Greg, yer preachin' to the choir here. Back in the mid and late 70's I was in a band that cut three albums, all with Epic Records. About a year before the performance copyright was about to expire Sony Music bought out Epic Records and the copyright clock started all over again. Then, Sonny Bono introduced and got passed a couple of changes to the copyright law that extended the copyright clock to the point that I'll be long gone before I have the rights back to my own music. But I digress...
Fair Use already allows us to make copies of music and video for our own personal use, as well as a limited distribution (sharing it between friends). If you go back and chart the rise in popularity of Napster and free MP3 exchanges, and overlay that chart with one of the rise in music CD sales, you'll fine the graphs to be nearly identical. The RIAA shut down Napster and CD sales took an immediate 30% hit, a hit from which it has never recovered. Of course, cranking out crapy, disposable music doesn't help much, either.
The MPAA fought the VCR tooth and nail, because the VCR would ruin the theater industry. Whoops. Now they're against any kind of digital copying of their movies, for the same reason. About every 90 days the MPAA makes a dramatic statement detailing how many bazillions of dollars that internet and other piracy has cost them, and they say the ruination of the motion picture industry is close at hand. A week later, in an unrelated press release that gets released out the back door, they proudly show record box office ticket sales.
Because of the early widespread release on the Internet of a DVD screener, two weeks before it hit the theaters, George Lucas and the MPAA predicted dismal box office figures for Revenge of the Sith. Said they'd be lucky if they grossed $50 million for the big budget film. It grossed $50 million the first day, and $158 million for the opening weekend. Whoops. Well then, DVD sales and rentals will greatly suffer, because people already have a DVD quality copy of the film. Whoops. Wrong again. The same foot-in-mouth grandstanding happened with X-Men and Spiderman, too.
I've long said that the only way to beat the Internet pirates is to be better at it than the pirates are. The studio released Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest to the Internet the same weekend it was released to the theaters. It did $135 million opening weekend, and is currently ranked 3rd on the all-time box office list with a tad over $1 billion in ticket sales. Go figure.
As for accessing WiFi, I'm with ya when it comes to people securing their networks. All it takes is a couple of clicks to enable the security on those things. If people are going to leave their front doors not only unlocked, but standing wide open, they shouldn't be shocked if someone strolls in once in a while. Just the same, it's illegal to walk in there without first being invited. And when you access the net via an unsecured WiFi connection, you have to remember that you are also accessing the host's network, even if it's just a single computer and a single WiFi access point router.
I'm not saying do it or not do it. I'm just saying be aware of what you're doing when you're doing it.
I once spent a couple of days in a Wal Mart parking lot in Pittsburgh. I was enjoying an unexpected access to the Internet all day Saturday and most of Sunday, when suddenly the connection went poof. It came back an hour later, only the SSID had been changed from "Linksys" to "Bad Pirate Bad". hehe But the funniest things was, neither WPA nor WEP had been enabled. It was still wide open. I messaged him about it, and told him how to enable it to keep out unwanted access. He changed the settings, then messaged me with a thank you and gave me the necessary encryption key so that I could use it in the future. Used it a few times since then. Nice kid.
Fair Use already allows us to make copies of music and video for our own personal use, as well as a limited distribution (sharing it between friends). If you go back and chart the rise in popularity of Napster and free MP3 exchanges, and overlay that chart with one of the rise in music CD sales, you'll fine the graphs to be nearly identical. The RIAA shut down Napster and CD sales took an immediate 30% hit, a hit from which it has never recovered. Of course, cranking out crapy, disposable music doesn't help much, either.
The MPAA fought the VCR tooth and nail, because the VCR would ruin the theater industry. Whoops. Now they're against any kind of digital copying of their movies, for the same reason. About every 90 days the MPAA makes a dramatic statement detailing how many bazillions of dollars that internet and other piracy has cost them, and they say the ruination of the motion picture industry is close at hand. A week later, in an unrelated press release that gets released out the back door, they proudly show record box office ticket sales.
Because of the early widespread release on the Internet of a DVD screener, two weeks before it hit the theaters, George Lucas and the MPAA predicted dismal box office figures for Revenge of the Sith. Said they'd be lucky if they grossed $50 million for the big budget film. It grossed $50 million the first day, and $158 million for the opening weekend. Whoops. Well then, DVD sales and rentals will greatly suffer, because people already have a DVD quality copy of the film. Whoops. Wrong again. The same foot-in-mouth grandstanding happened with X-Men and Spiderman, too.
I've long said that the only way to beat the Internet pirates is to be better at it than the pirates are. The studio released Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest to the Internet the same weekend it was released to the theaters. It did $135 million opening weekend, and is currently ranked 3rd on the all-time box office list with a tad over $1 billion in ticket sales. Go figure.
As for accessing WiFi, I'm with ya when it comes to people securing their networks. All it takes is a couple of clicks to enable the security on those things. If people are going to leave their front doors not only unlocked, but standing wide open, they shouldn't be shocked if someone strolls in once in a while. Just the same, it's illegal to walk in there without first being invited. And when you access the net via an unsecured WiFi connection, you have to remember that you are also accessing the host's network, even if it's just a single computer and a single WiFi access point router.
I'm not saying do it or not do it. I'm just saying be aware of what you're doing when you're doing it.
I once spent a couple of days in a Wal Mart parking lot in Pittsburgh. I was enjoying an unexpected access to the Internet all day Saturday and most of Sunday, when suddenly the connection went poof. It came back an hour later, only the SSID had been changed from "Linksys" to "Bad Pirate Bad". hehe But the funniest things was, neither WPA nor WEP had been enabled. It was still wide open.
I messaged him about it, and told him how to enable it to keep out unwanted access. He changed the settings, then messaged me with a thank you and gave me the necessary encryption key so that I could use it in the future. Used it a few times since then. Nice kid.