Moral dilemma. What would you do.

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Longgilander

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I recently became aware of a person who has a hugh library of pool instructional dvd's, and accustat pool videos who is illegal copying them and selling they for a very low price.

Question is would you purchase them if offered to you even thought you knew they were illegal copies.
 
Considering

the lawsuits against illegal music downloading recently - NO, I wouldn't.
 
Pirate

Well not trying to rat anyone out, but I bet everyone in here has pirated a tape, record, cd, or dvd at some point and time.

However, these people that put out the Pool DVD's are pool players and instructors. Why not buy it full price and help fund anything pool related?

If you are pirating or buying pirated pool stuff, then you are taking money out of the sport itself. You are not helping this sport grow, and you are not supporting the sport the way we all should.

I don't care if pirating is legal or illegal. If you aren't paying full price for those pool related teachings, you are taking money out of our beloved sport!
 
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Longgilander said:
I recently became aware of a person who has a hugh library of pool instructional dvd's, and accustat pool videos who is illegal copying them and selling they for a very low price.

Question is would you purchase them if offered to you even thought you knew they were illegal copies.
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depends....first, do tou want to buy any of his copies? I wouldn't want the originals; so, that's why I ask. second, are you willing to assume the risk of getting caught? I surely wouldn't be; even if it were tapes of things I really wanted. And, C, will it weigh on your mind after you bought them?

"WE" really can't answer these questions for you....sure, we can give our opinions, but 'moral' questions are up to the individual. Just think of your mom asking you as a kid, "if everyone jumped off a bridge..." If you want advice though, NO! There wouldn't be that moral flag popping up in your head if you didn't already know it was wrong...So, simply put, are you willing to do something that you know to be questionable, and deal with the consquences???:confused:
 
Nuff said. I may download stuff and view things on the net, but if i find it like it, I eventually buy it the week after.
 
txplshrk said:
Well not trying to rat anyone out, but I bet everyone in here has pirated a tape, record, cd, or dvd at some point and time.

However, these people that put out the Pool DVD's are pool players and instructors. Why not buy it full price and help fund anything pool related?

If you are pirating or buying pirated pool stuff, then you are taking money out of the sport itself. You are not helping this sport grow, and you are not supporting the sport the way we all should.

I don't care if pirating is legal or illegal. If you aren't paying full price for those pool related teachings, you are taking money out of our beloved sport!
Click to expand...

I have not. I'm not a huge music lover, and I don't usually see a need in seeing a movie a ton of times (I have rented movies that I have felt like seeing again though). And, I have bought a couple of DVDs (hafta see Christmas Vacation around the holidays - and Caddyshack, well, anytime works for me :) ). I don't know where to find the pirated stuff anyways, and won't be looking.....

Scary that it's just assumed that everyone has done this at one time or another - society.....
 
It depends on the circumstances

Longgilander said:
I recently became aware of a person who has a hugh library of pool instructional dvd's, and accustat pool videos who is illegal copying them and selling they for a very low price.

Question is would you purchase them if offered to you even thought you knew they were illegal copies.
Click to expand...

It is a tough question if you moral standards are impeccable. Not everyones are however. In the scenario you mention it is difficult because the deal is great just as if someone offered you a say, a plasma t.v. that you figure has got to be stolen but you buy it anyway cause the temptation is just too overriding. But what if the guy selling is down on his luck, about to be homeless. No job, no prospects, trying to get to a new town to start over although he is older and you knew him for 40 plus years.
Then what do you do? You know someone else will buy them eventually but you want to help your friend out immediately so he can carry on. I would do it, I did just recently and have not lost sleep over it.
 
I tried to e-mail this to the poster but no contact information.

The right thing to do? Contact Pat Fleming who owns Accustats and let him know what's happening . Pat has worked real hard developing his business, attending events and taping, when I know he may have preferred playing.

You might let the guy know at least that what he is doing is wrong. If it's illegal, there's a reason for it. It really does hurt someone else.

Should you purchase it. In my opinion, hell no.

Danny K
 
trustyrusty said:
I have not. I'm not a huge music lover, and I don't usually see a need in seeing a movie a ton of times (I have rented movies that I have felt like seeing again though). And, I have bought a couple of DVDs (hafta see Christmas Vacation around the holidays - and Caddyshack, well, anytime works for me :) ). I don't know where to find the pirated stuff anyways, and won't be looking.....

Scary that it's just assumed that everyone has done this at one time or another - society.....
Click to expand...

So you have never recorded a tape? You have never recorded a cd? you have never recorded a TV show with VHS? All of that is pirating, what you did with it is your business, but it is pirating. That is why at the begining of every sports show they have a disclammer about copying the show. Do you own a VCR? Chances are you have recorded something.

