[nonanon]

I confess so haul me away. In the 80s I used my VCR to record movies and tv shows without paying the copyright holder. Even before that I used cassettes to record music from the radio without making any payment. The only differences between that piracy and what occurs today is that the copies are much better because of much better tech. If I liked the movie or tv show, I bought it on VHS, the same with music, first on LPs, then on cassette, then on CD and now digital copies.

When did being a judicious consumer make me a pirate? I don't want to pay for crap but I often do when I take a chance on a movie at the theater, I'm out $8.50 plus concession items for a 2-hour-long movie that is too often awful, disgusting or just plain stupid. I don't make any other purchases this way, if I buy a product and it's worthless I get my money back in every other arena but the "creative" types think they should get special treatment and I should be forced to pay for low-brow crap. I disagree.

When it comes to music I can sample tunes on iTunes, Amazon and other places or just download a free copy elsewhere. That only means if I find it worthless I don't buy it, if I like it I do. You can't judge a movie based solely on previews or IMDB or word-of-mouth, which is why I'm still laying out good money for a poor movie. As for books, am I a pirate if I buy a used book? The author gets no money from the resell so isn't that piracy too?

The greater threat to "creative types" is the biggest source of piracy ever known - the public library, where I first committed piracy back in the 60s. Reading books without paying for them, checking out magazines and later CDs and movies, all for free. If I liked it back then I spent my hard-earned allowance and bought it. Some things never change. The music industry feared LPs would ruin concert ticket sales and they've been wrong ever since.