Vince at CrunchGear has written a layperson’s guide to piracy, explaining the scene, the tools, and the mindset of bored teens and organized criminals alike. While you won’t be able to download Spiderman 3 with the information he provides, it’s a fascinating look at one of the most divisive topics in computing today.
I think you mean ‘divisive’, and yes it is. On a personal level, I don’t care how intrusive or stupid copyright law or DRM is, I believe a person has one choice– buy a piece of work or do not buy it. Offended by the TOS or the DRM or the media it’s released on? DO NOT BUY IT.
There is zero justification to say that because of the manner that a work is released, you are justified in stealing it. But intellectually lazy people substitute what they see as unfairly restricted use as a rationalization for theft. Weak sauce.
kewtr – this just explains the scene, nothing more.
I think you should care about how intrusive or stupid law is. I agree that the role of citizens is not to break the law, but I assert that the role of citizens is to watch over the law.
Also, the restrictions and the manner of release do (and should) play part in deciding how much protection is afforded to a work. Would you say that a book released encoded, so that you cannot read, it is still released and should be afforded full protection of the law?
Actually, downloading is legal in many countries, as far as you do not resell the downloaded material.
So thank you from Europe for pointing us to tools that allow us to continue legally downloading movies and songs.
It depends if the downloaded software is a freeware. Commercial software cannot be distributed for free.
Downloading Spiderman 3 is legal in Spain and many other European countries, as far as I do not re-sell it or I do not make money out of it.
Kewtr, that’s an interesting opinion. Our history here in the US is rife with examples people breaking laws that didn’t believe in. In fact, our war for independence is a classic example of people disagreeing with government laws.
Now I don’t mean to compare DRM with American independence (although the thought of Pirate Bay using George Washington as their logo is amusing) but saying laws are laws and should never be broken is somewhat absurd. I wonder how often those music execs speed when they drive…
GJ
http://www.60in3.com
Very helpful and interesting. Thank you.
this just explains the scene, nothing more.
Oh come on… this is a how-to guide for noobs. ‘Explains’ my ass…
Luckily, you have a master pirate on deck to help you with understanding the basics that will get you downloading Spiderman 3 in no time.
It’s ridiculous that you feel justified in publishing something like this. Would you put out a ‘how to break the speed limit’ article? ‘Key someone’s bmw and not get caught’? ‘How to shoplift from bestbuy’…?
Sure, there are plenty of people out there doing it. And yeah, the media companies can rip off the consumer in a zillion ways and burden their stuff with drm up the wazoo. And there’s no easy way to get all this stuff on the net legitimately. But encouraging piracy like this? Whatever happened to ethics – I thought lawyers were supposed to have them…
How about a guide for using an RSS reader to pull stories, remove Ads and republish on another blog with their own Ads to generate revenue for them and not you?
College students seem to be the group doing the most illegal downloading. Here are the schools where piracy is a way of life: http://listafte...cy+Schools.aspx