Warning: Internet Piracy over P2P can be a crime

I really do get irritated at the use of the word "piracy" on MyBB articles. Piracy is a crime. Downloading a copyrighted file is neither piracy nor a crime.

As the article points out uploading a copyrighted file is illegal. My advice to everyone is, if you really have to download copyrighted material, rather download it from news servers or bulk download services, and avoid torrents and other 2p2 technologies.

Hopefully, one day, all premium content producers will realize just what a brilliant worldwide distribution medium the internet is, and provide affordable and convenient means for people to enjoy their work.
 
Warning: Piracy over P2P a crime

Referring to Section 27 of the Copyright Act of 1978, Michalson points out that "acquiring pirated material from the internet is not per se a criminal offence, if you acquire it for personal use."

The act is from 1978, way before the Internet or digital downloading existed to the extent that it does today. If the powers that be wish to declare this type of action to be a criminal offence, it is high time that they got with the times and updated their lawbooks to reflect our current way of doing things. Once that is done then there will be less grey areas and more black and white ones.

:)
 
Gatecrasher said:
I really do get irritated at the use of the word "piracy" on MyBB articles. Piracy is a crime. Downloading a copyrighted file is neither piracy nor a crime.

As the article points out uploading a copyrighted file is illegal. My advice to everyone is, if you really have to download copyrighted material, rather download it from news servers or bulk download services, and avoid torrents and other 2p2 technologies.

Hopefully, one day, all premium content producers will realize just what a brilliant worldwide distribution medium the internet is, and provide affordable and convenient means for people to enjoy their work.
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Seems like it is time to move away from P2P... and onto the alternate...
 
So downloading or buying pirated material can't result in criminal charges being laid against you, though copyright holders can claim damages from you if they want.
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So, let them claim damages then...
 
i wonder how many adsl users use p2p, in asia they realised that the majority of its users used p2p and the best result was to throttle during the day, or lose 75% of there customers, if you decide to take the file via newsgroup, it is the same thing you still aquired it without payment, just because some oke stands up and says....you know what i fink dat da torrenhts is baaad butda noosgroops us ok doh, doesnt mean ****, sit back down mikulmandleson whatever you name is
 
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So downloading pirated stuff is fine, but uploading is the illegal bit. Torrents create a file from many sources, so if you are "uploading", you are only uploading (in fragments) parts of the file. How can you call it piracy if what you have uploading is not even executable, or even readable alone?

I don't see how you can hold in court if only partially uploaded. If it does hold up in court, to what degree to do stop seeing "parts" of files as non-copyright? 0s and 1s? Then every internet transmission is a "part" of a file somewhere.
 
Piracy and morality

It seems nobody is even considering the moral issues of piracy, every one is just concerned with "getting away with it legally". Why do we perpetuate the notion that it is OK to steal as long as we get away? What will mankind look like in a few generations if this notion is allowed to spread?

Now, downloading copyrighted material is not illegal if the original owner/creator of the material is giving it away for free anyway. But, if the creator/owner is selling it, making (or trying to) a living off his material then yes, it is stealing to simply download it. It the same as the owner selling CD's of his music and you steal one. Somehow that feels more wrong, but it is the exact same thing. You are depriving the creator of his fair income. Effectively you are stealing his money.

Same with uploading. Whether you are only uploading parts of the file (like torrents) or the whole file, you are still contributing to the theft.

So, how would you feel if it were your material being stolen?

p.s. with "creator" I refer, off course, too all channels (distribution, etc) that are entitled to income off the material.
 
I agree, how is uploading a few fragments of a file illegal? And even still you are giving those fragments to multiple people possible own the rights.
In short limit your upload to 2 or 1 kB/s, and have a ratio of 0.1 . Are people forgetting it is illegal for an isp to monitor your traffic in south africa, so yeah download main stream and smallish amounts and you'll be fine..
 
*yawn* who cares whether it's a crime or not, there's no one to enforce it in South Africa so who's going to catch you anyway?
 
OomD said:
It seems nobody is even considering the moral issues of piracy, every one is just concerned with "getting away with it legally". Why do we perpetuate the notion that it is OK to steal as long as we get away? What will mankind look like in a few generations if this notion is allowed to spread?

