Comment by dorian-graph | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dorian-graph | Hacker News Reader

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Who determines what is priced 'too highly'? Also, do people have a right to content/things created and sold by others? Whatever happened to going without? If we were talking about clean water, I can get behind saying every person has a right to it.. but with rights comes duties.. though when it comes to the latest TV shows and other things I must admit I'm a little indifferent. An example is here in Australia for the longest time for seemingly arbitrary reasons we've always been very 'behind' America when it comes to showing new episodes of TV shows so many people say that's the reason why they 'pirate' TV shows. Why can't they just wait? Once again, if it was water there is a certain amount of possible time they could wait but when it's the latest episode of House..

Ultimately I would say piracy usually breaks down to people wanting things for free. If we stop looking in our inside circles (Enthusiasts, developers, etc—the 'enlightened') and then look outside at the mythical average man, or, the masses.

Recently someone in my Facebook feed made a comment about loving BitTorrent (Hey, at least he and others are moving on from Limewire) because he could get movies for free. This comment had a few 'lol awsome' words in it. Also, think of how people latch onto "GET RICH QUICK" schemes, late-night ads promising amazing abs at minimal work, etc.

Hell, consider myself too. Back in high school I would pirate a lot of games and finish them. Why? Because I wanted them and didn't always have the money. Note: Throughout my life I've also purchased a ton of games starting back with Hocus Pocus, Raptor and Warcraft. ;) I've long since stopped and now if I want to play a videogame I will either buy it or go without. Take Portal 2 for example, I've been more carefully budgeting my money and am yet to buy it. I haven't died, yet!

Who determines what is priced 'too highly'?

The market.

Also, do people have a right to content/things created and sold by others?

Nope! But they steal it anyway. ("Bean counters said I couldn't fire a man just for being in a wheelchair. Did it anyway! Ramps are expensive!")

Ultimately, I'd gladly pay for Netflix. But it doesn't work on any of my computers, so I just get better-quality stuff from Illegal Places instead. Honey badger don't care, and neither do I.

"The market."

It does, but when you rely on a subset of the market that will never pay for your stuff anyway, the value is more than just a little skewed.

"Honey badger don't care, and neither do I."

Good. I don't like paying taxes because they are just too expensive..so I don't.

It's funny because when businesses do the same thing with workers (the american programmer is too expensive, so we just decided to hire from India), people get all upset.

>It does, but when you rely on a subset of the market that will never pay for your stuff anyway, the value is more than just a little skewed.

No, it means you have no market. Find a new one.

>Good. I don't like paying taxes because they are just too expensive..so I don't.

You - as a supplier - are not the government, and you don't have any inherent right to be in the particular business you are in.

>It's funny because when businesses do the same thing with workers (the american programmer is too expensive, so we just decided to hire from India), people get all upset.

Some people do, yes. Usually it is the same group that fail to understand the idea that the consumer - not the supplier - that defines the worth of a product. The American programmer is too expensive - in some definitions. That is why first world programmers add a hell of a lot of value over spec following developing world labour these days.

This is basic economics.

I don't get upset when businesses outsource to India. If anything, hiring me the first time would result in less work for me. If I was hired for a few months to solve problem foo, then I'd be finished and gone and not getting paid. But because there is so much damage caused by bad programmers, I have to stay employed indefinitely just to keep the damage from being too bad. Multiply this by the number of good programmers in the world, and we're wasting a lot of money on outsourcing.

So yes, please outsource your programming some more.

The market is true.. as long as someone follows. For example, the market average for an app that is a dictionary is $1.99, if some developer makes their own dictionary app and charges $29.99, the only person who dictates the price is the creator.

My point being, no one can tell an author how much to sell his content for. They can quote market average, scream and do whatever but they cannot make that developer sell it for a price they choose which comes back to "people want your stuff, but you've priced it too highly" and the idea that people have a right to content/software which therefore backs the bizarre act of stealing/illegally acquiring. People might feel like it's priced too high but that doesn't make it a 'fact' that it is.

I'd gladly pay for Netflix too but it's not available in my country. So, I'll go without or I'll rent movies from a video store for $1 on Tuesday. Netflix not being in my country doesn't give me a right to pirate content.

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