Technopunk said:
Here's where our principles differ, fundamentally. I wont condone theft of property. If I have a cow, and you take my cow, I no longer have a cow. Therefore you stole from me. The same goes for farmland, bread, a compact disk, or money...
But the way I see it is If I own the Mona Lisa, and you come take a picture of it hanging on my wall, blow it up and put it on your wall, and enjoy it, you have not stolen from me, because I still have the painting. I also believe You cannot "steal" what does not exist... code. Sound. Air. Its all the same, TO MY WAY OF THINKING. Thats my principle.
So, you give no credence for skull sweat and creativity? You don't think that musicians, technicians, writers, etc should be paid for what they do?
If you compartmentalize things down to just the physical cost of producing a DVD or CD, then you ignore all the expenses that were needed to produce that song from the effort of the writer all the way down to the first aid guy who stood by just in case during recording. The producers have already paid them, now they need to get back those costs and if they can't they won't do so in the future.
I honestly do not know how much it costs to make a typical album. But I can see what it costs to make a typical movie before it ever goes to DVD. And I know they are not going to get back their cost by selling is for only 10 cents above the physical cost of the DVD. How much is too much? You will have to decide what is too much and then not pay it or recieve the product.
Here is an example closer to home. I know you are associated with Ed Martin. What if he gave a seminar to a packed house and before the fees were collected all but two people ran out the door? Looking at what you wrote above, they would be justified. They did not take any money out of Ed's pocket. Do you still think he would be pretty mad? Do you think he would be willing to do many seminars under those conditions.
Here is another. Would you like to get some up to date essays from Masaaki Hatsumi on Bujinkan themes? Well, you never will. There used to be newsletters in English. In fact there were three. Bujin, Tetsuzan and Sanmyaku. All went belly up. Not enough people were getting them. Well... the were
getting them. They just were not paying anyone involved with producing them any cash. They made photocopies. It was cheaper per page to go to Kinkos.
But even though AFAIK Hatsumi himself never got paid for what he wrote, the typesetters, editors and worthy translators all had to be paid, and that had to be spread out among a small group of subscribers on top of the physical costs of printing. The hope was that as more people subscibed, the cost would come down as it was spread out. But they never got the chance. Since no one was willing to pay for this 'nothing' as you view it, the newsletters all went bust. Now there is nothing current for you to get better informed.
Over the years I have seen people explain why they copied them instead of paying for them. They all try to justify it. I have seen people who wrote about incidents they saw while in bars say they did not have the money for a subscription. So they had money for beer but not for something that will help them be better practicioners? Some even tried sounding noble by saying something about getting as many people as possible close to the words of Hatsumi. But of course, now no one can get anything unless they read Japanese.
There are still some things in Japanese By Hatsumi that I have that has never been translated into English. My guess is that they never will. I do not see why Hatsumi would pay a proffesional translator the high fees they charge knowing that within a week after it comes out people will be scanning it and distributing it over the internet and he will never recoup his cost.
And it is because people like you believe that property is worthy of theft but mental effort is outside that rule.
