Posts tagged web
Riddle me this, Media Industries.
For €54.99, I can purchase a 365 day RapidShare account. Together with private “warez” forums, this will give me access to pretty much any “copyrighted” music/video/software i care for. It will be delivered to my hard drive at high speed, in a convenient format of my choice, free of adverts, DRM or meddlesome EULAs.
For a further €60, Pirate Bay spin-off Ipredator will sell me access to their anonymous VPN for a year. This allows me to go about my way on the webz using an IP address which bears no relation to me or my location. They say they don’t track user activity, and I trust them, because its the guy from TPB.
If this DEB thingy goes through, as its looking like doing with very little debate, I would consider dropping a hundred quid or so on these services. I’d rather that than be disconnected altogether, and I reckon thats a reasonable price for the amount of media I consume in a year.
But thats the sticky bit. I would happily pay 100 Great British Pounds Sterling per annum to download as many albums and movies as I like, in high quality, at high speed. I would probably go higher, if I knew a decent proportion of that was going to the artistes I favoured.
So why can’t I? Why is the only paid media-download plan which appeals to me illegal?
At some point, pretty soon, Darwin will intervene and those who have failed to adapt to the current scenario will die off (I say current, its been over a decade already…). I only hope that can happen before the lobbyfodder kill the free internet entirely.
Wx
