Whether they be the online crews that supply so much, or the money hungry Asian and American city corner bootleggers in my honest opinion I think they deserve a medal. The philosophers of the past would be proud. For they have taken the entertainment and educational products from the elite and served it to the public.
I was thinking the other day as I drove in my car to my college, while I was pondering how a nice fat ass loan check would be nice so I could go buy a new computer. It came to me... I was broke because I had to spend 500 dollars on school books, nothing fancy either just some French, math, and history books and some notebooks and a book bag. My lord! I thought to myself, these were the used book I bought; I would've spent a lot more if I bought the lot new. How On Earth do poor people and I mean like ultra poor afford all this. Well they can't. People in broke ass countries can't afford books, book bags, and computers. The inflated and often overrated mind treats we take for granted most will never see. Who is the RIAA and MPAA and governments of the world to say people can't have that because they don't have the money. Knowledge is knowledge and knowledge should free, whether it be a book, movie, TV show, or game.
Books for school 500
Laptop 1200
Apartment 600
Food 200
Girlfriend (Free trial 30 days)
Internet+ cable bill = 90 bucks!
When I was young I couldn't afford to buy doom, or pay for a font I was only going to use once, or buy Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy book... radio play... and BBC series (thanks guys :P). If it wasn't for piraters I would've never been inspired to go to College, or know how to kill demons at a really fast pace.
Now I have a decent job, and I make alright money, but I am always in the negatives. It seems to be productive member of society you need to cough up a lot of cash. I don't see Bill Gates lowering his prices down to 15 cents, or McGraw- Hill dispensing the knowledge they acquired from PEOPLE throughout history at NO COST - back to people at a reasonable price. Since when did wanting to learn a language or watch a movie for two hours become only the domain of the wealthy? Well... obviously when the wealthy took everything over. And I’m not endorsing everyone go rip artists off, I'm just saying if you can afford it fine pay for it, I do. But if you can't... I’d gladly allow you to copy it of me. And perhaps- just perhaps one day we can all talk in a language, be it we parlevu francais or hablamos espanol and figure out why we hate each other so much.
-Doelio
hah... It's true, I would've never had alot of cool software like encarta and windows if it wasn't for piraters when I was young also. Now I am a software engineer... I buy everything because I aquired the knowledge and skills to gain a good job that allows me to purchase what I once pirated.
Posted by: Dirg Diggler | February 25, 2005 at 10:46 PM
Things are a lot cheaper in 'broke-ass countries' as you call them. New books cost like $10 around here (eastern europe). From what I've seen of american books in shops, they aren't significantly different (obviously crappier paper, less colorful pictures, but we don't mind) in quality of content.
Posted by: | February 26, 2005 at 08:59 AM