I was listening to a new podcast by the Globe and Mail. "The Download Decade" and this old music industry fossil who is now head of some international coalition to rally all countries to "stop piracy". He said pirate, piracy & steal so many times that I didn't start to feel guilty for downloading torrent files, I started to be insulted. I am not a Pirate.
I started to think about the what the people on the other side always call it, "file sharing". Yeah that's more like it. If I flashback 15 years, before the digital jungle we call the interweb was widespread. I use to own a double deck cassette player and when me and my buddies would buy a record or cassette we would share our purchase with each other. I also remember listening to the radio and recording off-air my favorite songs. Then when I had some disposal income I would lots of there overpriced cassettes, then CD, VHS and finally DVDs. I owned so much stuff that I filled many Ikea bookcases and bins with my various media. Sometimes a friends would want to borrow some media they were more than welcome that's what friends do. I shared my media with them and occasionally they would even make a copy of it to play in there walkman's or Golf GTI, crazy concept.
In the last few years I have, with the encouragement of my wife, to discard some of the now obsolete media (cassettes, VHS and soon all my DVDs will be on the chopping block). So, lets get this straight I have pumped in lots of my money into the "Fat Cats" pockets. And let me write this in caps, I AM NOT GOING TO RE-PURCHASE ALL THE MEDIA THAT I PREVIOUSLY OWNED, again. I must admit that I have doubled and now with the advent of yet another device (Blu-ray) triple purchased some of my favorite media; guilty over consumer. I am a media lover but this is like one of those dysfunctional on-again-off again high school relationships, I am tired of breaking up with my media. So, please don't call me a pirate. Wait a minute! When I really think about it, I still buy music or give it as a gift (itune cards are very convenient and always appreciated) and I go to the movies and even buy an occasional Blu-ray DVD. I am still consuming there products. So, please don't call me a Pirate.
Okay, one might say what about the new music, TV and Movies that are released every week? This is also really important (let me cap this) IF I AM DOWNLOADING IT, IT MEANS THAT I WOULD NOT BUY IT IN THE FIRST PLACE. If its TV I would not make room in my schedule to sit through your show and I would not spend money on a box set of a TV show that was on the tube for "free". I hate downloading Movies because they are usually poor quality, but if I would, its because I WOULD NOT PAY MONEY FOR THE MOVIE. If your media is good I make a point to spread the word (aka free advertising) So, for the love of Jeebus, DON'T CALL ME A PIRATE! If you must label me call me a Digital Sharer or something. LIST OF SHAME (some of my double purchases or Triple purchases) Aliens Trilogy Stanley Kubrick Movies Say Anything Wu-Tang Clan Nirvana (I am going to stop this list is aggravating me)*
COPYRIGHT SHARED LINKS
The Download Decade lots of great info about the history behind copyright and some better written articles about "Piracy" battle.
Search Engine (Jesse Brown Moved from CBC to TVO update your itune Podcasts subscriptions)
Michael Geist (keep up with the latest news on Copyright battle)
*But Please feel free to add to this list of double purchase that you have made to the poor Music Mega Companies & film studios.