Ok, let’s talk about Intellectual Property. This one was super dry and boring to read about. The main thing I read about was the DMCA, which was first produced in 1998.
Basically the DMCA is a really solid compromise for web hosters like YouTube. It basically says that they and their users can post whatever they want, as long as if someone requests that they remove a video they remove it. So YouTube can safely allow anyone to post anything they want, without fear of being taken to court, and large companies can request that anything they want be taken down if they have a solid reason for it to be taken down. Then appeals can even be made to see if something truly is breaking copyright, which can help prevent unfair censorship. Now, this system has problems, but it’s incredible that it works so well in almost all situations, since it came out almost 20 years ago. As for DRM, that is an interesting discussion that I do not know the answer to. Personally, I think that people should recognize the loss in value that buying with DRM implies. I really like video games, but I will not buy expensive games digitally because digital games are very difficult to use on more than one system, and they can’t be resold. I buy as many games as I can physically. The interesting thing is that most games that are sold digitally can be purchased at a fraction of their original selling price on markets like Steam. I have a list of games that I want to play, as well as their original prices, and when I get bored I’ll waste time by checking the prices of those games on Steam and other websites… but I digress. The point is that I only purchase games on Steam if I am okay with only purchasing that game for myself to be played on my computer. Most games are not worth their high prices unless they are on sale for like 90% off.
As for the morality of pirating, here’s my take. There are a lot of content producers online, whether they make music, videos, or webcomics. If I like the things that these people produce, then I will typically find some way to support them. One way to do that is to pay for CDs or merchandise. I don’t think there is a problem with me buying Megan Trainor’s newest album on CD, then ripping high quality versions of the same songs online, or getting around DRM schemes. The problem occurs if I try to resell these CDs, because then other people are not supporting M-Train for her awesome music, and if not enough people support her, she may not decide to make a thirde album for awhile. I can do the same thing by say, clicking on the sidebar ads of my favorite comic in order to add to their click-count, thereby getting them more money, or watching the ads before YouTube videos of my favorite content producers. In all of these situations, I decide to devote my time or money to something that I appreciate people making. I think that’s the best way to make sure that more of the things that I like are created.
Now some things I do might be contradictory. I use Spotify, but mostly for how easy it is to find new music through Spotify. Finding a new band that I love through Spotify is awesome, even though I know they aren’t being fairly compensated for it, because if I like a band, I’ll find some way to support them financially.