Now, downloading copyrighted material is not illegal if the original owner/creator of the material is giving it away for free anyway. But, if the creator/owner is selling it, making (or trying to) a living off his material then yes, it is stealing to simply download it. It the same as the owner selling CD's of his music and you steal one. Somehow that feels more wrong, but it is the exact same thing. You are depriving the creator of his fair income. Effectively you are stealing his money.

Same with uploading. Whether you are only uploading parts of the file (like torrents) or the whole file, you are still contributing to the theft.

So, how would you feel if it were your material being stolen?

p.s. with "creator" I refer, off course, too all channels (distribution, etc) that are entitled to income off the material.
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Because it IS OK. Obviously.

What you don't get, is the differentiation between physical property, which is diminished when it's stolen, and intellectual property, which isn't. BIG difference. Go read up on why there's a difference in the legal outlook, and the abuse of the law by content providers, before you whine about us pirates. ARRRGGGGGGG!!!
 
OomD said:
It seems nobody is even considering the moral issues of piracy, every one is just concerned with "getting away with it legally". Why do we perpetuate the notion that it is OK to steal as long as we get away? What will mankind look like in a few generations if this notion is allowed to spread?

Now, downloading copyrighted material is not illegal if the original owner/creator of the material is giving it away for free anyway. But, if the creator/owner is selling it, making (or trying to) a living off his material then yes, it is stealing to simply download it. It the same as the owner selling CD's of his music and you steal one. Somehow that feels more wrong, but it is the exact same thing. You are depriving the creator of his fair income. Effectively you are stealing his money.

Same with uploading. Whether you are only uploading parts of the file (like torrents) or the whole file, you are still contributing to the theft.

So, how would you feel if it were your material being stolen?

p.s. with "creator" I refer, off course, too all channels (distribution, etc) that are entitled to income off the material.
Click to expand...

You're forgetting that morality is relative, not absolute. We as people define what is moral and what is not, and if enough people decide that copying copyrighted content is right and not wrong, then that is what it is. It doesn't matter what the law says. Laws should reflect the will of the people, not the other way around.
 
And if you use services like downstorm or other seedbox services, you can turn the seeding off. So nothing gets uploaded then. I suppose this can be done in the torrent client as well.
 
deweyzeph said:
You're forgetting that morality is relative, not absolute. We as people define what is moral and what is not, and if enough people decide that copying copyrighted content is right and not wrong, then that is what it is. It doesn't matter what the law says. Laws should reflect the will of the people, not the other way around.
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The Force is strong with in this one it is
 
Rapidshare.com hotfile.com sharingmatrix.com oron.com upload.to astraweb.com usenext.com depostifile.com pando.com ... so many choices :p
 
so if u down load without sharing then its not a crime, but once u share to others its then a crime ?
 
OomD said:
It seems nobody is even considering the moral issues of piracy, every one is just concerned with "getting away with it legally". Why do we perpetuate the notion that it is OK to steal as long as we get away? What will mankind look like in a few generations if this notion is allowed to spread?

Now, downloading copyrighted material is not illegal if the original owner/creator of the material is giving it away for free anyway. But, if the creator/owner is selling it, making (or trying to) a living off his material then yes, it is stealing to simply download it. It the same as the owner selling CD's of his music and you steal one. Somehow that feels more wrong, but it is the exact same thing. You are depriving the creator of his fair income. Effectively you are stealing his money.
<and the rest that i deleted fromt he original quote ...>
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I disagree, if it were truly illegal to 'pirate something'; then I would not have bought it in the first place. Also, nobody would know about the 'owner's' product no matter how you wish to argue. Piracy is a marketing tool; just the world doesn't see it that way. There are more intangible benefits to piracy that you might think...

And besides, i would be honored if my content is pirated; means that loads of people like what i made. You are thinking that each pirated item= sale which is incorrect.

And besides, we used to record things on VHS and those werent regarded as piracy, so I dont get the point to the whole piracy argument...
 
Quote: Referring to Section 27 of the Copyright Act of 1978, Michalson points out that "acquiring pirated material from the internet is not per se a criminal offence, if you acquire it for personal use."
"Distributing those materials, even for free, is a crime,"

If the above is the case then how come there is a certain company in Jhb that has a website and openly sells copied, (pirated), games? They've been going for years and seem to get away with it.
 
Download away folks. The people at RISA are trying to earn their money.
 
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