Piracy, Legal or Not? Options

[medic]

I've noticed on this forum that they shut down almost every topic that has to do with any P2P program. Its not piracy to have a P2P program, or to use it. Its the way people use it. RealPlayer records what you play and sends it to there datacenter, that invasion of privacy, why aren't they getting sued. And NO they don't ask you if you want to participate in a consumer deal, they do it on there own will. The program is made to share information, so if you find a P2P program illegal, shut down all topics about AIM, Yahoo Messenger and MSN Messenger - they all have P2P in there, you can send files through them - but for some odd reason there not considered ILLEGAL and don't get stereotyped as PIRACY. Consumers label a P2P program as Piracy, I think it is unjust. Why isn't TiVo illegal - it records movies without commercials and you can then burn them to a CD. If I wanted I could go set TiVo to make a copy of Assault on Precinct 13 on HBO or Stars and then burn it to a DVD. I didn't pay for that movie, I pay for the channel - but that still does not make it legal for me to do that. So in what ways does you downloading the same movie off a torrent site have any different effect. The RIAA and MPAA are just looking for more ways to screw consumers over.

I am doing what one of the mods said, to post it in debate - so I did. And I bet it gets shut down again.

[*mipadi*]

Generally, if someone creates something, and you consume it, whether it be a chair, car, software, or music, it's expected that you give the creator compensation (unless they waive their right to compensation). Thus, it's not only a legal, but I feel, a moral and ethical requirement to pay the person for their work, and refrain from using that software or music without compensation.

The issue with recording TV shows or movies on a Tivo or similar device is a sticky one, but the creator has already been compensated for that product, in the form of revenue generated from advertising. I think it's okay to "time shift" TV recordings, as long as you do not sell or otherwise distribute those recordings.

And to specifically mention the thread you brought up: a person in that thread did specifically ask how to use a crack code he had for Photoshop, which means he was in violation of CreateBlog's no-piracy policy.