[ SECRET POST #3636 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3636 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 49 secrets from Secret Submission Post #520.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Convenience is indeed at the root of pirating, and frankly, the death of art and small industry in general.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't think you're wrong - I think you're right about rationalization and its effects in general - but I also think it's a structural reality that's kind of unavoidable. It's a really hard problem to solve and it's something that is taking place far above the individual level.

[(Anonymous)]

ayrt

I mean, you're right. As long as things are available for free without so much as moving your ass off the couch, (many) people will naturally go for that option rather than go out of their way or open their wallet to support creators. In the case of anime, that's what really kills the industry. Same concept goes for small, specialized businesses that die when mega-Walmarts or whatever are built - the shit is cheaper, and all in one place. It's just very hard to mobilize people to support arts and small businesses when it's inconvenient to do so.

[(Anonymous)]

NAYRT

But this person *did* pay for a subscription and it didn't have all the series so they pirated the ones it didn't have. They did open their wallet but the content was not available. It's not quite the same scenario.

[(Anonymous)]

AYRT

Like... I don't think that talking about it in terms of people being lazy, or as a moral fault, makes sense. That's kind of what I mean by talking about rationalization. From a consumer's perspective, if you have the option to get the thing more cheaply and more convenient, it is in a real sense irrational not to do that. From a supplier's perspective, if you can cut costs and do your business in a way that's cheaper, likewise. And over the long term and on a long scale, that rationality has an enormous weight that's almost impossible to ignore. It's wildly unrealistic to expect people to make less convenient, more expensive choices with no actual account for why they would do such a thing. It's just against all expectation of human nature. It's not how people work.

Now, there is a problem, which is that the outcomes of rationalization in this sense and on this scale often are actually worse at meeting the real human needs of people and often have really massive negative externalities. I completely agree that's a problem. It's a massive, huge, really hard problem that's already causing immense harm and that's only going to get worse. But pointing that out is not a way of stopping the process. You need some kind of actual way to deal with it. You need a structure and incentives and reasons. Sticking your fingers in your ears and hoping people stop being lazy is bullshit. It is not an attempt to deal with the problem. It's never going to work.

[(Anonymous)]

NAYRT

In the case of anime, that's what really kills the industry.

I can see that for currently-airing anime, but what about oldschool stuff, 90% of which is unavailable? I'd die to get my hands on "Pink Lady Monogatari" or "Mon Cheri CoCo", but they aren't available. I'd love to find a complete set of "Chou Kuse ni Narisou" LDs, but my best chance is someone putting them up on Yahoo!Japan and praying I can out-pay someone else in a possibly obscene bidding war. Heck, the latest series I pirated was "Apache Yakuyuugun", which only had a limited DVD print run years ago so it is far out of print in Japan.

I highly doubt my pirating is killing the industry since what I want to watch is not available in any way, shape, or form in my country.

[(Anonymous)]

+1. Doesn't help I sometimes want a specific non-English dbu, like the Swedish dub of Sailor Moon. The last time it was available was when VHS was the most common format, and those tapes only covered... I think about a fifth of the dubbed episodes? Of course I torrented the whole dub as soon as I could!

[(Anonymous)]

Is it "convenience" if the subscription plain doesn't have the content? I'd define convenience as making something easier that is already possible, not making something possible that is currently impossible.

[(Anonymous)]

Well, there's that, and there's things literally not being available in certain countries. For example, Australia used to be the biggest per capita pirates in the world. Then Netflix arrived earlier this year and we were instantly down to third on that list. One paid service did that, and it doesn't even have all the US content. The vast majority of people are willing to pay for their art.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm willing to pay for art.

It just has to actually be available at a reasonable price.

For example. Video games. The games I have pirated? You can only find on Amazon for about $80-150 a pop. And that's not including shipping. For PS1 and 2 games.

[(Anonymous)]

DA

Also, if you're buying them used, the company isn't making any money off those sales anyway. They made their profit off the initial sale and that's it.

[(Anonymous)]

The prices ARE reasonable. Making a video game is really fucking expensive, and most of the creative team makes pennies. Just because you're a cheapskate doesn't mean you're entitled to it for free.

[(Anonymous)]

nyart

Er, anon? When games go for that price it's usually because they're no longer available to buy first hand - that is, in a proper store or online service - so the only way to get them is buying them second- or even third-hand. That money from those sales? Won't be going to the creative teams, and that's assuming in the first place they haven't already gone bankrupt, been bought up by another company, or sold their IP to someone else.