This is the first in a four-part series on piracy dilemmas. While we all know piracy is illegal in most countries, and morally wrong in all, there are certain circumstances where it arguably falls into a gray area. The hypothetical dilemmas I present are meant to highlight potential murky areas. I’d like to debate their relative wrongness, and to suggest solutions whereby such a quandary could be avoided.
Our hypothetical illegal downloader is generally a law-abiding individual and dislikes piracy. If presented with an easy choice of a legal download in exchange for a reasonable sum of money, or an illegal one from a filesharing site, she would choose to pay for the legal copy. But what happens if our normally honest person is frustrated in her efforts to obtain (and pay for) a legal copy of a book, film, song, or TV show?
Without further ado, here’s our first hypothetical dilemma:
You and a few friends recently reminisced about a made-for-TV horror film you all enjoyed as teenagers. You’d love to see it again and decide to look for a copy. You check Amazon but the film is no longer available on DVD. You then decide to e-mail the TV station which made – and originally broadcast – the film to see if they would be willing to sell you a copy. The TV station reply saying they regret they have no copies for sale at the moment and currently have no plans to repeat the film on TV.
All the while you’ve been making efforts to hunt down and pay for a copy of this much-loved film, it is freely available for download from a filesharing site. The TV station obviously aren’t interested in making money off you, and you can’t find a copy for sale anywhere. If you downloaded it, how wrong would this be?
What say you? How wrong is our potential pirate to contemplate downloading the film under these circumstances? If the TV station are the copyright holders of the film, are they not encouraging its illegal distribution by not making it available to the public? If it is not financially worth their while to keep DVDs in circulation, could they not have a system of burn-on-demand for such cases? Hypothetical answers are welcome!
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If it’s not available new, they can always buy it used.
There are other options like Half Price Books that sells used DVD’s or they can try looking for it on Ebay. Aside from that, remember there are viruses out there. I went to someone’s website recently and got hit with a trojan (my virus software stopped it). Sometimes the Internet is a nasty place to visit.
Devil’s advocate here – but what if the avid fan is in a different country without access to half, and it is not on feepay (or the only ones on their are pirates) or amazon? And has spent the last ten years looking for it?
Devil’s Advocate #2 Realistically in this case, what is the difference between pirate and the used copy, neither copy gets the copyright holder any money. I mean you could petition the TV station to bring it back into circulation but it not being a version of Law and Order you may struggle.. so it is unlikely to ever be coming back in circulation.
And before Nadia hurts me..
I am just playing devil’s advocate cos it is fun. I have still not seen the last two seasons of my fave anime due to only being able to find pirates online, and I have been looking for over eight years now.. (Though mind you this is probably more for me being tightfisted with moola and not wanting to spend money on carpy version, rather than morals..)
As an aside: Actually for some reason I get less hett up over movie/TV pirating than music/books which can send me raving.. I wonder what is up with that?
PPS. I think the burn on demand is a brilliant one, don’t know why they don’t do stuff like that, same with books.
I know someone who actually had a similar experience. This person downloaded the movie (or maybe tv show, I don’t remember which) from a file-sharing site because it had never been released. This person had asked, and according to the company that owned the rights, they had no intention of issuing a release.
Apparently the company changed their minds, because about 6 months later a DVD was released. This particular downloader happily paid money to get the DVD of a show that they already had, primarily because it supported the possibility of other old shows/movies being re-released on DVD. I don’t know if this person got rid of their downloaded copy or not, but was quite pleased to get an actual DVD.
@Nadia Lee If they can find it, used is a definite option. To be realistic, though, I wonder how willing a person would be to fork out a small fortune to a stranger for a used copy (i.e.: not benefiting the copyright holder in any way) just to do the right thing.
@Keishon Viruses are a definite deterrent. I don’t think enough people take this risk into consideration.
@Edie I also question the difference between a pirate copy and a used copy, especially in a situation like this. My feeling is that copyright holders tolerate the selling of used copies vs. pirate copies because they see the latter as having the potential to supply thousands. I’m not for a moment suggesting piracy is the way to go, but when you also have organised trades such as Paperback Swap and organised sales such as eBay and Amazon Marketplace, I wonder how they are morally superior.
Burn-on-demand would be so cool.
@Sewicked There you go! Your friend was willing to PAY for a legitimate copy, and only downloaded an illegal one when she was unable to find a legal one. Again, this is not right, but I think the entertainment industry is failing to recognize the difference between an innate pirate and a person who becomes one due to the lack of availability of the product they wish to purchase. The former doesn’t give a crap about legality and morality and only cares about getting something for free. The latter is willing to pay for a product but is tempted into piracy due to its lack of availability. These are the people the entertainment industry can realistically hope to influence, NOT the ones who will steal no matter what. The most effective way to prevent a reluctant pirate from downloading your material illegally is to SELL it to them. Simple, no?
I have actually done this. I’ve downloaded old tv shows that were never released on disc or vhs. Usually the quality is sucktastic since it’s frequently a rip of what someone recorded on their vhs.
If there is no way to get a legitimate copy, I don’t see the problem. Most people in that situation, myself included, will go out and buy the legit copy when/if it becomes available.
As for the commenters saying “buy it used” — that doesn’t make the copyright owner any money either, which is the point that people are arguing. It makes the reseller money. Also if something is that rare, it’s frequent that resellers charge crazy amounts of money for it because it’s a “collector’s item” now; I’ve seen listings of old tv shows that are no longer available in the $200 range for a vhs tape. Sorry, but that’s simply not worth it.
@Nonny The prices sellers charge for some out of print books are staggering. That’s why I think sites such as http://www.regencyreads.com/ are a brilliant idea for authors who have gotten their rights back on their OOP books.
