good grief, you've typed more than almost everyone here tied together in 3 posts. I hope you arn't advocating this much on other forums, that would surely take up your days doing that! ok, got my facetiousness out. all of your points are well made, Fynn, and there is nothing to disagree inherently about them.
But I am curious, why are you opposed to those who fight copyright infringement? How will we be able to distinguish the "douche pirates" from the "college kid" (not necessarily mutually exclusive)? If your best friend received a subpoena to appear in court for distributing copyrighted material, would you support him wholeheartedly with testimony to his good nature, even if his computer was hosting the equivalent of Suprnova? For some reason, I'm reminded of the old anti-drug conundrum: Who's easier to go after, the drug dealers or the drug users? I hate the MPAA and RIAA too, but can you honest-to-god tell me that they have no right to do it? I feel bad for the musicians getting screwed by the record industry, and the writers by the entertainment biz. But this is getting a bit off-topic now.
the paint stroke is invariably to broad, there rarely is any attempt to make the distinction. from my experience there is a certain type of character who is attracted to copyright advocacy and they often would sooner level an environment then coming to a solution. you know, the MPAA and RIAA don't bother me half as much because it's their actual job. some of the methods employed by either amateurs or professionals are as underhanded and as criminal as the pirates themselves, but you could say that is the nature of going undercover and profiling. dos attacks, harassment campaigns, false identities and infiltration are the norm for bringing groups down and it's quite effective. when it's being done to a SAHM who has a Disney character in their email or forum signature then imo the advocate is being morally lower then the offending user of said graphic.
the RIAA have frequently and publically targeted the drug dealers, where if you want to make changes then they should be working at an isp level, with the web hosters and software makers. this problem is not going to go away, just like vcr's and mix tapes are ingrained into our society, there has to be a favourable solution for both parties. I'm not sure about where anyone else lives but here garage sales are not actually legal, and it's against municipal bylaws to put out furniture for free onto the boulevard. technically you have to have a permit to have a bake sale and almost no one declares the income they make from weekend craft markets. there is a very grey area in real life, and sure, if these people were taken to task and prosecuted they'd have no legitimate excuse other than everyone else was doing it. these sorts of things are not really crimes especially in comparison to the real problems going on and that's sort of my perspective on internet matters as well. prosecution of, yes hypocritical and guilty, people for downloading a game or album compared to someone hosting a few terrorbytes of media is silly. that's the douche distinction, and attacking students and grannies who might have partially added to the snowball but can't financially defend themselves is bullying and a poor allocation of offensive tactics.
anyone here ( or publically anywhere ) posting exactly what they illegally download is a bit silly but that's their choice. and since they typed it out and pressed post, they had the time to review if they wanted to or not, so you not reporting them to the 'cops' is not as a gracious or benevolent act as it might appear, they've made up their own minds and power to them. all that said, you're obviously well informed, considered, and almost likable, maybe discuss the game or something on the forum?
