Piracy Makes U.K. Riots Look Like "Children Stealing Candy"

[Baldry]

This fucking ignorant dick. I'm not usually offended by the stupidity of people or even made angry by this sort of stuff but this guy has pushed my buttons. (Maybe it's patriotism though I don't really care for England...)
How can you even begin to think pirating a song is the same as people dying, what sort of brain dead moron says that without being troll.

 

[Sanshou]

Well actually some of the UK riots was children stealing candy. But aside that point, how is internet piracy worse than people being injured or killed, and peoples property being burnt of destroyed?

Your move Australian man.

 

[Togusa09]

I found it interesting that he mentioned broken windows, cause the whole piracy cost argument sounds a lot like the broken window theory. He's claiming that it cost the economy $1.37 billion last year. So he believes that when people pirate they take an equivalent amount in cash, and stick it under their mattress? I think it's rather more likely they still spend it, probably on other media, or electronics to watch their pirated media. He's just annoyed they weren't spending it in a way that he could claim a nice bonus from.

Kleptomaniacs also have an impulsive need to steal, so chances are if someone has a impulsive need to download things en masse, they're probably not watching them, just satisfying the need. However, people do also buy things due to impulsive need, so their probably just annoyed people are satisfying their cravings for free.

 

[Groenteman]

Another textbook example corporate scumbag.

Calculating human life and suffering out of profit, failing to even calculating that right, and bawling and blaring about how money that doesnt exist should be theirs and theirs alone.


Think about this guy next time you watch the news. Hes the one ultimately in charge of what you do and dont hear about the world around you.


Also wondering how much he would like it if I put a brick through his window, and throw a disc with a pirated movie after it to pay for the damages.

 

[MiskWisk]

I was going to say that the riots were worse as people were killed, livelihoods ruined, etc, etc and if you want to stop piracy, you either lower the price or provide a better service but everyone has already said this.

So instead I say bananas

 

[MrTub]

Exaggerated or not, Williams' point isn't entirely invalid. Piracy costs money, of that there is no doubt...

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/wikipedian_protester.png

I know you enjoy posting these things, where some cretinous shill for the industry makes a completely unreasonable statement(indeed, this one is downright fucking offensive, considering the context of the riots), then you pretend to be the reasonable one but throw out "well, he does kind of have a point though...." at the end. It lets you say the things you clearly want to say but can't without abandoning the last shred of a pretense of journalistic integrity and objectivity, but this time, I want you to prove it.

Back this quoted statement up with facts. Not studies funded and conducted by industry PR groups for the explicit purpose of backing up their narrative who wouldn't know "sound methodology" if it crawled up their arse and died, not baseless assumption; independent academic studies which are featured in genuine peer-reviewed publications who are studying the phenomenon out of genuine curiosity.

And if you can't, I would politely suggest that you stop making bald assertions with nothing to back them up.

Asking Andy to stop telling lies about piracy is like asking the sun if it could stop being hot.

 

[Sexy Devil]

*deleted*

 

[FamoFunk]

So, if I was to set fire to people's homes and business', maybe stab a few folk, maybe even get a gun, throw petrol bombs and bricks at the police and their horses, smash a window and door in to gain access to a shop and steal a CD for example, I'm actually a better person than sitting on my settee, harming no one, killing no one, destroying nothing and downloading the CD for free?

 

[Soviet Steve]

He takes an event in which several people died and notes that it is nothing compared to himself having a few dollars less in his paycheck. Comrade Williams only has our best interest at heart, we should do as he says.

 

[PatrickXD]

I think it's a bit unfair to say that he was in any way thinking of the physical harm to people. The article is geared exactly towards reminding the reader of an atrocity, which makes us all immediately jump to the conclusion that this guy is a horrible person.
He wasn't putting a price on peoples lives. He was comparing the damage to property from the riots to the plausible damage to property from copyright theft. Now, I'll agree that he is exaggerating the cultural significance, but that doesn't mean that this article was any less inflammatory - I would argue more so - than his words.
Naturally, my opinion would entirely change if it turned out that he was referring to the lives of people as having a monetary value. I that were the case then yes. He is a terrible person.

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

A 2012 report by the Intellectual Property Awareness Foundation claimed that more than 37 percent of Australians admitted to illegally downloading content, he said, while roughly 60 percent of "persistent downloaders" say they snag something at least once a week. Williams claimed that leaves them less likely to go to the movies, buy DVDs or pay for music from iTunes and other online services, which one estimate said cost the Australian economy $1.37 billion last year.

Yea...no. Unless Mr Williams comes up with some research or evidence for his 'facts', they should be ignored. In fact the idea that a pirate would have purchased anything that he downloads is absurd. It's like saying a London rioter would have purchased a $500 pair of sunglasses he stole from a shop through a smashed window, had it not been smashed.

 

[J-meMalone]

Did he just... did he seriously... How can you even...

Cannot contain... anger rising...

