

Why should piracy be encouraged, a third world perspective - nos4A2
http://rohansehgalsoasis.blogspot.in/2010/09/file-sharing-reducing-digital-divide.html

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jaipilot747
In most articles about why people pirate movies, I find that two points are
mentioned.

1) Getting a movie the legal way is much slower and harder than getting it in
a few minutes at the comfort of your room

2) There will always be people who don't want to pay for movies.

Now to talk about India specifically, the first point breaks down. Our
internet speeds aren't really high enough to promise that a movie download is
faster than taking your bike and renting the DVD for ₹25-50 nearby.

Regarding 2), we find that people have no qualms buying tickets at theaters
for > ₹100. Buying DVDs however is very rare, at least among the average
Indian populace.

So unless we find a middle ground piracy is still going to happen. And
frankly, I think we have much bigger problems than piracy to tackle.

Just my ₹2

~~~
nos4A2
Completely agree.. this calculation makes sense to me, the average salary of a
college graduate in the US is 5000$, and a DVD costs around 50$, so by the
same proportion a DVD should cost between 100 and 300 Rs. However a Game DVD
costs 2300 Rs. i.e. no middle ground..

~~~
dangrossman
> average salary of a college graduate in the US is 5000$

Median personal income for a US person age 25+ with a BS degree or higher is
$49303 per year. If you only consider those with a full-time job, it's $56078.

~~~
bartonfink
With a BS, that is. That excludes large swathes of college educated people who
have less valuable BA's.

~~~
dangrossman
That's still $40k for full-time, not $5k.

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asto
1: Indian Government must encourage piracy. 2: Internet enlightens people. 3:
It is in the interest of a large organisation to keep people in the dark (like
governments in third world countries)

If 2 & 3 are correct, how will 1 ever happen?

"moderates cost based on the consumer, that is based on the income of the
customer the rates change" is the stupidest shit I have had the misfortune of
reading today.

~~~
jaipilot747
I find this to be pointlessly harsh: >> .. is the stupidest shit I have had
the misfortune of reading today.

If you disagree with something, please explain why. Throwing around insults
really doesn't add any value. [1]

[1] <http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html>

~~~
asto
You're right. I just found the whole article rather poorly thought out when
compared to the articles that I usually find posted here and was a little
irritated. Could have explained why that concept won't work rather than just
abuse.

1\. How will you find out people's income? The only way is to let them tell
you. The people who report their correct income are the sort who would have
bought your DVD at your price anyway. And the people who are the sort to lie
to save money would rather get it for free right? There's also the problem of
people not wanting to disclose their income to any tom, dick or harry who
asks.

2\. Any sort of price discrimination is generally a bad idea regardless of the
basis of discrimination. A better idea is to push the price per unit down to
the point where it's a no-brainer to buy it. (I think it was Lady Gaga who
sold her latest album for a buck per copy and generated huge sales volume)

Besides, we don't need some newfangled solution that is so hard to implement.
The problem is that the people who produce content like music/movies have
gotten into a rut in the way they think. We need a Steam (the software by
valve) for movies. Just buy a movie and you own it forever. Lost a hard disk
and want to watch The Godfather again? Just login and re-download a h264 rip
LEGALLY. Have a blue ray player and a fast internet connection? Download the
blue ray disk. So many people already download content. The idea should be to
make downloading content from legitimate providers a better experience than
piratebay and charge a premium for it. Push down the prices and push up the
volumes.

~~~
nos4A2
To your first question, there is a concept called PPP (purchasing power
parity), which measures the cost of a basket of items across regions (a famous
implementation is the Big Mac Index), so you wouldn't really go around asking
people their salary, it is more in terms of a region or a country..

As to the question about price discrimination it already exists as a result of
free market/supply demand.. Bread costs 50 cents in India vs 2.50$ in the US..
That is simply because people as willing to only pay 50c.. But with media,
there exists no "need", people consume whatever is given to them, so there is
a need to artificially regulate prices, in the long run that will benefit the
media houses, they are just too short sighted to see that..

