[ykevinator2]

I don't understand why we taxpayers decide to pool our money to pay for a staff of employees to ensure that we can't have free music and movies. I would prefer free music and movies over more federal payroll. It's like we all pitched in to ensure Kim Kardashian can have more money.

[reedjosh]

100% this. There was a copyism movement a while back that basically believed humans should have the right to copy and share as they like.

Let's not pretend that free sharing leads to starving musicians. All but a very few are already starving now, and our culture is centralized into a bland nothingness because of it.

In a free to share world, value for value wins. Artists have experimented with donation requested but otherwise free music and won.

In this model there's also no need for distribution or streaming middleman.

And no need for Fed coffers and intervention.

[jokethrowaway]

Because the rich owners of media companies can pay your government, the only entity with a monopoly on violence to act against your interest.

I don't condone piracy and I think the people infringing on an EULA should be punished if brought to a court by the infringed party.

This doesn't mean that the government should do the job for the, spy on you or even just make the job easier for them. Persecuting piracy is not convenient because the company involved is selling a lot of copies of their work, and therefore making money.

There is no reason for society to bear the cost of this exercise, if not corrupted government officials.

[bsedlm]

it's a very complex issue to understand the intertial (traditional) forces behind why we cannot have a megaupload.

Maybe we can make some sense of why we cannot have a megaupload by realizing that we are talking about acting against forces that have existed for dozens of hundreds of years, namely commerce in any form. whereas the internet is barely going on 30 years, and even less as a truly mainstream medium.

[s1artibartfast]

I like free food, money, and objects.

[reedjosh]

Lol, from Zappa's Absolutely Free

> FREE IS WHEN YOU DON'T HAVE TO PAY FOR NOTHING OR DO NOTHING WE WANT TO BE FREE FREE AS THE WIND

[visarga]

> we can't have free music

and musicians can't have free food and housing

[musicale]

Last I checked it was free to listen to the radio but concert tickets were still expensive.

[scarface74]

Would you be okay if large for profit companies didn’t have to abide by open source licenses?

What’s the incentive to make movies or music just to be given away for free? Would you work for free?

[qiskit]

> Would you be okay if large for profit companies didn’t have to abide by open source licenses?

Yes. I believe in the MIT licensing model.

> What’s the incentive to make movies or music just to be given away for free?

Firstly, almost all the money made from movies/music is not made by the artists who created. It goes to the shareholders of large corporations. Secondly, I believe in the hacker ethic of free information online. All media/information/etc online should be free. In the physical, making copies of anything costs time and money. Whereas copying digital items is a click of a mouse. Thirdly, artists can still make money via their fans. If fans like their stuff, those who can afford it will pay.

> Would you work for free?

Nobody is. But then again, why pay someone for something they didn't create. Licensing doesn't exist to protect artists. It exists to protect large corporations.

[scarface74]

So are you saying that large companies operate with a 100% profit margin?

If people can’t afford something that means they should have a right to it anyway?

If a company can’t afford my labor at the price I set, they don’t get to take advantage of my labor.

[bacchusracine]

>Would you be okay if large for profit companies didn’t have to abide by open source licenses?

Are we pretending that they all do?

[scarface74]

Who will pay them if no one pays for their content?

[freeflight]

> Would you be okay if large for profit companies didn’t have to abide by open source licenses?

Disney created an empire out of recycling "open source" folklore tales, then did use that influence to screw over copyright for generations to come.

This last decade it's been busy gobbling up anything worthwhile it hasn't already recycled 20 times.

[scarface74]

The open source crowd didn’t whine about closed source software. They created their own alternatives. Instead of clamoring for others to give their stuff away, work with like minded people to create your own.

Or is your time more valuable trading labor for money like most people?

[freeflight]

> Instead of clamoring for others to give their stuff away, work with like minded people to create your own.

I'm not the one "clamoring" for anybody to give anything away.

Disney didn't work with any of the original creators of these tales, nor their surviving relatives, yet they took that "stuff" and made it solely their own.

> Or is your time more valuable trading labor for money like most people?

I think shared culture is more valuable than having it exploited and gate-kept for purely commercial purposes.

Yet we now live in a world were institutions and people can get "punished" for singing happy birthday.

It's plainly absurd, but by now so normalized that most people stopped caring or even questioning the kind of power and influence Disney has amassed trough it's questionable practices.

[scarface74]

Are you willing to take the time and give your talents away without compensation?

[jokethrowaway]

I think we both agree both situation are wrong.

If a company doesn't abide the OSS license of my software I need to sue. I want companies to sue me for eg. redistributing their content without permission. Not being fined by the government with my own money.

[scarface74]

So if a large corporation with an army of lawyers uses your open source code, how successful do you think you will be at winning the lawsuit?

[bsedlm]

I would work for free if I didn't need money to get any and all things, from basic necesities to frivolous luxuries

[scarface74]

Yes we all have an addiction to food and shelter. But somehow people think that others should work for free for their enjoyment.