_tinned_magpie_ said:
Why do I get the feeling that Anonymous are only going to make things worse? I mean, declaring war on Gene Simmons was just hilarious, but I don't think the Government will react well if they keep it up. If we act like children, they're going to keep on treating us like children, including taking our toys away. Clearly we're not mature enough to use them.
I admit, I've pirated songs. I don't like the idea of pirating films, and usually I've got no problem with buying my music, but occasionally there's something you can't find anywhere else. So I've no real problem on the crackdown on piracy, it's the restrictions of Fair Use that bother me. They're coming down far too hard on anything that even vaguely resembles copyright infringement, and it ends up upsetting a lot of people. Things like tribute videos or putting a song in the background of your own work isn't hurting anyone, or so I think. My university can't even use pictures in lecture slides any more, or else they'll get fined.
I don't know much about copyright law but I think the system needs a re-think, because right now it isn't going too well. We've taken baby steps in terms of Creative Commons, but we need compromise, because it isn't ever going to go away completely. At least, that's my opinion.
Actually Anonymous has the right idea, you have to be willing to take on the goverment to get anything done as far as society is concerned. If you just figure "oh well, we/I will annoy the goverment I should give up or they will crush me" then your basicaly conceding to tyranny. Our right to keep and bear arms is specifically intended so we can go after politicians and the like with firearms if they need was to arise.
Anonymous is simply doing things differantly, fighting for information issues through information networks.
Let me be blunt about something though, I support free speech heavily, and I think the game and music industries are a bunch of crooks who do not operate within the American spirit of capitolism. The game industry in paticular acts like a cartel.
On the other hand Anonymous attacking the copyrights office seems to be going a little too far, largely because I *DO* support the right to patent actual products and ideas. I understand that the copyrights are a big part of this entire battle, but I'd think groups like the FCC and paticular politicians and industry leaders would be better targets. Of course then again I'm viewing this from outside, not fighting the war, and as I've said before, this kind of civil law issue is hardly my specialty.
I don't support piracy, but at the same time I don't support the industry against it. As odd as that sounds, it's a simple matter of me feeling that both sides are crooks, and in the final equasion neither have the best interests of me, the gamer, at heart. Stealing games so the people making them can't make money doesn't encourage their development. At the same time running the industry to constantly gouge the consumer, and engaging in illegal and immoral business practices to do so hurts the consumers.
In the end I tend to feel that the conflict between the industry and pirates is a symbiotic one where they both cause each other to exist as problems. The gaming industry by being greedy, abusing customers (hi Mr. Kotick), and engaging in a lot of it's current practices (DRM, DLC Gouging, etc...) causes pirates to flourish, it's hard to feel guilty when your robbing a bunch of arrogant crooks. By the same token the industry claims that it needs to act like it does because of the piracy and uses the piracy as a "catch all" excuse to justify it's behavior.... and let's be honest, whie it was smaller to begin with the war between pirates and the gaming industry has always been there to some extent. It's simply got bigger as the market has grown. There was all kinds of odd stuff going on in this regard back in the days of the "Commodore 64" and "Apple 2", and video games were never exactly cheap. Even back with the "Atari 2600" I remember as a little kid understanding how crazy the price of a game like "Yar's Revenge" was.
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