Long time ago, almost as long as we’ve been using computer, listening to music & watching movies, we’ve been using pirated software, listening to pirated music & watching pirated movies.
Why is that? Because no one told us it’s wrong and because all people around you used to copy music (casset days), share computer games on floppies or cds & when you go to buy a movie it’s most probably copied.
Well, time has come to change. Why the change?
It’s simply for religious, moral & ethical reasons.
Since all pirated stuff are essentially stolen, it all makes sense.
The bottom line here is, if you want it, buy it!
Some of people would go around in circles justifying the reason of them downloading music over the internet saying that a guy has purchased it & then distributed it.
If someone is actually making stealing easier for you, it doesn’t justify that you steal. The guy doesn’t own the music buy purchasing it, he can listen to it but cannot publish it.
People forget the fact that even soft copies such as software, music & videos are actually stuff you sell, just like a car except that the car cannot be duplicated freely. So you have to pay for another one in order to give it to a friend right? While a song is just copied.
Imagine two companies, a hardware & software vendors.
Both are making effort to manufacture & sell their products, yet the software would be loosing due to piracy, it is just not fair.
We can keep talking about the problem but the solution is to start by yourself.
I’ve been telling my friends that I’ve set a goal for myself, I’m getting rid of all pirated software, music & videos by 1st of January 2010.
I’m already using Linux with a lot of Free & OpenSouce software since 2007 so I don’t really have to worry about software much.
I’m not a fan of many series nor movies, but I like to own some stuff, so I do not have a big issue with movies either.
My main problem here is music, I’ve got an iPod but Kuwait’s iTunes store sucks! It doesn’t have any of the songs I want, it cannot even get the cover pages of the cd’s I’ve ripped.
I got about 35 CD’s didn’t get any of the album arts, not Arabic, not English, not even Yanni, one of the most known artists in New Age music.
I’ve come to know that Amazon has an MP3 store which I’m thinking to give it a try, currently I’m moving all pirated music files I own and which I really want to keep into a “to replace” directory, I won’t use any of the files but would either do a list of them or keep them there till I buy the original & delete the pirated file. A list looks better to be honest, cause the file might tempt you to click it. I think I’ll go with the list.
I must spend some good time on this, today is 31st Dec 2009, less than one day left. It’s not going to be easy, but everything begins with few steps.
Some friends are supportive, some against the idea & some is making fun of it, but hey! Legal is legal.
I believe what I’m doing is right no matter what justifications you give to “steal”.
I hope I’ll be posting some images of the CDs I’m getting rid of & posting the progress on the 1st of January 2010.
Till later…