Thoughts on Piracy

This was taken from the Mulligan Media Forums, where it was posted by me (orismology)

As long as there's been content, someone's wanted to pirate it. From books, to music, to television, software, movies and videos, people have wanted to copy it. It's quite clear to us the piracy will always exist.

If you can watch it, you can copy it. While all of our current content is already available for free with no restrictions, we have not rulled out the possibility of paid products in the past. if they get popular, there's a chance they will be pirated. While we don't like that possibility, we regard it as another risk of doing business.

Copyright exists for a good reason. As content creators, we have the right to control how our content is used. Unfortunately, copyright laws around the world have gotten out of hand. The image of mickey mouse is 84 years old, and still under copyright. That's ridiculous.

We support the notion of copyright, but its current implementation is flawed. SOPA/PIPA etc are not fixes for copyright or effective ways to combat piracy. They are violations of common sense. Copyright infringement is not theft - it's copyright infringement, nothing more. With the exception of commercial, large-scale piracy, it shouldn't be a criminal offence. 

Punish people if you want. If you're a movie studio, sue someone for downloading a movie - that's your right. But sue them for the 19.95 the actually cost you, not thousands. and certainly don't give someone jail time for downloading a song.

 Because at the end of the day, I'll let someone copy my content until the cows come home if the alternative is sending a regular joe to jail.