SMBC Comics Forum

LordRetard wrote:There are generally two situations that a victim of piracy can be in.

1. No one knows you and no one will listen to your shit. Therefore, you're actually receiving publicity for this, and will sell more records.
2. You're rich! Who gives a damn!?

Altogether this is all just a "putting price on information" thing, because it doesn't occupy physical space. And intellectual property is big in the states, because you can make a lot of money that way. I still think it's ridiculous, it's not as if any of this actually exists.

Plus, stopping the Pirate Bay does nothing because all they do is offer links to torrents, they don't actually carry the files themselves.

So you conceived the idea that ideas don't exist?

Um, what? Just because you can't touch an idea doesn't mean it isn't real.

Cirtur wrote:Um, what? Just because you can't touch an idea doesn't mean it isn't real.

Wow. Then I'm not sad and lonely, am I?

Wha? I mean an idea is real, as an idea. In fact there's an interesting short story about if ideas could be turned into energy.

I'll be honest, I don't believe anything exists. But that's not really relevant.

What I mean to say is that ideas do not occupy physical space. Savvy?

The Pirate Bay was the best torrent site out there. They had a wide selection and the search feature was great. Plus you could preview what was in the torrent file, and people could leave comments on the files. I hope it'll stay the same (and that they repeal their sentence).

LordRetard wrote:I'll be honest, I don't believe anything exists. But that's not really relevant.

What I mean to say is that ideas do not occupy physical space. Savvy?

Technically they still do, since they're stored on something physical.

And i don't like the mentality of defending the perpetrator of a crime over the victim of said crime.

My position is that file sharing will either benefit industries or have no significant effect.

What about the middle ground? I'm no better than you I still use the pirate bay, but what about the artists that aren't insanely rich or ridiculously obscure?

Cirtur wrote:What about the middle ground? I'm no better than you I still use the pirate bay, but what about the artists that aren't insanely rich or ridiculously obscure?

I'm very situational about the whole thing. When I want music from an independent artist that exhibits creativity and talent, I am far more likely to buy the album. When I want some guilty pleasure pop song and I know that it's the only good song on the album and the so-called artist is richer than I could ever dream of being by virtue basically singing karaoke..... I am more inclined to download it.

I can't afford CDs or DVDs, and I feel I have the right to listen to music/watch movies for free.

littleninja wrote:

Cirtur wrote:What about the middle ground? I'm no better than you I still use the pirate bay, but what about the artists that aren't insanely rich or ridiculously obscure?

I'm very situational about the whole thing. When I want music from an independent artist that exhibits creativity and talent, I am far more likely to buy the album. When I want some guilty pleasure pop song and I know that it's the only good song on the album and the so-called artist is richer than I could ever dream of being by virtue basically singing karaoke..... I am more inclined to download it.

I agree and don't. When I go to a concert of a more obscure band, I try to come with some money. Because I like the idea of supporting them, I might not be able to find the CD elsewhere (and in some cases, you can get stuff you can't get elsewhere, such as E's autobiography that wasn't to be released State-side for another 6 months). But in this case, I also like the idea of giving the money right to them, because there isn't the distributor middle-man eating some of the cost.
On the other hand, I don't like purchasing single CDs on the internet. Most places make it worthwhile to buy more. So the problem is that someone like Clem Snide has pretty near a dozen CDs total, and I only have 4 or 5. No music store in Canadia that I've ever been in sells them. So, someday I plan on plunking down the $60-100 for the rest of their discography, but that is a fair bit of money to shell out, and I be poor.

I think Zach needs to advertise his comic to people with money; at the moment he's attracting a lot of poor people.*

*I would include myself in that category.

"Zach" also includes a "ch" that's pronounced like a 'k'.

Doesn't start with it though.