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Ask HN: If SOPA isn't the answer, how do you eliminate online piracy?

• rythie 15y ago
  You can't eliminate it completely, though companies like Nike, Apple and Microsoft are able to continue being profitable despite widespread pirating of their goods. In part the problem is that piracy is easier than current methods of getting content and partly that businesses haven't adapted to the new business models needed.
  • DilipJ 15y ago
    They are still profitable, but obviously they would more profitable without piracy. That is a point that needs to be considered. No one can just suddenly state that one company has too much profit. Just because media companies are profitable doesn't excuse pirating of their products
    • rythie 15y ago
      Don't make the mistake of assuming that pirating users would pay for something they currently value as zero. Also there is a trial effect where people pirate software like Photoshop at home, learn how to use it and later on get employers to by it for them when they are employed.
      • DilipJ 15y ago
        but they don't value it at zero. if they did they wouldn't pirate it in the first place. pirating takes time (which is valuable) and storage on a hard disk, which has a cost. so any pirater is valuing it on some level. as for the photoshop example, again you are attempting to rationalize a crime. Companies already provide subsidized software for students so that they can gain familiarity with it prior to entering the workforce
        • rythie 15y ago
          Yes it's already a crime and personally I wish people would just use gimp which is free. People behave in a certain way and changes to law won't really change that - given that these activities are already against the law.
• armaanahluwalia 15y ago
  Let's all be clear here. SOPA is less about piracy and more about censorship. The internet has evolved into becoming our only defense against people in power ( be they governments or corporations ) conspiring to keep the status quo by keeping information from us. SOPA is their attempt at confiscating this wonderful tool we have for organisation and spreading information. This discussion is part of a larger debate as to the balancing act of affording unchecked power to a selected group of people. Keep in mind, the ideal of democracy allowing the replacement of these powers DOES NOT WORK in real life. THIS is the real root of the problem. This entire debate reminds me of the Lokpal bill debate going on in India. Essentially asking – How do you police the police?
  • DilipJ 15y ago
    That's just conspiracy talk. So the same U.S. government that created the internet, and opened it up to the public, is now trying to censor it? I think the politicians are acting honestly and with good intent: their goal is to prevent this tool for communication for being used for criminal purposes, and yes, digital piracy is a crime.
    • armaanahluwalia 15y ago
      The government doesn't act as a collective unit. It is made up of individual actors, however, it is entirely possible that by making decisions with the best of intentions, they end up gifting certain elements a magic wand to censor any and all activity that may threaten their power. It's true, you wouldn't call the guys who created the atomic bomb mass murderers, however that doesn't change the disastrous consequences of their actions!
• noonespecial 15y ago
  You don't fight piracy with laws. You fight piracy with products. Most piracy is more about convenience than price. Thousands of smarter people than me have written reams about this. Its like fighting obesity. You don't just take a drug and get a quick fix, it takes a different mindset that causes the patient to live a different kind of life.
  • DilipJ 15y ago
    Convenience doesn't justify anything. It is more convenient for me to take a newspaper off my neighbor's lawn than it would be to contact the newspaper company and order a subscription, but that doesn't mean it's ok.
    • Avenger42 15y ago
      Your situation is theft - by taking the newspaper, you're precluding your neighbor from enjoying a product or service that he paid for. That's not the same as infringement - a closer newspaper-related metaphor might be you reading over your neighbor's shoulder on the bus.
    • malandrew 15y ago
      That's theft not piracy. The marginal cost of production of that newspaper is non-zero. The marginal cost of production for information goods is zero.
      • DilipJ 15y ago
        Marginal cost shouldn't matter. What matters is consent. If the content creator does not consent for someone to enjoy his/her work without some level of compensation, then it is up to the customer to decide whether or not to purchase the work at the set price. If the customer decides not to purchase it at that price, then his recourse his to purchase either a competing product or wait for the price to come down, not to steal it.
        • malandrew 15y ago
• Avenger42 15y ago
  Actually, I don't agree - to my mind, the DMCA (as much as I disagree with most of it) already provides a mechanism for the situation to be handled: if we find our content on your site, we send you a notice; to be eligible for "safe harbor" status, the site must take the content down. We've already seen that this law is often misused by large-scale content creators (see: Warner and Hotfile, various music labels issuing takedowns on files uploaded by their own artists). I don't know why I should expect that giving additional power to those most likely to misuse it is a good idea.
• clueless 15y ago
  How do you stop drug trade? How do you stop illegal activities in general. I'm not sure you can ever eliminate these. Most you can do is to curb them. In the case of online piracy, as some have already said, part of the issue is convenience. But that is only a part of the issue (and this where netflixes, spotifies, and steams of the world come in). But you will never be able to stop people who rather pirate (either for financial reasons, symbolic reasons, etc.). Now the question is, are you willing to give power to people who may abuse it to stop something that may be unstoppable or would you rather work on other means of curbing the issue.