Thread: Piracy is Socially Acceptable

This is kind of a spin off from a post I was reading a few moments ago that posed the question as to whether or not your family and friends knew you were a pirate. (I'll leave my pirate jokes at home for now). Anyhoo, I came across this article that found that 70% of people asked thought that piracy was socially acceptable. 3 out of 4 did think that you shouldn't sell the product for profit after you download it.



I'm actually surprised at the numbers. What say you?

I think that that number is probably lower where I live. Everyone is pretty paranoid about stuff like that. I don't think it isn't socially acceptable however, as I think more people should know about their rights (:P) to bit-torrent.

Pretty unreal numbers actually.

It is,to the extent that i am constantly pestered for Stuff,
and Invites (which i mostly don't give cause there n00bs )

I do know a lot of people who torrent in real life but I live in a college area so that can be why although there are plenty of adults also

This doesn't surprise me.

The reason it's socially acceptable is because the vast majority of people do pirate something in some way or another. Those that don't often ask someone to do it for them, or secretly wish they had the knowledge to do it themselves.

When you were a kid and watched movies, you always thought the bad guys were cool, wished you could steal that money from the bank without getting caught. Some of us were even sad to see the bad guys always lost in the end.

Fast forward 20-30 years. Here you are, in college or older, you can get whatever you want for free, it doesn't involve pointing a gun at someone, it doesn't involve physically or financially hurting anyone in any significant way.

You found the key to making everything free.

People envy that, or they do it. One of the two. The % that said it wasn't socially acceptable probably work in the movie or music industry in some way.

I wouldn't say its "socially acceptable" in my circle. Most everyone does it with this notion that its wrong, so they aren't open about it... When I was a kid my parents had 2 VCR's, so they could rent a movie and watch it on one VCR while they recorded it for their collection on the other VCR. And who (over 30) hasn't copied an audio tape that they borrowed from a friend, or made a mix tape for some chick... even copying CD's... I don't see the difference between that and what we do today, other than its easier.

i know people in the industry who do it themselves

im actually suprised the number is as low as it is i havent come across many at all who think anything bad about it (the only one i can remember off hand is a microsoft antitrust lawyer i met through a friend) "accidently" told them windows "longhorn" (pre-release vista) needed alot of work before they should even consider releasing to the public

luckily he believed me when i said i was a beta tester even tho i had already said i downloaded it (gotta love alcohol)

i think most people are totally fine with it because everyone gets something out of it, either you download it yourself or have a "friend" that can get you a copy

My dad randomly comes up to me and asks if I can download him some of that 80's Music :)