The morality of DVRs...

I'm curious how those of you that are against pirating feel about DVRs... What do I mean?

Well, the basic argument is that the reason "pirating" is bad is because you are stealing, not paying for, whatever it is you are pirating.

What does that have to do with DVRs? TV, cable and network, the programming you get to see is paid for via commercials. The commercials are based on the idea that they are exchanging paying for the show for time to convince you to buy their product...

By you not watching the commercials you are not upholding your end of the sales thing going and because of that, in essence, not paying for the show you are watching and thus stealing that show...

DVRs are a big part of our culture now, but I've never heard anything against them, but they pretty much do the same thing as pirating. So...

It seems to me that people who are against pirating should be against DVRs... so are you or not? Why or why not?

I don't think it's remotely the same.

DVR, unless you have more money than sense and own about a dozen of them, you eventually run out of space, so the TV stuff you're getting isn't permanent.

The adverts, yeah, you might skip past, but you do see them, albeit superfast and almost subliminally. I know I skip past adverts, but every so often one catches my eye and I end up rewinding to watch it.

Also, there's a big difference between recording something on a DVR, watching it and then deleting it than there is is downloading a film, burning it to disk and either keeping forever or worse still, selling it for a profit like the true pirates do.

I'm a MASSIVE fan of try before you buy. I've lost count of the number of albums I've downloaded, listened to and then immediately gone out and bought it becuase I've liked it so much. With downloaded albums being a lot cheaper than the physical version, it's a no-brainer for me and it's the way the industry should have gone a LONG time ago. Same applies for movies. I've downloaded a movie and then gone out of bought it as a result, and the few I've watched and not liked, well, I still pay for my Sky subscription so they still get the money they would have got from me watching it a few months later on TV, I just did it a bit earlier is all.

Some might lump me in with the bad guys, I don't really care. The industry gets the same money from me it would anyway. The only films I get on download are the ones that have been released on DVD. I didn't pay a lot of money for a good TV system to watch some crappy camcorder jobbie from the cinema. If I like it, I go out and buy it, hence the over 900 DVD's sat on my shelves above my head atm.

If I don't like it, I delete it.

It amuses me that other industries use the try before you buy approach and it works for them. From the big stuff, like car sales where you can test drive, to my local bakers who have samples of buns on the counter for me to try first. Same goes with games, they let me test them with demos first. The music and movie industry should adopt something similar and let people get things at a GOOD price, rather than trying to fleece us for too much to begin with.

if you're not distributing it, there's no problem

Oh, also.....IBTL

guilty pleasure

On topic: It's the same with VCR's. If this was considered piracy, they wouldn't be selling them. Whether you watch a commercial or not is nothing that is guaranteed. What's to say I haven't walked away from the TV while commercials are going on. The whole premise that that DVR's are the same as pirating is so horribly flawed it shouldn't even have a thread to question it.

Prediction: Soon Dur will be derailing his own thread like the last time he brought up a similar subject (see his suggestion that his memories of a movie could just as easily be considered piracy by his own special definition) and bring about a threadlock after complaining we all gang up on him.

Very well predicted, but you know, it's fun watching the craziness that goes on in his head, it's like a little Durakken world

Also, on topic, arguably VCR's could be more classed as a form of piracy as it's a physical medium for it to be kept on, DVR's by their nature are transient and intangible formats that will eventually run out of space.

Interesting how VCR didn't destroy the movie industry like a lot of people said it would

You might want to be a little more specific then.

Anyway, regardless of what site it is, if it's a private site, then people can damn well say whatever they like, within the relevant laws of of their countries, etc etc. You don't like it? Don't read it then.

Next you'll be going in to peoples houses and telling them what they can and can't talk about

Well Durr, you and PK/Westley can be equally insane, just you decided to take your ball and go home. It's nice to be able to have a conversation that doesn't inevitably takes a nose dive into a empty well at the bottom of a ravine in the Grand Canyon sometimes.

I've caught flak too, but I have thicker skin than what anyone could ever say to me.

Quote:

TeamFourStar's content is actually legal, but whatever...

hence my comment about unfair ruling used against them

Quote:

I'm talking about posting content from tv on places where it's "illegal" to post them. MMPR on Youtube is copyrighted material and watching it via stream from youtube is considered pirating, but the argument was that if it's not a permanent thing for the viewer then it's not pirating because it is completely different.

Well if you're posting it online after taking it from tv, then it's permanent till it's taken down one way or another, because you're technically distributing licensed content as a unlicensed distributor w/ the only exception being the fair use act (parody's, etc).

On another note, the guy who distributed XMEN Origins: Wolverine (the unfinished version), received a 1 year sentence in federal prison.

So, like quite a few of Dur's threads, I have to wonder what this has to do with comic hero and vilain culture? This entire thread is off topic.

pirates are villains

Do you not think that maybe people act towards you as you say that's because you constantly post the silliest, most ridiculous threads and posts all the time?

This thread is a perfect case in point. You know it's against the forum rules, yet you posted it. You know it will get deleted, yet you posted it. The original concept of the thread is blatantly ridiculous as well, if the movie and TV industry thought for a SECOND there was any chance of DVR being bad for business, they would have moved heaven and earth to get it shut down, yet we've not seen on single thing anywhere to suggest this, so it's clearly not even remotely like piracy.

So, either you genuinely don't realise how silly your posts and thread are, or you're a troll out for the kicks of getting people to respond to you. Either way, you kind of open yourself to the responses you get.