MousePotatoPower

There are a few articles that I want to post that deal with ripping DVDs and transferring them to an Ipod. Copying music and movies to your Ipod should be easy and completely legal. Although it is relatively simple, it is also what I consider to be a gateway drug into more serious software/music/video piracy.

Knowledge is power. Be informed. Don’t use ignorance of the law as an excuse to copy music and movies. And don’t believe for a minute that borrowing a friend’s CD collection and transferring it to your Ipod is legal in any way. Wikipedia has a good list of things that you are usually NOT allowed to do with copyright material.

Piracy may not be a good thing, but for most mouse potatoes, it does NOT cause the financial losses that the record and movie industry would have you believe.

If you already have music and movies that you have not paid for, swing by this Piracy Calculator page to get an estimate of the retail value of your hoard. Be sure to read the MORAL OF THIS STORY at the bottom of the page.

I have seen a hoard that had a calculated value of about $31,000. The owner only made $30k/year. Even if this pirate had $30k in cash, I seriously doubt it would have been spent purchasing legitimate versions of all the movies, TV series, games, and music in their collection.

As an example: Because of a software leak in October 2004, I was able to play Halo 2 on the Xbox a full 4 weeks before it’s official release. The dozen or so people that I knew that played this leaked version ALL went out and bought a legitimate retail copy of Halo 2 on release day. Whether or not they pirated the game, they would still have purchased Halo 2.

At least once a month, I come across a friend who has a burned copy of a movie that is still in theaters. But none of these friends go to the movie theaters anyway. At almost $10 per ticket, it’s cheaper for a couple to buy the DVD. These friends do not have the desire to start large DVD collections either. Although they indulge in an occasional act of piracy, they are simply NOT in the market for a movie theater ticket or a DVD.

Piracy is theft in the sense of breaking the law and sin. It does not cause billions of dollars of loss to the music and movie industry.