Moral dilemma. What would you do.

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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I've read every post so far and I can honestly say I wouldn't buy the illegal copies. I believe in the concepts of intellectual property and copyright.

Having said that, I have been given a few songs by friends that I couldn't get to play on my ipod, ok so I'm not very technically savvy, so I ended up just deleting them. I think that kind of thing is hard to avoid in this day and age.

I've even purchased songs off the i tunes store that I have in my CD collection (and album collection in a few cases), just so I didn't have to go digging through a bunch of stuff. Lazy, I know.

Here's what I would like to know, how many people on here feel it's ok to hustle a lesser pool player, but not to buy pirated copies of dvd's and tapes? What's the difference?
 
td873 said:
Apparently, you don't get your morals anywhere. Moreover, nobody said anything about the bible.

To sum it up: Dude, you are 27, you shouldn't be stealing anymore. AND you are a software engineer - shouldn't you AT LEAST appreciate the IP of others since it is related to what you do for a living. I mean, come on, when is it time to grow up? If not 27, the 37? What 47? Are you going to be shoplifting when you are 65?

It is just as useless to contemplate purchasing stolen goods as it is to contemplate whether you should kill another human being. Or do you question that as well?

Geesh.

-td
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To be fair, he didn't say he would do it. Aren't we all contemplating the question? I've contimplated it many times and I always come up with the same answer.

You would never kill another human being? Never ever under any circumstances? I find that hard to believe.
 
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rossaroni said:
You are wrong! They would never think about such a thing. Just like they would never speed, fib on their taxes, or curse and swear about the high gas prices! :p
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I speed...use legal loopholes for taxes (no fibbing)...and throw an absolute fit (including lotsa swearing) about gas prices. Is someone really viewed as holier than thou for not purchasing stolen property??? If so, oh well. Maybe if I cut down on the speeding a bit the gas prices won't hurt so much....thanks for the idea, but I'm still looking for EVERY loophole to keep my money outta the govenments hands :)
 
Alex Kanapilly said:
I've read every post so far and I can honestly say I wouldn't buy the illegal copies. I believe in the concepts of intellectual property and copyright.

Having said that, I have been given a few songs by friends that I couldn't get to play on my ipod, ok so I'm not very technically savvy, so I ended up just deleting them. I think that kind of thing is hard to avoid in this day and age.

I've even purchased songs off the i tunes store that I have in my CD collection (and album collection in a few cases), just so I didn't have to go digging through a bunch of stuff. Lazy, I know.

Here's what I would like to know, how many people on here feel it's ok to hustle a lesser pool player, but not to buy pirated copies of dvd's and tapes? What's the difference?
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what's a lesser pool player??? never met one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:eek: :D
 
Alex Kanapilly said:
To be fair, he didn't say he would do it. Aren't we all contemplating the question? I've contimplated it many times and I always come up with the same answer.
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Lots of people contemplate (i.e., think about) things, but that doesn't mean you are contemplating (i.e., preparing to do) them. And in that regard, no I have never contemplated buying pirated goods. I find it hard to believe you have contemplated it ;)

Alex Kanapilly said:
You would never kill another human being? Never ever under any circumstances? I find that hard to believe.
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Every Freshman level philosophy book uses this example. I'm not sure how it has anything to do with the original topic: purchasing known pirated goods.

-td
 
i wouldnt buy them from someone stealing them. I'm not a saint and at one point in my life i woundnt have cared but now that I'm not a kid and responsible now I wouldnt buy them. I hope they stop the guy steasling them, its hard now look at the recording industry they are getting hammered.

Cheap real time streaming videos are the way foward, sadly Accustats business model is old and if they dont adjust with the times they WILL 100% be HISTORY.
 
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Moral Delema

No, don't buy them.

If you put a stop to the demand, then there will be no reason for the supply.
In other words, if he can't sell them, he'll stop cheating the people that worked so hard to make them.
 
I wouldn't buy them, no. I'm not a big anti-piracy guy, I've downloaded stuff before, but I wouldn't support anyone who wanted to charge for them.

Maybe if someone wants to copy for a friend-of-a-friend and wanted to charge a few bucks for shipping + materials, ok whatever. But if someone is actually trying to make a profit off of someone else's work, making real money selling to anyone who wants to pay... no.

