feel free to clarify that if necessary. I still don’t connect the advancement of technology with it being okay to steal stuff.
So make backup copies. Though I believe this is against the letter of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, every article I read on the subject seems to suggest making your own backups (of CDs, movies or whatever) is or should be okay. Not that you apparently need anyone’s permission.
If you buy music online it may be a little different. I haven’t tried this myself, but I think Apple will let you re-download stuff you’ve bought from iTunes if something happens to your files. If true, this means they are indeed selling you a license. I guess they have to be, since they didn’t sell you anything physical…
Uh, Waaah? 
Gents, nice discussion, but totally OT and fruitless.
I am also looking for a good video editing software, with the focus on HD capabilities.
I am currently testing a trial version of Corel Video Studio Pro X3 but I am not yet happy. I also tried Lightworks, but it looks like my notebook is not powerful enough (although it has a 2GHz dual core and 2 GB memory). BTW, Lightworks is FREE, and there are turotials available.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SK4ogYgnm4I
The concept is good, buit as I said, it did not work on my machine.
I’ll play around a bit longer with Corel (unitl the trial version expires) and will see what I test afterwards…
editing programs are for pussies. I use real film and splice it by hand.
Here’s the mental image I got.
The heart & sole of any video if the content, not how cool the titles and special effects might be. The most expensive editing software in the world can’t make up for uninspired riding, bad filming and weak editing.
Sorry about the tread jack
And I totally agree with Terry that crap content can’t be fixed with software.
I am a bit shocked at the anger directed towards me. I said I have maybe a 1/2 million dollars in movies and music, if I had to pay for it. I couldn’t have, so that didn’t not happen because it never could have. Is it remotely possible to compare file sharing to mass murder ? I am shocked at an emotional level. You see, to be totally honest (please believe me on this) , I feel good about my file collection. Some guy ^ linked to an old thread from '07
where I tried to explain to the forum how I was getting free wireless internet. I didn’t feel bad even a tiny bit. A warm glow came over me as I did the math, 42 months of free internet access . Did I feel 42 months of guilt as if I had stolen 70 $/m from Comcast for that long ? No, It felt awesome.
Just trying to be honest here, if Kriss himself came to my door and said that because my genius postings had helped the sport so much that he insists I accept a new KH 36 Shlumph on the house, I would only feel half as good as I did realizing I have had 42 months of free internet. You can do the math.
Honest question here, are some of you guys corporate hacks ? Some of you guys react at an emotional level to my posts in a way I can’t fathom. It’s as if I was trying to explain how much money I am making killing neighborhood children to sell body parts and fill my freezer (to be clear, I would never do that). My question is, are you really feeling guilt that I can’t feel ? , trust me, I don’t feel bad about file sharing. I can’t steal objects from people or harm them because that would make me feel bad. I have feelings. I can feel bad. Do I just lack empathy for corporate profit lost? Are you really shedding tears now for Sony and Comcast ? Honestly now, how do you feel ?
If I was the only guy that went to visit friends with a 2 TB USB drive, I could understand the perception that I was a threatening game changer. But I bought it at New Egg, they sell a million a day. Intellectually, it is impossible to refute that fact, and I don’t think anyone here is to stupid to understand what these devises are used for. Why the negative emotion directed to me ? It doesn’t piss me off, even slightly, I am just curious when people feel so strongly opposite what I feel.
Also, the blunt hand cannot chop good edits.
The comparison is an analogy to your rationale for doing it. Everyone else is doing it, therefore it is okay. Was that it? Or was yours “I can copy. Therefore to copy all is okay.” Do you acknowledge the existence of intellectual property? Hint: Whether you can afford said intellectual property or not should not be a factor.
Not to speak for anybody else, but I’m just debating here, because it’s fun.
Again, the conversation was originally about software, which doesn’t have the same type of middleman as music. I don’t think I could ever feel bad for Comcast, especially, but that’s another story. 
Choosing not to feel bad about stealing a bunch of electrons also does not make it okay. There’s a lot of people in prison who don’t feel bad about whatever crimes they did either.
