Weekend tech reading: What's a fair penalty for piracy?

I consider piracy legal cause I live in a part of the world where most of the things we get owe to Internet. As long as its not stealing, making a copy is OK.

ye shall walk the PLANK!!!!

The only reason that piracy is thriving is because the recording companies are charging exorbitant prices for their stuff. And no - the artist only gets a very tiny slice of the corporate pie for their work. Hence, some artists are encouraging people to download their own stuff.

Besides, music nowadays suck a lot so I'm surprised that people are still downloading music. I guess newbies have to learn the hard way.

So.. .the person who downloaded 24 songs is being charged for Piracy at the lump sum of $62,500 per song, and they are called the Pirate? Frankly, the lawyers, the judge, and the jury who passed this sentence are the god forsaken Pirates here. I mean, unless they were suing a millionaire or something, this is just ridiculous! The legal system is flat out broken, when a stay at home parent is charged $1.5 million for a few songs, while murderers, pimps, drug dealers, and tax collectors walk free!

Also, about Trend Micro...what the heck. I can see plainly that Windows Security Essentials is an opt in only service. I have yet to even see a pop up on my computer about it, and do not use it. As hard as this is for me to say....I am siding with Microsoft on this one. Trend, you are a great A/V company, but seriously, you just bit the biggest dog you have ever met...you gonna get wooped.

I'm with Vangrat on this one about Mircosoft and the anti-virus argument. Microsoft isn't actually pushing it out but making it an option to install under the "Optional" tab in Windows update, this by no means is a "antitrust issue" I also read the article and it says that Windows Updates itself is "Compulsory" when it clearly isn't, when you open up a Laptop or Desktop for the first time it asks if you would like to enable automatic updates. The Moment that appears it is giving a user a choice meaning it is "Optional" not "Compulsory".

I think Trend don't like the fact that Microsoft's solution picks up more virus's and uses less resources

Regarding Trend Micro and the other companies who sell anti-virus /anti-malware programs, I guess they just can't live with the fact that the top 4 free anti-virus programs control about 42% of the anti-virus software market. Microsoft adding MSE to Windows Update is actually an added benefit to Windows users, a number of whom continue to surf the Net without anti-virus protection. MSE, in my experience, performs better under Windows 7 than under Windows XP and also seems to run better on newer machines. You also have to be proactive when using MSE and get used to manual updates rather waiting for MSE to update itself.

The reason piracy is thriving is because it's very easy and the chance you'll get punished for doing it are very low.

Lowering prices will help a little, but will not eliminate piracy. I remember reading a survey a few months ago where people were asked what would be the price which would make them stop pirating. A third said that no matter the price they'll continue to pirate. Most said about $2 for a movie, IIRC. So most people who pirate are at most willing to pay the price of a rental to own the content, and at worst aren't willing to pay anything. (At least according to that specific survey, but I believe that it's on the money.)

One of the biggest fears I have is buying a new device with a shiny display and finding a dead pixel on it. It happened to me once with a PSP and I have feared it ever since. Companies should have a policy to deal with these kinds of issues.

There are work arounds, but they don't work all the time.

I just hope I never have this problem with a new LCD monitor..

Pay for what you steal [dunno]

I think someone should pay whatever they paid for the music x however many times it was downloaded. If the album cost $10 and was a total of 100MB let's just say and your torrent site shows 10,000MB Upload for that album, then at most you should have to pay $1000. I mean sure, you provided it for download BUT you didn't twist anyones arm to download it. Anymore than that, and you're being punished for someone elses actions. As for the verdict on Jamie Thomas, *****S. That entire Jury Panel should be ***** slapped.

Most people can't really afford to buy albums at the moment. So i believe the record companies are not really losing many customers. Most people are willing to see someone in concert if they like the music as well.

Ruining a woman's entire life and crippling her financially until she dies, for sharing 24 songs. Where was the part about the punishment fitting the crime? The RIAA needs to give up this witch hunt, and put all of this money towards making music that doesn't suck.

$62,500 per song? Really? That is more than a year's salary for one song. This lady only pirated 24 songs...

I know of hundreds of people that have downloaded well over a hundred songs. I dont see why of all the "fish to fry" they pick a mother of 4 who downloaded 24 songs!?

I agree with some of the other posts... I think it should only be $10-$50 per song and I feel it should be capped at a reasonable amount like $30k to $50k. $1.5 million is a joke. How in the world is anyone supposed to pay that much?

Long story short if they want to crack down on consumer's pirating music. Fine a reasonable amount and follow up with an article about how detrimental that fine was to his/her life.

I still buy movies at Best Buy, but being able to preview them before I buy (even if the quality is poor) allows me to make better choices and not to pay for crap. The Movie industry has been lying to us about how good things are with their releases for so long (taking excerpts out of critics comments for instance that do not jive with what they really said, and showing previews that have all the action in them and the rest of the movie sucks) that I for one find piracy refreshing. It allows me to be a better consumer and will force the movie makers to make better stuff.

wow, I´m just thinking, can you imagine the world without lawyers? what a beauty that would be

I have a friend and know of someone else I chat to on steam that 'pirates' and I think I'm going to get some... angry replies for this but I think in the next Windows and Mac OSX update it should download a tiny file that scans and monitors for any 'pirated' content on a PC/Mac and then either report it to the owner or remove it hahaha =P

In some parts of the world we don't have access to somethings so i don't think it piracy i think the up-loaders are just help us to enjoy the stuff that we like but cant get legally

Previous this year a boy was sentenced in Hamburg, Germany for sharing songs on a p2p-network.

He had to pay €15 for each song - €30 total for 2 songs. Close to $40
This is still about 20 times the price of each song, if they where bought legally. Still too much in my opinion, but far better than the ridiculus sentences in the US courts

RIAA: Mr. Sparrow...
Jack Sparrow: That's "Captain" Sparrow...
RIAA: ..."Captain" Sparrow...you have been found guilty for illegally downloading music.
Sparrow: Ok, whatever.
RIAA: And you will be fined $62,000 per song
Sparrow: ............you need to find yourself a girl mate.