If you haven't, then my hats off to you!
 
Downloading stuff off the net is one thing - actively copying someone else's discs and selling them for your own profit is something else.

I agree with Danny - let the Accu-Stats folks know what's up, and then drop out of the mix - let them take action if they want to.
 
txplshrk said:
So you have never recorded a tape? You have never recorded a cd? you have never recorded a TV show with VHS? All of that is pirating, what you did with it is your business, but it is pirating. That is why at the begining of every sports show they have a disclammer about copying the show. Do you own a VCR? Chances are you have recorded something.{/QUOTE}



I can record the world series on vhs, tivo, whatever, and it's not illegal for me to watch it. It is illegal to show it pubically for profit. I know guys who have done this with boxing pay per views, but I personally have not bought a tape from them. If you are telling me that the episodes of 24 that I couldn't see live that I watched later is illegal...then I guess I am guilty - HA HA! I'm in no way Mr. Innocent whose never even went 50mph in a 45 zone, but if I wanna see or hear something, I can do it by legal means.
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Where I live if caught selling of counterfeit goods you could be charged with a Class Six Felony. You could do time in State Prison.

Seldom happens, but why take the chance of being a guest of the State at the Big House.
 
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Longgilander said:
I recently became aware of a person who has a hugh library of pool instructional dvd's, and accustat pool videos who is illegal copying them and selling they for a very low price.

Question is would you purchase them if offered to you even thought you knew they were illegal copies.
Click to expand...
No way. How could there even be a contemplation to do this?

-td
 
I wouldn't buy it, because encouraging someone to steal copyrighted material by helping them make their activity profitable is over my personal moral line.

However, if a friend had a tape and gave me a free copy (not part of a profit-making piracy operation), I would accept it and watch it. I would be getting something for free instead of paying for it, but I would be able to live with that, as opposed to encouraging an illegal operation to make a profit from stolen material.

I realize that's a fine line, but if I'm being honest with myself, that's what my personal moral threshold does and does not allow.

-Andrew
 
I wouldn't buy it...heck, I even felt guilty when taping vinyl records...and I did so for my own use, just to preserve the vinyl with as few plays as possible.
 
there's another element. be honest with yourself (whether we're talking accu-stats videos, dvd's, or music). would you buy the product anyway? this is a key point because the music industry for example counts every illegal download as lost revenue. which is silly because i and plenty of people have many many albums in our collections that we would never have bought. i download quite a lot of music, but i do have a small cd collection that is constantly steadily growing with the bands i like.

back to case in point, i would probably buy a few off him, but not the ones that i would buy from accu-stats. i have a couple of original accu-stats dvd's and will slowly add to them. but there are loads of matches i probably wouldn't be in a hurry to pay full price for because i don't want them enough to justify the price. but at maybe a quarter/fifth of the price with just the same picture quality? yes, i make no bones about it.

i do believe in the law of karma and as i've explained i do have morals, but there are situations when it'd be silly not to take advantage of certain opportunities.

if all you people saying "no way in hell" are being completely truthful with yourself, then fair play, it's very admirable.
 
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seymore15074 said:
How can you not contemplate it? :eek:
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oh let me count the ways. One, I have never watched a pool insruction or accustats video, and probably won't anytime soon. Two, for some reason I don't find myself contimplating whether or not to do things that I think is wrong. Three, there are people out there that put hard work into things that someone else copied/stole, and I'd rather give my money to the originator than a thief. I could go on and on. When someone runs inside the local Chili's for carry-out and leave their car running, do you contemplate taking it? No? What if your buddy does...wanna buy it?
 
worriedbeef said:
there's another element. be honest with yourself (whether we're talking accu-stats videos, dvd's, or music). would you buy the product anyway? this is a key point because the music industry for example counts every illegal download as lost revenue. which is silly because i and plenty of people have many many albums in our collections that we would never have bought. i download quite a lot of music, but i do have a small cd collection that is constantly steadily growing with the bands i like.

back to case in point, i would probably buy a few off him, but not the ones that i would buy from accu-stats. i have a couple of original accu-stats dvd's and will slowly add to them. but there are loads of matches i probably wouldn't be in a hurry to pay full price for because i don't want them enough to justify the price. but at maybe a quarter/fifth of the price with just the same picture quality? yes, i make no bones about it.

i do believe in the law of karma and as i've explained i do have morals, but there are situations when it'd be silly not to take advantage of certain opportunities.

if all you people saying "no way in hell" are being completely truthful with yourself, then fair play, it's very admirable.
Click to expand...

is it admirable that some wouldn't or is it despicable that so many would???
 
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