Large hard drives? I fill mine up myself. My photography dwarfs the music and other media I’ve collected, including the stuff I paid for. I have over 82,000 images in my Lightroom Catalog (which is too many for my paltry amount of RAM, BTW). Saying large hard drives are for copying copyrighted material is kind of like saying handguns are for shooting babies. Just because they can be used for a thing, it does not mean they are made specifically for that purpose.
Software.
Focus, FTL, as best you can. We’re talking about software here. It’s on the thread title, in the first post, HEY DON’T LOSE US! I’m over here.
Look at me! I’m talking to you. Okay?
Software. You with me? Forget about books and music. They’ve got nothing to do with this topic.
Seriously, you’re going to light that joint while I’m trying to explain something to you?
Please, just focus.
Okay. Software.
I’m passionate about this subject because I write software for a living. It pays my rent. It puts food on my table and clothes on my back. It even puts food in my kitty’s bowl and pays for his vet bills. I’m not a corporation. I’m a dude with a computer.
Still with me?
I don’t care if you’ve got the munchies, just hear me for another minute, that’s all.
Just because someone wants money for software, that doesn’t turn them into a corporation. You know corporations are collections of people, right? They aren’t nameless or faceless. You aren’t stealing from an inanimate object. Whether you take my entire dinner, or one kernel of corn from the dinner plates of 1,000 corporate employees, you’re still stealing.
Yeah, I’m talking about food just to torture you, stoner.
Remember, profit is money that is made AFTER salaries are paid, AFTER bills are paid, AFTER taxes are paid… there’s lots of overhead in running a software business! I know you probably hate businesses but you’re using them just the same, you hypocrite. Don’t feel so bad… you aren’t buying cocaine for corporate executives, you’re paying for diapers for Joe Employee’s kid. Seriously, do you want the kid just to sh*t all over himself?
God! I didn’t tell you to sh*t YOURSELF! You really should sober up one of these days.
Alright. You probably don’t even remember what we’re talking about. F*ck if I care. But if anyone else is still with me, I hope you think twice before stealing software. Every time you boot up a pirated app, you kill the enthusiasm of a young computer programmer somewhere. Keep it up and we’ll all be using shoddy shareware apps sooner than later.
I don’t choose not to feel bad
I feel good about file sharing. Sometimes I sneak into my neighbors yard to find and tip over crap that is filled with rain water (it breeds mosquitoes). If a gold coin were to fall out, I would place it back where I found it and slink away. I don’t want to feel bad.
Sure, maybe John Foss can fill a 2 Tb drive with home uni photos. He has more old uni crap than Paris Hilton has pictures of herself. What about us mere mortals ? Most movies are 700 Mb. In HD (blue ray) 4 Gb. That’s still over 500 movies on an 80 $ 2 Tb USB drive. That is what I mean by answering me at an intellectual level. What about that? Who cares if I am an asshole ?, (surely not me). Just as the printing press was a game changer, like it or not. 2 Tb USB drives are here today, play the game or not. It’s not in our hands. The game has changed, the world will not be what it was. Enjoy the music.
When everybody does it, it makes it OK. There really is an infinite , inexhaustible fountain of digital gold for us all. A printing press that needs no ink or paper. Turn up your nose if you want to , no one will care about what you don’t hear or see. Let others watch what you have decided you cannot afford to look at. Let them hear what you cannot pay for. Scoff alone as the world moves on. Next year, 4 Tb drives for 70 $.
I kinda posted over you
Great post, funny. I almost spilled my beer reaching for my pipe when I got to the part about me shitting myself. Then I did. You asshole. 
Are all you programming guys this evil ? How did you know that would happen ? I am going to New Egg right now ! , or soon.
Ftl gives stoners a bad name.
not all stoners are like this.
DAMN!
OK. I have a new diaper now. I am still fighting
What is it that makes software different ? I load my drives with what ever.
Like there is a difference between jugglers , clowns and unicyclists ? Whats next, I have to sort porn stars by their hair color? What planet do you live on, where your special software is special ? It’s all digital. I hoard it, billion’s of people do. That makes it OK.
That’s a lot of posts for a troll.
I see what you’re getting at, but let me take your analogy and apply it to the physical world.
You’re breaking software down into bits, and claiming it’s the same thing as digital music, video, etc.
I could break products down into molecules and claim that it’s just as okay to steal a book as it is a car, or another human being.
Sound ridiculous? That’s because it is.