You Wouldn't Give A Reacharound To A Koala Bear

Welcome back peeps to another edition of dissection and reflection on societies failures. We all have our grudges to bear; some of us just get on with it and refuse to let it bother them. Others choose to let them fester inside their heads and let out their frustrations in one foul swoop. Some gradually exorcise these demons by tackling them head on at every turn. My way of shipping these ill feelings is to write them down in a document at my laptop every Wednesday and release them on an unsuspecting public. This is a very British thing to do. Us Brits like to avoid physical violence and confrontation, so when we get annoyed we tend to write a stern letter hoping that it will be read by the right people. This is virtually the same thing except I don’t expect anything to change; just having regular folk agreeing with my views is enough for me. This week will be all about piracy and the issues around the subject.

When the subject of piracy arises around me my mind wonders into a magical world of swashbuckling adventures, sword fighting and treasure. I instantly think of Pirates of the Caribbean’s Captain Jack Sparrow or One Eyed Willy from The Goonies.  I then try to join in the conversation and the subject is completely different. The argument has nothing to do with sea faring captains or drinking rum with shipmates, far from it. Piracy in our society is far more common and easily done. I am talking of course about the music and film business. I will have to tread carefully on this subject as I am close to the industry through my job, but that doesn’t mean I can’t have an honest opinion on the subject. We have all put a DVD on and skipped through the adverts in an attempt to get to the main menu. We all then have to endure a 30 second guilt trip informing us that piracy is a crime and we all should be purchasing our media in a legal manner. You’ve all seen it; “You wouldn’t steal a handbag, you wouldn’t steal a car, you wouldn’t piss on a disabled person, you wouldn’t give a reacharound to a koala bear.” These examples are all unthinkable to a normal, honest person. Except maybe the last one – purely for experimental reasons.

Do the film and music industries really believe that downloading media that someone has shared online is as bad as the aforementioned? It surely has to be put into perspective. I think that there are varying levels of piracy and distinguishing between them has to be done using common sense. If you go to a dodgy market and pick up the latest cinema release from someone who is clearly trying to make a quick buck from exploiting the movie industry then you surely are as bad as the man selling the dodgy copy and you both are committing a crime, fair enough. If you start a website where you get money from sponsorship whilst providing free music and movie downloads to opportunistic people then you deserve the book thrown in your trajectory. Here is the grey area in my mind though. Should you be made to feel like a criminal for doing something that pretty much everyone else who owns a computer has done? Is it still wrong if the masses do it? I am not saying that I do it nor am I saying that I have ever done it but it does raise a valid question. I use a legal streaming software site for all of my audio media. It is a very useful tool to see what new music is available and is great for trying music before you purchase it. I pay to use it monthly and it is approved by the record labels that it promotes.

I get the fact that piracy is rife in our society but putting that 30 second clip on a DVD is just a waste of time in my opinion. For one; I have just purchased the DVD by conventional means so you’re preaching to the wrong person. I’m not going to by a pirate DVD straight after the one I’m watching just because it didn’t warn me. What it is hoping to gain by telling ME that piracy is a crime? I just bought the damn thing; I’m not the one you should be after. Imagine you get arrested for illegally purchasing a pirated movie. You get six months in prison, shortened to two pending good behaviour. You are sitting around a table at lunch with some hardened criminals and the conversation is initiated about the reason you are all doing time. One says that he raped a prostitute then killed her, the other is in there for shooting a policeman in an armed robbery and the third is locked up for smuggling heroin into the country. They turn to you and you reply, “I bought Twilight: New Moon from a dodgy market dealer and I watched it and there were heads in the way, so I went back to complain and got arrested.” You will be bent over more times in those two months than a Chilean miner.

I think there are more honest folk out there who download illegally than dishonest folk who steal DVD’s and CD’s from the shelves of stores. Is there really a difference in the two? In my opinion there is. When someone steals from a store they look other people in the eyes when they do it. They make it personal to the company that they steal from and, in turn show no humanity or compassion. When someone clicks a mouse a few times and suddenly has media shared online, it is still wrong but slightly more accepted in today’s society. If you saw someone stealing in a grocery store, there is an overwhelming majority of you that would speak up against that individual compared to if you were sat next to someone showing you their collection of pirate DVD’s. Therefore I conclude that, while piracy is wrong and illegal, it still is accepted by most as inevitable and not seen as seriously as physical theft.

Sorry for the blatant disregard of comedy in this post, I got caught up in the seriousness of the issue. The podcast is becoming a real possibility. PH and I are hoping to get the ball rolling sometime before Christmas, I will keep you posted.