More on the Rules of the Internet

I am using my final blog post to overview some of the Rules of the Internet that I did not include an in-depth description in my final project or presentation.

18. Everything that can be labeled can be hated
19. The more you hate it the stronger it gets

These rules represent the fact that everything has the potential for dissenters and those that wish to get rid of it. Rule 18 basically says that if it has a name, then someone will find some reason to hate it. To actively go against something means that word has to be spread about it. This could be the cause of the situation referred to by Rule 19. By spreading the hate of something, you also spread the knowledge of it, making it stronger.

33. Lurk more - it's never enough

Many forums, including 4chan, expect posters to adhere to strict standards. A new poster is almost always expected to have an understanding of how the forum works and the general guidelines for posting. New users are supposed to get this knowledge by doing what is called "lurking." It is generally browsing the forums and looking at posts without actually providing input, in this case to learn about the site's etiquette. When a new poster asks what is considered an obvious question, the standard response is generally "Lurk more."

42. Nothing is Sacred
43. The more beautiful and pure a thing is - the more satisfying it is to corrupt it.

On the internet, especially in the places where the Rules originated, there is a wide variety of people. Many of those people will not share the same moral values. Many of those people, in their anonymity, will have no regard for any principles. These rules are often put alongside Rule 34, because it tends to be seen as a subset of Rule 42. A short time on the seedier places on the web, like 4chan, will likely reveal much of the corruption these rules speak of, along with the satisfaction that those people seem to get from it.

Still a Pirate

                Looking at my views on piracy of digital products and my discussion of how I view the piracy of various things, I thought of something that may be questioned in my philosophy. How is the piracy of a digital item any different than that of a physical one?

                There are many anti-piracy campaigns that have tried to equate pirating to stealing a physical item from someone. The video shows images of various traditional thefts taking place, such as stealing a purse, a television, and a DVD. As it cycles through the crimes, it repeatedly cuts back to a person downloading a pirated movie on their computer. It works very hard to make the viewer consider the pirating of a digital file no different than the theft of a purse or television.

Of course, it isn’t as easily compared as they make it out to be. When stealing a physical item, you are directly removing it from the possession of an owner and claiming it as your own. Stealing is denying another the ability to possess the item, their purchase, or their claims to have possession of it. When a digital file is pirated, you are downloading what is likely a modified copy of a legal version of the product or you are obtaining a false DRM validation for the product. Already, the issue becomes much less black and white, as the item isn’t being removed from anyone’s possession, it is being reproduced for the purpose of pirating.

I can’t claim that it is a victimless crime, because there may be losses involved when a product is pirated. When a retail item is pirated, then there is a copy of that product being used that was not paid for by the user. That does mean that the producer is not paid for that item. The impact of that fact varies by medium. For music, the artist may not receive the profit for those potential purchases. For TV shows, viewership may not be properly represented. It can’t be denied that piracy can be harmful if left completely unchecked, but in many cases it can have little or even no major negative impact, and certainly less than actually stealing a physical item.

I'm a Pirate (Cont.)

                With software, I don’t have quite as definitive standards. Many software packages and operating systems can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars to purchase normally. Microsoft Office, Windows, and the Adobe Creative Suite (which I can neither confirm, nor deny that I possess illegally) are major culprits. They are applications that I find that I need quite regularly for both coursework and personal uses. In this case, the product in question is considerably out of my price range, especially considering that I will probably not be using it extensively. What it comes down to is that I either completely forego obtaining the product or pirate it. There are often open source options for most of the popular paid software packages: Linux, OpenOffice, Gimp, and others, but they are considerably less streamlined and convenient than their big name counterparts. So, since there is no option of purchasing, I find the increase of efficiency and quality justifies using less conventional means of obtaining the products.

                I find textbooks to also be an interesting case. I am already paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to attend a university, live here, and other various expenses as a result. I am racking up debt just for the privilege to attend the school. Then I am required to spend $100+ on a mass produced stack of paper? The prices of the books are highly inflated, which would have to be due to the publishers, as the professors that write them aren’t exactly rolling in cash. I couldn’t be because of production costs, because not only do e-books costs similar amounts, but non-academic books of the same composition also do not reach the astronomic price of a textbook. Because of all those factors, I have no problem downloading any textbooks that I need. The only barrier is finding an actual copy of the exact texts that I need. In fact, throughout the past year, I spent a total of less than $150 on textbooks. This particular term, I spent around $30, mostly thanks to various alternative methods I found for obtaining the required texts for my courses.

I'm a Pirate

                To start this post off, let it be known that I am openly a completely unrepentant pirate of various media and other digital items. I have probably downloaded thousands of dollars of material for nothing. Of course, I won’t go into specifics here of exactly what, when, and how, but I will give my reasoning and views on the issues (or non-issues) of online piracy.

                At the core of the issue, I won’t deny that I know that I am downloading products that normally would be retail items with measurable value. In many cases I can’t say much more than I simply don’t care. Even so, there are limits on what I will or will not pirate.

Video games, as an example, are a form of media that I generally have a specific set of standards that I adhere to. I will not pirate any “current generation” games or indie games. Basically, anything that is being actively marketed and sold, or anything that is being marketed by a small independent company. If it is a game that I would be unable to obtain without getting it used or from an independent reseller, than I generally will not hesitate to obtain it illegally. It applies mostly to older games, such as Super Nintendo, Playstation, and now Playstation 2 and Gamecube are beginning to fall into that category.

I generally don’t have any self-enforced restrictions on movies and TV shows. I generally do not watch movies often, so I don’t think I have ever bothered to pirate one, as I am generally fine waiting for them to come to Netflix. As for TV, I will always download whatever I haven’t seen and cannot see elsewhere online by legal means. I will use a legal method of watching a show if it is available. Such as the South Park and Adult Swim websites, which post some, if not almost all of their content openly. They are always shows that I likely could have seen on television normally, but I would rather watch them when I want to. In my view, if I have access to a paid satellite TV subscription, then it is content that is already paid for and I may not have been able to access otherwise due to time constraints.

To be continued…