The price of a lot of very good videos these days is pretty reasonable. The difference between, say, 10 bucks to the pirate and 25 to accustats is not meaningful enough to make me pick him over a legit business.
 
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...

pat flemming has done something really good with accu stats. show a little respect and buy the dvd's straight from him
 
Why not give us his name and contact info so he a can increase his market?

I'm sure he wouldn't mind a little free advertising.

Jeff Livingston
 
No way would I buy them.

It's my opinion that he should be turned in and if the thread stater does not turn him in then he's just as unethical as the guy doing the stealing.
 
It seems likely that the main observation Seymore15074 was trying to make was a light hearted and very tongue in cheek one......to the effect that you cannot arrive at a rational yes or no decision without first 'contemplating' the options posed by the question and that accordingly anyone who says they would never 'contemplate' buying these copies is, in one way of looking at it, making little sense.

The criticism of him is therefore a little misplaced and over the top;)

As regards the much earlier poster who implied that recording a TV programme in order to watch it yourself in your own home later is effectively a form of 'pirating'......what a very warped viewpoint that seems to be, in either legal or moral terms. Where do people get such absurd notions?:confused: :)
 
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It's Theft

That's all there is to it.

Buying illegally produced copies is theft and it's against the law. There should be no dilemma. Don't do it.

Would you steal a DVD from the store? Would you steal one from the AccuStats booth?

Would you buy the original DVDs if you knew they were stolen property?

Would you buy a cue that you knew was stolen property?

The only way that Accu Stats survives and all these other producers of content is by the sales of that content. When the content is copied and sold without them receiving any money then they lose the ability to continue to produce high quality content.

That's it.
 
John Barton said:
That's all there is to it.

Buying illegally produced copies is theft and it's against the law. There should be no dilemma. Don't do it.

Would you steal a DVD from the store? Would you steal one from the AccuStats booth?

Would you buy the original DVDs if you knew they were stolen property?

Would you buy a cue that you knew was stolen property?

The only way that Accu Stats survives and all these other producers of content is by the sales of that content. When the content is copied and sold without them receiving any money then they lose the ability to continue to produce high quality content.

That's it.
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It seems to me that the one doing the real wrong is the person pirating them, not the buyer. (not that the buyer is doing right, but the buyer shouldn't be prosecuted to stop this, the seller should be)
 
seymore15074 said:
It seems to me that the one doing the real wrong is the person pirating them, not the buyer. (not that the buyer is doing right, but the buyer shouldn't be prosecuted to stop this, the seller should be)
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If the buyer knows that the goods are stolen then he/she is complicit in the theft.

Anyone who is complicit in the illegal activity is responsible for it.
 
I wonder how many people here who are giving a resounding no have mp3s of music they didnt pay for, or have watched accu-stats on youtube that so many post links to on here. How many have a bittorrent client or have a dvd they burned on their shelf?

Let's face it, the digital products out there are nearly identical to the originals in most cases and lots of people have some copies on their computers right now, or have watched some online.

How many of these people who say no, downloaded SOPCAST and watched pirated overseas tv shows? I can tell you that ESPN got no payment from SOPCAST to broadcast that stuff...you think it should be free?

I'm not trying to say piracy is A-OK...I just dont like hypocrisy when people post self righteously.
 
I don't profess to have never seen a pirated copy or heard music similarly reproduced, but:

right is right, even if nobody is doing it; and wrong is wrong even if everybody is doing it.

I'm not taking the moral high ground, just stating the fact. Copying them to resell is wrong, period. it doesn't matter what the financial situation of the person is, ..........., it is wrong. Might not rank up there with killing someone, but it is still wrong.

The price of moral character for some is small.
 
seymore15074 said:
It seems to me that the one doing the real wrong is the person pirating them, not the buyer. (not that the buyer is doing right, but the buyer shouldn't be prosecuted to stop this, the seller should be)
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Buyers are ALWAYS prosecuted. Buyers of child slaves, buyers of drugs, buyers of prostitutes, buyers of stolen property. THEY are the ones driving the market. Without buyers there would be no reason to sell illegal stuff. If I post an ad that I will pay $10,000 for the first person that gets me a new Playstation 4. The day they come out....people will be stealing them to get them to me. That makes a market for illegal goods. I respectfully disagree with the notion of leaving buyers alone. It encourages even more crime that way.
 
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