An anonymous piracy poll.

[anamardoll]

Not a simple yes/no because binary is only useful in programming.

[gweeks]

Having had discussions with new hires just out of college and kids just graduating from high school I was appalled at the general opinion about copyright. I expect copyright to be dead in 20 years or less. None of the young people I've talked to have any respect for copyright at all.

[DuckieTigger]

It is very interesting that the last option (never known anyone) still has 0 votes. That says more than the other results, IMHO.

[anamardoll]

I noticed that, too......

[CWatkinsNash]

SWIM appreciates your poll.

[Giggleton]

I've never known anyone to illegally download a book because downloading a book is not illegal.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by Giggleton

I've never known anyone to illegally download a book because downloading a book is not illegal.

That is stretching it a little bit. The illegality is meant in the book not in the act, even though technically and gramatically it says wrongly so in the poll. Now can you please give me a brain-untwisterer. Even just reading it trying to understand it becomes harder the more often you read it. Try to negate it real quick - maybe you can in a jiffy, but I sure cant.

[RainingLemur]

I'd say that most of, if not all of the people I know that have ereaders fall under multiple choices up there, save for the geo-restricted ones.

[bgalbrecht]

Originally Posted by gweeks

Having had discussions with new hires just out of college and kids just graduating from high school I was appalled at the general opinion about copyright. I expect copyright to be dead in 20 years or less. None of the young people I've talked to have any respect for copyright at all.

When I was college age, I knew plenty of people who would record cassette copies from their friends' LPs and cassettes. That was 30 years ago. And one of the most prolific ebook pirates I know is in his 50s, and uses the excuse that he can't afford to pay for them.

I don't expect that copyright will go away completely, if for no other reason that copyright protects people and/or companies from outright appropriation from other companies. Even though the RIAA/MPAAfia is using the courts to make examples of a few file sharers, most of them don't have the deep pockets of a corporate violator.

[Belfaborac]

Originally Posted by RainingLemur

I'd say that most of, if not all of the people I know that have ereaders fall under multiple choices up there, save for the geo-restricted ones.

Same here. I ticked every box, except the last one.

Originally Posted by bgalbrecht

When I was college age, I knew plenty of people who would record cassette copies from their friends' LPs and cassettes. That was 30 years ago.

Exactly. I can't see that attitudes towards copyright has changed at all in those years. The only thing which has changed is the ease with which things can be appropriated and therefore also the volume of media being copied/pirated.

When I was in my teens, my friends copied those of my LPs and cassettes they didn't have themselves and I in turn did the same. We probably spent as much on blank tapes as we did on pre-recorded music. I can't remember ever having given copyright so much as a thought back then, nor ever having heard any of my mates mention it.

[Giggleton]

Originally Posted by Belfaborac

When I was in my teens, my friends copied those of my LPs and cassettes they didn't have themselves and I in turn did the same. We probably spent as much on blank tapes as we did on pre-recorded music. I can't remember ever having given copyright so much as a thought back then, nor ever having heard any of my mates mention it.

That was all analog shit, nobody cared. The digital is instantaneously everywhere.

[Belfaborac]

So? The point I made was in regards to attitudes now and then.

[Giggleton]

Originally Posted by Belfaborac

So? The point I made was in regards to attitudes now and then.

What are attitudes? And how are they shaped? By the environment in part, either analog or digital.

In effect we aren't really copying/pirating anything, we are simply transferring the same idea back and forth, I mean the exact same bits. Now that we can all access the same text at the same time, there's a large volume of discourse on the nature of copyright and what it means, when in actuality it no longer means anything. Interesting to say the least.

[Ekaros]

People might not care about copyright laws, but it yet hasn't moved to where they see need to actively try to change them. Depending on where things go it might come. It's still a thing were few get caugth so it's not immediate issue for masses...

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by Ekaros

People might not care about copyright laws, but it yet hasn't moved to where they see need to actively try to change them. Depending on where things go it might come. It's still a thing were few get caugth so it's not immediate issue for masses...

It is going to stay like that that only a few get caught. If there was so many to worry about that it is unfeasable they might as well write it off under "fair use". If they take one pirate down that distributes stuff, there could be millions others beeing able to step in. Doesn't really take special equipment or knowledge to do copyright infringement any more these days, does it?

Edit: Was talking about uploading there, not downloading. If they pass a law that downloading pirated stuff becomes illegal that would be interesting to see how they try to enforce that ...