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa281/Jiminiminy/127566327117.gif

Why the hell would you say that?! People were hurt in those riots. People DIED in the riots. People lost their homes and businesses. And he has the fucking NERVE to say piracy of all things is worse?!

No. Just no. Even if a pirated copy DID equal a lost sale (it doesn't), the fact that it was pirated didn't burn down anyone's home. It didn't cause serious distress and panic to hundreds of people. No it, at most, stopped some bigwig affording another solid gold TV.

Woe is them, obviously they are SO much worse off!

 

[PingoBlack]

Well, what else do you expect from Rupert Murdoch's Corporation? Truth and honesty?

Have a look at Fox News, they own that. Than check out British tabloids and their liberal approach to wiretap. Then read the above article again once you have full perspective.

And yes, I am saying Rupert Murdoch and Co. are such sociopaths they cannot tell the difference between money and someone's house or life. That is exactly my point, to be frank.

 

[Britisheagle]

No people are injured through piracy. Riots on the other hand, cost many people a lot more than a drop in profits.

Horrible comparison.

 

[Living Contradiction]

...wow. That is just... I don't even know how to react. Gimme a second here...
...
...
...
Got it. Kim Williams, you are an idiotic, short-sighted, overpaid mouthpiece for the wretched hive that is they entertainment industry, and saying that a 4-day city-wide upheavel brought on by people angry at a biased, corporate backed economic system but which degenerated into directionless violence is not as bad as piracy is one of the most vile, senseless, disgusting things I have ever heard.

Eloquent and to the point. I tip my hat to you, Gearhead.

Mind you, this guy was giving a keynote speech at the Australian International Movie Convention and quite a few folks look upon keynote speeches as practice for running for public office. Given the kind of attitude Mr. Williams is showing, I'd say he's ready to stand for parliament.

 

[Kargathia]

In those riots, people were injured, badly injured, people have fucking died.

And this guy is saying that a bit of backlash over high prices and scandalous treatment of consumers is much worse than people being injured or even murdered?

Hmm, saying the millions you earn a year for being a CEO are more important than human lives... It's very honest of the guy, but I don't think this is good PR.

Oh, this is very simple: the London rioters didn't steal from Him. That's all Other People's Business - and none of these people are significant shareholders or investors.

 

[dimensional]

"Imagine the great works that are not being produced because the digital bandits are creating virtual pirate Globe Theaters and virtual literary magazines and making off with possibly 65 percent of the profits," Williams said.

Love that bit we have no real idea I mean it could be bugger all but imagine all the money we might be losing sorry possibly be losing yes imagine the possibility.

Well who can argue with hard evidence like that, would say more but its already been said the guy is an idiot with no perspective who cant see anything that cant be measured in money.

I think most people will agree the london riots were worse than piracy not least because it actually posed a risk to people and indeed society in general which needs order to maintain itself once that breaks down things start to get dangerous.

 

[CrazyGirl17]

(Face palm) ...I want to punch something. I really do...

 

[Porecomesis]

I want to preface this by saying that piracy is not a harmless act, no matter how you try to justify it, and if you pirate, unless you already purchased it or it is unavailible to you, you are a massive dick.

That said, if your corporation is losing profits, the only one to blame is yourself. There have been plenty of people that have been massively successful, even with internet pirates, so the only logical explaination is that you screwed up somehow. Figure that out, and then you can talk about how much piracy is affecting your buisness.

I like you a lot.

I'm as anti-pirate as they come... well, at least that's what I would have said had I never come across such a Templar as this guy, whatever his name is (I can't be bothered reading it again).

Regardless, the thing about piracy is that games, movies and whatnot have money put into them. The goal is to get more money out than you put in so that you can buy food, water and pay for your children's toys as well as do the cycle again so that you can keep yourself and your family fed (I know how sugar-coated this is but it is a reality, if an exaggerated one). Piracy harms this process: a person who pirates a game may not buy it for real, meaning that's a potential loss of a sale. On its own, this isn't a problem. But what if the problem accumulates? That's where the trouble starts.

On the other hand, it's hard to stay sympathetic at the people who are taking way too much advantage of this and use highly questionable business practices in order to rake in more money than they deserve (the ironic thing is that, if they didn't use those business practices, they'd somewhat deserve the money). When you start using obtrusive DRM, DLC to force the player to buy story-critical content and the like, you're just painting a massive bullseye on you.

And you know what the most hilarious thing is? More often than not, the industry is killing itself more often than pirates ever will. Radical Entertainment (the [PROTOTYPE 2] guys) went out of business because the game's profits couldn't match what went into [PROTOTYPE 2] despite it being one of the top-selling games of the month and this isn't a one-off case. Even more so, the Great Video Game Crash of 1983 was caused by monumental stupidity and mathematical fail on Atari's part, printing 12 million Pac-Man games for 10 million Atari consoles.

Now, developers, before you blame us pirates for all the harm we cause, ask yourselves: is there something YOU are doing wrong?

 

[Blunderboy]

Oh Australia, you silly Billy.

OT - It's news corp. Famous for making grand, nonsensical statements to get attention.