Hey . .
Iam sure that all of us have been pirates one time or another. Nah - not the Johnny Depp kind in the movie wearing a one eyed patch, shouting a base tone he-ha-ho chorus, wearing a pendant with a silver-skull and drinking brandy all day and night. There is a price on your head and then there is always the hope of ending up in a isolated island with the most beautiful girl in a long translucent dress, who falls head over heels in love with you and ... .... ... I should really stop daydreaming like this.
Anyways, back to the subject (do I have one here ?), all of us have been violating copyright rules sometime or the other. In college times, there was the Reddy Xerox in T.Nagar who had a 29 paisa per page copying facility. Or one could pedal 3 kilometres inside the IIT to the copy-center where you can get a better deal - 28 paise per page etc., The Reddy Xerox was abruptly shutdown in year 2000 for violation of publishing rights.
As time moves on and we progress in our lives, we start pirating at a bigger level. When one can pirate on books when at College, piracy should be at a higher level when we make money on our own. We start recording CDs, purchasing pirated MP3 CDs from Ritchie Street and copying them too ! Then there are always the VCDs that can be gotten from unnamed sources all through the city.
After taking piracy to a whole new level and passing the mantle to the younger generation, we land up in USA/UK/Singapore/Australia - the land of oppurtunities ... ... .. for more piracy. When the laptop is bought and hooked up to the cable modem, then starts the riot. Suddenly we discover innumerable gateways to the world of free music, movies and wholesome entertainment. Downloads of thousands of songs is only a few minutes and free most of the time. Throw a few pennies and we can watch the latest movies in all languages - sometimes even movies that are getting released the following month !! There are a number of clubs, associations, file sharers who are the storehouse of this very valuable information of where to find what for free.
And for those of us (like me), who dont have the 'guts' to download music & movies, there are always the local Johnny Depps - the piracy kings who constantly are on the watchout for latest entertainment and feature them during weekends - or burn music CD copies. Almost every community/group is sure to have a couple of them. Anyways, while Amma has been busy cracking down VCDs at Chennai, the UK has been fining appas and ammas of kids who pirate music over the www. The Daily Telegraph carried this article which announced that pirate-parents are fined £4000. So Johnny Depps are heroes only in movies, after all, eh matie ??
Nonetheless, I always wonder why this is called "piracy" ? Why a fancy name when it can be easily referred as stealing, thieving, robbing ? Does the word piracy attach its own aura to the unlawful act, making people feel good about the bad job they do ? Well, it doesnt matter anyways - as GB Shaw said, "if one sleeps with a woman and pays her money, it doesnt matter if it is $1 or $1,000,000 - in any case it is prostitution"... something to think about.
Chao.
Iam sure that all of us have been pirates one time or another. Nah - not the Johnny Depp kind in the movie wearing a one eyed patch, shouting a base tone he-ha-ho chorus, wearing a pendant with a silver-skull and drinking brandy all day and night. There is a price on your head and then there is always the hope of ending up in a isolated island with the most beautiful girl in a long translucent dress, who falls head over heels in love with you and ... .... ... I should really stop daydreaming like this.
Anyways, back to the subject (do I have one here ?), all of us have been violating copyright rules sometime or the other. In college times, there was the Reddy Xerox in T.Nagar who had a 29 paisa per page copying facility. Or one could pedal 3 kilometres inside the IIT to the copy-center where you can get a better deal - 28 paise per page etc., The Reddy Xerox was abruptly shutdown in year 2000 for violation of publishing rights.
As time moves on and we progress in our lives, we start pirating at a bigger level. When one can pirate on books when at College, piracy should be at a higher level when we make money on our own. We start recording CDs, purchasing pirated MP3 CDs from Ritchie Street and copying them too ! Then there are always the VCDs that can be gotten from unnamed sources all through the city.
After taking piracy to a whole new level and passing the mantle to the younger generation, we land up in USA/UK/Singapore/Australia - the land of oppurtunities ... ... .. for more piracy. When the laptop is bought and hooked up to the cable modem, then starts the riot. Suddenly we discover innumerable gateways to the world of free music, movies and wholesome entertainment. Downloads of thousands of songs is only a few minutes and free most of the time. Throw a few pennies and we can watch the latest movies in all languages - sometimes even movies that are getting released the following month !! There are a number of clubs, associations, file sharers who are the storehouse of this very valuable information of where to find what for free.
And for those of us (like me), who dont have the 'guts' to download music & movies, there are always the local Johnny Depps - the piracy kings who constantly are on the watchout for latest entertainment and feature them during weekends - or burn music CD copies. Almost every community/group is sure to have a couple of them. Anyways, while Amma has been busy cracking down VCDs at Chennai, the UK has been fining appas and ammas of kids who pirate music over the www. The Daily Telegraph carried this article which announced that pirate-parents are fined £4000. So Johnny Depps are heroes only in movies, after all, eh matie ??
Nonetheless, I always wonder why this is called "piracy" ? Why a fancy name when it can be easily referred as stealing, thieving, robbing ? Does the word piracy attach its own aura to the unlawful act, making people feel good about the bad job they do ? Well, it doesnt matter anyways - as GB Shaw said, "if one sleeps with a woman and pays her money, it doesnt matter if it is $1 or $1,000,000 - in any case it is prostitution"... something to think about.
Chao.
4 comments:
Come on dude. What's happening? U seem to be behind schedule by two days now. Don't disappoint us fans ;)
How about Pirates of the 'Music'ian - Part 2? :)
What is prostitution ? - paying for a pleasure? forbidden pleasure? what is forbidden in one culture is alrite in another !
paying to listen to music - undeniable pleasure indeed - paying to watch movies - paying to get yourself entertained - all these are just varying degrees of selling oneself !
Comments & reaction in a blog....
http://arvindsrinivasan.blogspot.com/2005/03/piracy.html
Hey guys...here is something I read someplace on the net about the usage of the word 'piracy'. Made me laugh.
"This is a much abused word. Piracy is illegal boarding vessels at sea to steal the contents of the ship or the ship itself. When people say such things as software piracy, they are abusing the English language and your intelligence. They're trying to create negative associations. This is pure propaganda. They hope that if they say it often enough, you will be brainwashed into seeing things the way they want you to see them. If you want to keep a clear mind, you should not use such rubbishy phrases. Instead of software piracy, say illegal software copying or unauthorized software sharing. If you let your language be polluted by such rubbish as software piracy and intellectual property theft, you will end up not being able to think clearly."
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