Stealing barely affects prices because comapnies charge what the market will bear. DVD's are cheaper to manufacture, ship and store than VHS and yet cost more. Why? Because studios do some research it and try to hit that magic price point to maximize profits.
If you want a better example, look at C&C: Tiberian Dawn. When it was released it has something like 6 forms of copy protection on it. In addition to cd checks and new media protections like Safedisk, it was one of the first 80 minute pressed cd's. Guess how much it sold for? Just as much as any other new game.
If you honestly think that prices would drop if all copyright infringement and actuall stealing were to stop tomorrow, pass me some of what you're smoking!
Dumbass: "Apple's and oranges both come from trees, so they must be the same thing!"
Man with Brain: "Um, no, they both come from trees, yes, but they are completely different kinds of fruit. Just look at them, one is either red or green and the other is frikkin orange."
Dumbass: "You can rationalize it by saying they're different colors, but thats a lie. If you really cared about apples and oranges you'd know they're the same thing."
Man with Brain: "You moron! Just because two things have something in common doesn't mean they're identical! They both come from trees, start as flowers and have seeds in the middle, but thats it! They have fundamentally different charachteristics that make them totally different kinds of fruit! Why can't you understand that?!? Go pull your head out of your ass and study some logic!"
Dumbass: "You're just nickpicking. Look, I can run out to my yard and pick an apple from one tree and an orange from the other tree. I can eat both of them. Therefore, they're the same thing. Next thing you're going to tell me that cannibalism and income tax evasion aren't the same crime either. Common, one means eating a person and the other eats away at the US treasury. Therefore, tax evasion is really cannibalism!"
There's not just the manufacturing costs...there's shipping, inventoring, stocking and checking. A middleman such as Best Buy has to charge enough to cover all those costs, plus enough to make a profit.
Whereas with online downloads, there's nothing to ship, nothing to store physically, and no inventory cluttering up the warehouse. Which is cheaper: have an album that takes up 100 megs on a server thats downloaded a million times, or selling one million physical albums?
Sure Apple will be the middleman and will make a profit, but they will have zero physical costs. When you look at it that way, $.99 per track is still a bum deal.
Thats because the **AA has been running around calling it "piracy" for years. Just like the origional poster said. Thus proving his point.
The IRS should follow their lead and start calling tax evasion "cannibalism". In a few years everybody will saying what horrible peoples these cannibals are for not paying their taxes.
...is that nothing has *ever* been stolen by p2p, because everything is copied. So the 95% would be trading *copies* of radios and TV's from the local stereo shop.
Copyright infringement is against the law but its not stealing.
In case you haven't noticed, you can't just go where ever you want just to look around.
Thats why we have breaking & entering, and tresspassing, Smart Guy.
Thats great if you live on some planet where law enforcement is infalible. The whole point of getting a warrant in the first place is so that there's some judicial review.
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Stealing barely affects prices because comapnies charge what the market will bear. DVD's are cheaper to manufacture, ship and store than VHS and yet cost more. Why? Because studios do some research it and try to hit that magic price point to maximize profits.
If you want a better example, look at C&C: Tiberian Dawn. When it was released it has something like 6 forms of copy protection on it. In addition to cd checks and new media protections like Safedisk, it was one of the first 80 minute pressed cd's. Guess how much it sold for? Just as much as any other new game.
If you honestly think that prices would drop if all copyright infringement and actuall stealing were to stop tomorrow, pass me some of what you're smoking!
Dumbass: "Apple's and oranges both come from trees, so they must be the same thing!"
Man with Brain: "Um, no, they both come from trees, yes, but they are completely different kinds of fruit. Just look at them, one is either red or green and the other is frikkin orange."
Dumbass: "You can rationalize it by saying they're different colors, but thats a lie. If you really cared about apples and oranges you'd know they're the same thing."
Man with Brain: "You moron! Just because two things have something in common doesn't mean they're identical! They both come from trees, start as flowers and have seeds in the middle, but thats it! They have fundamentally different charachteristics that make them totally different kinds of fruit! Why can't you understand that?!? Go pull your head out of your ass and study some logic!"
Dumbass: "You're just nickpicking. Look, I can run out to my yard and pick an apple from one tree and an orange from the other tree. I can eat both of them. Therefore, they're the same thing. Next thing you're going to tell me that cannibalism and income tax evasion aren't the same crime either. Common, one means eating a person and the other eats away at the US treasury. Therefore, tax evasion is really cannibalism!"
...except that it never was theft to begin with. Copyright infringement yes, theft no.
nobody has ever been killed by a cd or dvd though, unless you're counting Jet Li movies where he throws them into the necks and back of bad guys. :-)
Then how did China manage to land a permanent seat on the Security Council?
There's not just the manufacturing costs...there's shipping, inventoring, stocking and checking. A middleman such as Best Buy has to charge enough to cover all those costs, plus enough to make a profit. Whereas with online downloads, there's nothing to ship, nothing to store physically, and no inventory cluttering up the warehouse. Which is cheaper: have an album that takes up 100 megs on a server thats downloaded a million times, or selling one million physical albums? Sure Apple will be the middleman and will make a profit, but they will have zero physical costs. When you look at it that way, $.99 per track is still a bum deal.
Thats because the **AA has been running around calling it "piracy" for years. Just like the origional poster said. Thus proving his point. The IRS should follow their lead and start calling tax evasion "cannibalism". In a few years everybody will saying what horrible peoples these cannibals are for not paying their taxes.
...is that nothing has *ever* been stolen by p2p, because everything is copied. So the 95% would be trading *copies* of radios and TV's from the local stereo shop. Copyright infringement is against the law but its not stealing.
In case you haven't noticed, you can't just go where ever you want just to look around. Thats why we have breaking & entering, and tresspassing, Smart Guy.
Thats great if you live on some planet where law enforcement is infalible. The whole point of getting a warrant in the first place is so that there's some judicial review.
What if you can't get another job? Even when the economy is good, walking away isn't always an option. Thats why shit like this should be outlawed.
"Lisa, if you don't like your job, you don't go on strike. You just go in every day and do it really half-assed, thats the American way."