Comment by walteweiss | Hacker News Reader

Comment by walteweiss | Hacker News Reader

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Well, many of us know that popular phrase ‘piracy, it just works.’

When I download a movie this way, I truly own it. Same as I own a DVD disk. It’s just the medium that is different. E.g. I have a collection of Friends on disks, which is legal, I own it. But when it’s ripped as files and stored on an old hdd so I could rewatch some episodes just plugging the disk via USB. I assume it is likely to be illegal.

The thing is, copyright holders think it’s wrong, and they want us to rent the content, not own it. I mean it could be done other way technologically, avoiding physical medium and still making it legal somehow. It could be done if the party was interested in it. The problem is not in the physical medium itself.

> [Piracy:] When I download a movie this way, I truly own it.

When you download a pirated copy, it's more likely that you _possess_ it, rather than _owning_ it. You are in control of the bits and bytes, they will not just disappear; but since your copy is unlicensed and illicit, the copyright holder could take legal steps to make you delete your copy (and pay for your infringement on their copyright).

> Same as I own a DVD disk.

That's different. You own the physical disc, and the right to re-sell or potentially lend out that physical disc. (However, you can't take the data from that disc, and stream it to a public audience on the internet.)

> [...] rewatch some episodes just plugging the disk via USB

Depends on your jurisdiction, but in many places it is legal for you to create a backup of a physical disc that you own, and make personal use of that backup. In some places you are allowed to share your backup copy with friends and family (on a non-commercial basis, of course). It gets nuanced.

Ripping is pretty much undetectable though unless they decide to torrent it for others. So in practice they own it. As to the 2nd point, it's not really 1:1, a more accurate equivalent would be a netflix dvd rather than a bought one.

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