I am this person (minus the filesharing website)! Years ago, I saw a wonderful made-for-TV movie from British TV — “Mr. Axelford’s Angel.” Pure romance novel: rich but socially awkward hero hires a pretty but unsophisticated personal assistant. She immediately sees past the ££££ in his bank balance and they fall in love. But the cultural differences take some sorting out, so for a while it looks as though they won’t end up together. But they do! *ahhhhhh*
It may now be available on DVD — but of course only in the UK, and only playable on UK TV sets. (I may still buy it and keep it at my brother-in-law’s house in Yorkshire — and watch it once a year!) But for years it wasn’t available at all.
So, let me ask myself: Would I have downloaded it? Hmm. It’s what’s known as a “victimless crime.” Illegal but not actually harming anyone. I agree with Sewicked’s friend; if you do download it illegally because you have no other option, then pay the full freight when the DVD is available.
And me? Well, maybe it’s significant that I haven’t actually downloaded pirated material, but then again, I shoplifted vinyl albums in my misspent youth, so I’m no pattern card of virtue! (Shoplifting music = Napster before the Internet!)
Some sellers are such thieves. \o/
But realistically if there is no signs of a new edition being printed and used copies are scarce on the ground, then of course that is going to be reflected in the used book price.
I am not a pirate! Am not!
lol
The TV station could make the movie easily available for download on demand if they wanted, and likely make more money off of it if they released it on DVD. If they don’t and there are pirated copies available, personally I don’t see a problem with downloading an “unofficial” copy, no. Especially since I’m probably not paying for the pirated download.
That’s the funniest thing I read today. Thank you so much for this. How did you manage to smuggle out a vinyl album, though? It’s quite big, isn’t it? Sorry, I’m laughing hysterically at the image of a person – in a Miami Vice-type jacket (and rolled-up sleeves) with this odd-looking lump behind the buttoned v-front – coming out of a record shop.
(cough) About ‘Mr. Axelford’s Angel’ – it’ll be released on DVD later this year.
I don’t have the details, but I remember hearing about it a few months ago. I can track down the DVD details if you’re interested.
As for the question? (laughing) I usually download public-domain films and avoid the rest.
“If the TV station are the copyright holders of the film, are they not encouraging its illegal distribution by not making it available to the public?”
Because they aren’t always the full copyright holders. They may have a right to broadcast on own channel, but not necessarily a right to have it released on DVD or any other medium. In a way, TV programme, TV drama or TV film is like a patchwork quilt. Each patch is a right. The TV station might have up to five patches that would allow them to do as they please, but they have no right to other patches of said quilt.
It varies from one case to another as well. If it’s a play adaptation, it can be bloody tough to release it on DVD because it requires the playwright’s agreement. (IMO, playwrights have more rights than any other writers including novelists, scriptwriters, tele-writers, etc.)
Anyroad, the TV station can be a production company, a co-producer, investor or a distributor. If a TV film under the TV station is released on DVD, it doesn’t necessarily mean another TV film under said station can be released on DVD – or any other means including video streaming – as well.
The best thing to do is check their catalogue and if it’s not listed, it usually means a production company holds DVD or worldwide rights.
One could try contacting said company (and usually, some are happy to provide private copies), but 80% of TV production companies are defunct, which is a pain in the neck because it means tracking down the actual copyright holders.
So yeah, it’s easy to see why some decide to download rather than going through all that hassle just to get their paws on a legit copy.
All that said, I’m a lot more against YouTube/Google Video and other video streaming sites than torrent sites. Don’t worry, I won’t rant because this response is already far too long.
HI Sarah,
I want to buy an e-reader as well but have not decided yet… Like you I have too many questions, what I don’t understand that if they want to sell Kindle internationally, why not set up a division for it at Amazon.DE, then they could easily cover the European market, speaking of course from a European POV, since we live here… Well I am gonna wait a while longer before buying one, I want to know more, still too many questions…
Add me to those laughing at the image of Magdalen smuggling a vinyl record out under her coat! How did you manage to conceal it? Or would that be revealing tricks of the trade?
Oh, dear — I should have guessed a bunch as smart as you guys would want details. Vinyl albums are difficult to secret on one’s person, I agree. I know I stole them (I’m not proud of it, but I *know* I did it!) but when I try to recall the details, all I come up with is a tote bag or cloth carrier bag large enough to hold a vinyl album. It’s a wonder I wasn’t apprehended — it’s such a dumbass crime.
And while I’m confessing all, I will tell you that my criminal career ended the day I was picked up for shoplifting porn. Yes, that’s right. Porn. And this is around 1970, so it was not feminist-friendly “erotica” but actual porn. From a family-friendly big box store, to boot. (I was — what? 14? 16? The age of stupidity, to be sure: I was too embarrassed to pay a cashier for a smutty paperback, but I didn’t worry about getting arrested? Really dumb.) Anyway, two burly middle-aged guys pulled me into a dreary windowless room, asked me a bunch of rhetorical questions, gave me a stern warning, and when the smell of my flop sweat got too much for them I was allowed to leave. Never stole anything ever again.
@Maili — Yes, I saw that about Mr. Axelford’s Angel! I’m seriously chuffed; I figure I will get it next time we’re in the UK. Ross (the DH) says my laptop (which is English; I have a £ sign, but the ” key is in entirely the wrong place!) will play the DVD, so I won’t be limited to watching it once a year at my brother-in-law’s in Yorkshire. Whoo-hoo. (And yes, I know I’ll cringe when I watch it because the original magic was probably situation-specific. Don’t care though — it’s been such a touchstone of loss that having the opportunity to see it again is priceless.)
@Magdalen LMAO at the idea of you being caught shoplifting porn! I’d say the staff at the store had a good laugh once you’d been packed off home.