Metauser

Thoughts on Open Source

October 22, 2007 Posted by mitch | thoughts | 0 Comments

My wifes Uncle stopped by the other day to look at my PS3 and decided if he wanted to get one or not... He was asking questions which I'd rather not go into... But the topic of his questions is a common theme I feel among Windows users. Paying for things. I do not nor will I ever condone pirating software/content. (I do however download TopGear which is only shown on the BBC in the UK.... but, thats because I can't buy it here.) And his questions, some of which I completely agree with, others not so much.

Like, I would love to be able to copy a game to a hard drive and run it completely from that and not from the actual disk. When its just me handling the disks or only a few adults... Thats not a big concern for me. However, He has kids and I believe I've even said on this blog, that I would not want kids handling disks if I can help it. Digital copies(iso's) of them would be the much preferred method for them to access the content in my opinion. Something they can't scratch or otherwise ruin. Failing having the storage space required for doing that, I would want to make use of my Fair Use(tm) Rights, and make a backup copy of the disks, and only let them use those. So when they ruin that one, I can throw it away and make another copy for them to slowly destroy. This I believe is a completely legitimate and legal reason to want to perform these actions. But with the idea of being able to do all of these things the illegal ones also exist. Being able to copy dvd's also allows people to rent them for a dollar or so, and make their copy and return the original, then they didn't really "pay" for the copy they now have. To those that do this, I say you are the reason for the copy protection and DRM measures the movie industry (and music) have been trying to put in place. Yes, technology is always going to obsolete their measures, but none the less... features in my PS3 have been crippled simply because people like you exist. I have no problem paying for content, assuming the price is right and its not overly burdensome with DRM. DRM is the reason I've been still buying normal CD's instead of digital forms, because I can always take the CD and rip it to digital forms without DRM. I applaud Apple for bringing DRM free music to iTunes, and if I didn't dislike the interface so much I might actually use it. :) I also however dislike the price tag of certain things. Game prices on the PS3 are actually quite expensive in my mind... being only a casual gamer myself (more on that later...) I love the demo downloads for the PS3 that let me try the games before I actually buy them. It was because of that, I bought Resistance.

Anyway, I guess I'm just not one of those people... I understand the benefits of Free Software, and the importance of paying people for their work. If you don't like paying for software, its time to use the stuff your allowed to use without paying for it. Otherwise, cough up the money.