Speaking as a mod, this thread is a tough call. At best, it can be a lively and intellectual debate about the validity of piracy in the name of acquiring a piece of the history of GI Joe that we may never be able to buy legally. At worst, it can break down into name calling and the two sides sticking to their argument without giving any ground.
I'm okay leaving this thread open but watching it. The first sign of disrespect, it gets locked.
Well, there's really no rational justification is there?
Its like trying to justify stealing a prototype of a figure that is never going to be made--it still abetting a theft.
Just because its consumable doesn't make it legitimate to consume--there's no entitlement in this.
I don't LIKE brow-beating people about this......but its a clear and obvious hypocrisy with people when they complain about the costs of DVDs and ticket prices for movies in theatres, and in the same breath declare they buy a pirate copy of the stuff. Even making the claim that buying a pirate copy is just a precursor to buying a legitimate copy makes little sense, because the actions of supporting piracy exacerbate the rising costs of DVDs--so doing this is shooting oneself in the foot. If a legit copy is $30 ( for example), spending $15 for a pirated crap copy means you just spent $45 to end up with one GOOD copy--and for material you can likely "sample" previews of on Youtube anyway--to see if you like it in the first place! The need to preview isn't even a justification either, because one can buy a legit copy and if they do not like it they can freely sell it to someone else.
And then there is the matter of the livelihood of professionals in the biz being affected.
When I do a storyboard nowadays, I get paid on average about $1000 LESS than I did 15 years ago. This isn't a case of the losses trickling down to minuscule amounts across the boards--studio just flat out refuse to take losses when they can avoid it, and they short-change budgets where they can to make sure things like piracy do not affect their bottom lines. So it in turn affect MY bottom-line, and believe me, I've asked why the 'boarding gigs pay out less these days. Answer is always the same: studio want need to cut costs and losses from stuff l
ike video piracy. These kinds of "claw backs" hit all over the biz, and at all levels, from what I'm told--so you can just imagine the scale of the dollars involved.
Its kind of puts a different spin on it when there are voices out there that think they can justify "stealing" from some "face-less" corporation, but nope-----this time, on this occasion, its a fellow board member and collector with a real stake in this.
No-one has made that justification in this discussion, YET.........and I hope it doesn't get made. The lesson that needs to be shared is that inevitably in this sort of this, you can follow the path along to a point and it WILL impact someone....and probably someone closer to you than you might think.
Its not an argument about moral superiority, or a guilt trip.....or the inanity about some DVDs some people would like to see not being available in legitimate form.........its about something clearly wrong.
It is easy to shrug it off and say that one doesn't give a spit.
But someone in this crowd DOES (me), and I'd ask that anyone of a mind to do this to give a fellow collector and hobbyist the due consideration that they would demand for themselves if they were looking at something being taken from them.
