human lives are "bigger things" than corporate profit? what's next? communism?

You are just like so many others who gloss over the issue! When you loan or give your mother a good book to read, it is no longer in your possession. When you download a copy of a movie or music, you are cheating, nay stealing, from the copyright holder who was only paid for the original that hundreds or thousands are now using!

kkunderwood

You are just like so many others who gloss over the issue! When you loan or give your mother a good book to read, it is no longer in your possession. When you download a copy of a movie or music, you are cheating, nay stealing, from the copyright holder who was only paid for the original that hundreds or thousands are now using!

  You know there is a lot more piracy going around in the physical world than in the digital world. When you go to an old book store and purchase a used book or an album neither the author, or the publisher receives a percentage of the sales. When you go to an auto show with thousands of used auto parts, engines, tools etc, etc, the only one making a profit is the seller not the original manufacturer. When you go to an antique store everything is secondhand, from clothes to furniture, nick-nacks, jewelry. The worst is guns at a Gun Show. Bartering for goods or services has been around longer than dirt. A judge in Spain said that the movie companies cannot make claims of lost profits for products no one would buy in the first place. (Think of the worst movie you ever saw, and why did you waste money on that.) Which of you has never bought anything used or secondhand. If you did, then you just broke copyright laws as the MPAA would have them written. Maybe it is you who makes a convenient choice to buy something secondhand when it suits your needs.

Yes there are a lot more important issues to get under control. Maybe you should get the U.S to stop this:  

Just 24 hours ago Australia was abuzz with the news that U.S.-based Voltage Pictures will now be allowed to launch a so-called ‘speculative invoicing’ scheme Down Under. The company will obtain the names of people behind ISP accounts linked to the unlawful sharing of their works online and pursue them for cash settlements. It’s a business model with a grubby reputation, one that mainstream rightsholders have largely steered away from in recent years. Instead, the world’s largest entertainment companies are focusing their efforts on schemes designed to educate citizens, those in Australia included, in the hope that they will voluntarily change their online media consumption habits.

Also a judge recently ruled that it was legal to make copies of your personal property(movies, CD's) under fair rights law. The problem is you can't make a copy without breaking the DRM LAWS. Human trafficking should definitely be a much higher priority.

I find it ridiculous that music and movies studios spend billions on tracking down and prosecuting people who likely would never have bought the CD/DVD in the first place.... hence there were really NO lost sales, just projected figures to give the illusion of lost sales.

What is even more ridiculous are the 'so-called' reparations where the companies set ridiculous settlement sums that people simply cannot afford, thus placing a greater burden on society by jailing them for unreasonable periods.  Priorities are all wrong when so-called pirates get much longer jail terms than rapists and kiddy fiddlers.

To resolve this issue the aspect of greed needs to be addressed.... when pricing becomes more reasoable to the average person, then maybe the issues surrounding digital piracy will resolve themselves'

My two cents.

That's the whole point arse-about.

Of course there are 'no lost sales' they [pirates] do not need to buy anything...they've already taken it instead without paying.

Saying 'there are no lost sales' is an absurd argument.

If you want ANYTHING you pay for it.  If you don't you don't pay.

It all goes to shit when people don't pay...yet still get it.  That bit is called THEFT.

Now, please don't talk about material loss aka physical property versus copying...that hackneyed argument has been done to death, way before Adam was a pup.

If you pirate/download something without lawful payment to the content owner you clearly WANT IT....so pay for the fucker and leave the rest of the world [and this fatuous argument] in peace...

If I had a couple of dollars for every arse I'd kicked from these forums actually asking for warez of [even just] Stardock's apps I'd be retired somewhere on my own Island...

We introduced 3x strikes and you are out in NZ a number of years ago. Made no difference to anything, didn't reduces downloading and didn't eventuate in mass prosecutions. It was a big bunch of nothing much.

You are not going to stop illegal use of digital material by persecuting people. Instead companies are changing their business models, see spotify, netflix etc these services are affordable and they offer so much content, so easily, that punters are happy to pay.

 What the heck is going on Down Under. Here's another article about your VPN's being pulled  -   

http://www.myce.com/news/australian-isp-pulls-vpn-service-75672/

starkers...it's not 'billions'...it might not even make it to 'millions'.  IP losses might make it to billions, however..

Of course there will always be an argument regarding ethics, statistic and intent, etc....as to why the music, movie industries approach is so right, valid, ethical.

As to the costs incurred to pursue illegal downloaders they may be considerably higher than one thinks.... the legal fraternity, private investigators and the various technical  experts do not come cheap. 

Okay, so maybe it's not quite into the billions.... YET, but not so long ago I read that Sony Entertainment had  paid a 20 million dollar retainer to one legal firm to act on it's behalf.... and that's only one company out of the 1000's out there trying to pursue settlements, etc.

Like I said before, they are barking up the wrong tree and need to rethink their business models to address the issue.  Until then they're banging their heads against a brick wall.