The Vent and Rant Thread

[kennyc]

It's no different than stealing a newspaper or book from a bookstore. Tell them it's wrong.

[Mortis]

Geeze KennyC, I had a long post all typed out and you go and simplify it to "Tell them its wrong" Man I could learn to hate you articulate types :P

I tell people all the time that downloading a commercial copy of any file is stealing and I get blank looks. My wife is in the music industry and you would be surprised how often musicians working with her have copied music, and in some cases want to use id during performances, boggles the mind! These same musicians get very pissed if I tell them I'm going to record them and put it on YouTube, they can't see how both scenarios are exactly the same. Unfortunately like any Asian country (except for Japan?) piracy is the rune and not the exception. When I was living in Dubai they closed down the authorized Breitling shop in the Mall of the Emirates for selling fakes, I left soon after so I don't know what happened.

[wyndslash]

@kenny: i think the problem is that they just don't care and even brag about it in a joking manner.

@mortis: yeah, piracy is really common here, but i guess it's also due to prices. for example, i generally buy used textbooks, but even that can be pretty pricey. so usually some photocopy whole textbooks and nobody cares, really.

[Mortis]

Originally Posted by wyndslash

@mortis: yeah, piracy is really common here, but i guess it's also due to prices. for example, i generally buy used textbooks, but even that can be pretty pricey. so usually some photocopy whole textbooks and nobody cares, really.

wyndslas, where are you, if you don't mind me asking.

I taught English, stop giggling, I really did, here for a couple of years and all of my students asked me if I would photocopy the books for them, the company I was working for made a lot of money on the sale of these books, but they would always ask. I admit that the books we were selling were very expensive for what they got and if I was in their shoes I would have been looking for an alternative.

Cheers

[wyndslash]

Originally Posted by Mortis

wyndslas, where are you, if you don't mind me asking.

I taught English, stop giggling, I really did, here for a couple of years and all of my students asked me if I would photocopy the books for them, the company I was working for made a lot of money on the sale of these books, but they would always ask. I admit that the books we were selling were very expensive for what they got and if I was in their shoes I would have been looking for an alternative.

Cheers

i'm in the philippines. yes, textbooks are really expensive almost everywhere, i think. photocopying huge sections of books isn't an issue here. and there are photocopiers all over campus. the student council in my university has a "buy back" program, so if i need a whole text and they have it, i just buy it there and sell it back to them once the term is over. it's really more on the part of saving. i would love to own the colored texts; i think most students would, but the cost is staggering, and the really sore point with student textbooks is that they would churn out edition after edition every year, and the content is basically identical save for updated examples and reordering of chapters.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by wyndslash

@kenny: i think the problem is that they just don't care and even brag about it in a joking manner.
...

I know, but that's really all you can do. It's what I do.

[maianhvk]

Originally Posted by wyndslash

i'm in the philippines. yes, textbooks are really expensive almost everywhere, i think. photocopying huge sections of books isn't an issue here. and there are photocopiers all over campus. the student council in my university has a "buy back" program, so if i need a whole text and they have it, i just buy it there and sell it back to them once the term is over. it's really more on the part of saving. i would love to own the colored texts; i think most students would, but the cost is staggering, and the really sore point with student textbooks is that they would churn out edition after edition every year, and the content is basically identical save for updated examples and reordering of chapters.

in Asia, generally piracy is a big problem. Vietnam signed the Bern Convention in 2004, but things've always been the same - like nothing happened. I agree that paper book's cost is terrible and beyond imagination: take my living costs for instance. In a month, I put $70 in food, $100 in accommodation and $50 in other miscellaneous things - books cost about $20 of this. Before I own an ereader, I used to buy paper books, which were costly with the price range varied from $5 to $10. See? I could only buy 4 books at top. That's why people, especially students, love to buy illegal copies and fake books - you can't find new works in 2ndhand bookstores. How can a student afford his expensive university books with $20?

Now I own an ereader and thanks to it, don't have to buy such many books as I used to. But books for university don't exist in any format of file to be found, so I have to get paper books. But I digged through several bookstores and still couldn't find them --> the result is that I HAVE TO use those illegal photocopy. That's the problem.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by maianhvk

....That's why people, especially students, love to buy illegal copies and fake books - you can't find new works in 2ndhand bookstores. How can a student afford his expensive university books with $20?

Now I own an ereader and thanks to it, don't have to buy such many books as I used to. But books for university don't exist in any format of file to be found, so I have to get paper books. But I digged through several bookstores and still couldn't find them --> the result is that I HAVE TO use those illegal photocopy. That's the problem.

A few universities here in the U.S.A. have moved to electronic or partially/optionally to electronic texts for students. I expect to see more and more of this particularly due to the cost. My son is a Physics Graduate student and his books each semester cost almost as much as tuition!!

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by wyndslash

since this is a ranting thread, i'll be putting my two cents here, though it may not be consistent with the current topic (bathrooms? o.o)

i'm tired of not knowing what to say when i talk about prices of ebooks with my family and they just tell me to download torrents. if it's an out-of-copyright book or books that i can get for free LEGALLY, then I'd go for it, but I do balk somewhat (and also feel guilty) about illegally downloading ebooks, simply because i feel for the author. i find it ironic that some members of my family would tell me that authors "generally starve" while they support illegally downloading ebooks. and I just don't know how to reason with people who don't really respect logical arguments. my eldest sister is a reasonable enough person, but my brother is just well, you just can't reason with him. i mean, i would think that any person would prefer free if they can get it, but there is a line.

haha! welcome to the Llounge where topics can change at the speed of light!

the topic of purloined ebooks is often discussed rather heatedly here. as for your brother ask him if he endorses going into book shops and just helping himself to anything on the shelf there and just walking out with them? publishers are still finding their course in this new reality. some are smart about, and others are complete jerks.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

haha! welcome to the Llounge where topics can change at the speed of light!

Not that different, really. Toilets, and people whose moral standards may be found in them...

[Mortis]

And the toilet topic was just starting to get good.

[desertblues]

about toilets: in our big cities, the lights in the public bathrooms are blue-ish. That is to make it difficult for the drug-users to find a vein. Do you have something like that as well in your cities?

[Mortis]

Originally Posted by desertblues

about toilets: in our big cities, the lights in the public bathrooms are blue-ish. That is to make it difficult for the drug-users to find a vein. Do you have something like that as well in your cities?

Never heard of that, here I think the women washing our shoes stop that from happening

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Mortis

And the toilet topic was just starting to get good.

[SneakySnake]

Originally Posted by desertblues

about toilets: in our big cities, the lights in the public bathrooms are blue-ish. That is to make it difficult for the drug-users to find a vein. Do you have something like that as well in your cities?

funny you should say that. I was at the cop shop recently and the light in the dunny there was ultra violet i think. there was no window and it was very dark even with the blue light on. I had to hold the door open with my foot as I went so the light from the little room with the handbasin could light my wee! hee hee.

I wondered if it was a sanitary thingy, but now that you mention it I guess the cops wouldn't want you shooting up in there.