Hey all, need a little help if you wouldn't mind. Part of my schooling involves a small section on Media Ethics and Law, and one of the assignments is a survey. I was going to have people in my lunchroom take it, but I figure this would be a much easier way of going about it. The results may be a little different than what they would be if I didn't have a bunch of internet geeks take the survey (no offense, I'm one of you) but I don't think it will be a problem. I hope you'll take this serious (well, not life or death serious, but serious enough). Thanks for the help. Anywho, on with the survey.


Media Ethics & Law Survey
Piracy
1. Have you heard of media piracy before?
A. Yes
B. No

2. What does media piracy mean to you?

3. Do you think media piracy affects you? If so, how?

4. What are your thoughts on downloading media, such as music?

5. What do you think about the strictness of the laws dealing with media piracy? (i.e. – should they be more strict, less, strict, etc)

6. What do you think should happen to those who are caught pirating media?

1. A. Yes

2. Obtaining a copy that you have not purchased the right to use. This does not include, however, downloading material you already own.

3. Currently? No. In the future? As a future software designer, a similar problem will affect me, yes.

4. I support a sampling system, but believe that downloading material you do not own is immoral and should remain illegal.

5. I think some of the efforts to regulate technology the facilitates illegal ripping (but is not solely used for it) goes too far. As for the rest...eh. No problem.

6. I think they should be fined, if found in excess (e.g., more than 100 illegal songs). Any punishment beyond that would be absurd.

1. Yes.

2. Media piracy, to me, has two separate definitions. The first is outright theft of software or media that is sold for money. If you obtained a free copy of software or media that is sold for money, you have pirated unless there are extenuating circumstances such as student deals and software licenses.

The second is breaking any contract you agree to when purchasing or installing the software or media, regardless of whether it is freeware or freely distributed media. Reverse-engineering software, editing media files (if it is against anything you agreed to), and re-distributing any such software or media in a way that breaks any contracts you may have agreed to.

3. Indirectly higher prices, for sure. That applies to CDs, and most definitely software as two prime examples, no matter how little. Other than that, it truly doesn't, at the present time.

4. I think it is definitely the future. Who wants to drive down to Hastings or something to buy music and videos? I truly think buying media on the web will become standard very soon. Of course, these will be services that charge money, but everyone wins in the end because sending data over the network is far cheaper than Having publishers and hard data storage and such. If people want to make hard copies of their media, they are free to burn it to a CD/DVD.

5. I think what we're seeing currently is people being made examples, so the consequences are artificially strict right now. I believe they should be more lax than they are currently, but i believe they will become more lax in the future.

6. It of course depends on the severity. The consequence for downloading a movie over a p2p network should be a warning at best, with fines for repeat offenders. If the crime is more severe, such as operating an extensive server of pirated media and software, there should be jail time and monetary restitution involved. This would be for people who really know what they're doing though, not your average person downloading warez. There should be harsher penalties for the distributers than the "consumers" is what I'm getting at.

1. Yes

2. Downloading or acquiring media/software which you have not legally obtained the license to use it. Legally does not always mean purchasing.

3. Currently is does not. In the future I don't forsee it affecting me too. I will be a software engineer, but I don't forsee myself starting my own company at least not now.

4. By definition it is illegal. They are copyrighted material by the record companies. I am not familiar with intellectual property rights and copyright laws enough to expand on these.

5. Stricter. Today's era gives opportunity to quite literally steal millions from companies through media piracy. This can have adverse effects on the industry(ies). I understand that "clamping down" will not solve the problem, though.

6. Again this is up to what is written in law. It also depends on the severity of the crime committed. If one has ripped millions of dollars in piracy, then the punishment should be harsh. If you've merely downloaded an album, the guilty should at least pay the value of the album to whomever. I lean in favor of more disciplinary actions.

Yeah.

Counting down to pagewizard's "The RIAA is worse than the mafia, drug cartels, nazis, communists, rapists, murderers, and pedophiles combined" post...

1. Have you heard of media piracy before?
A. Yes

2. What does media piracy mean to you?
Obtaining media that you have not properly paid for the right to have in your possession.

3. Do you think media piracy affects you? If so, how?
Yes, in some cases higher prices for those of us who do pay for the media we want. Also, general distrust by the media companies resulting in stricter protection standards for cds, software, etc that sometimes can cause problems- ie, cds wont play on my computer, my antiquated dvd drive has trouble reading some protected DVD's.

4. What are your thoughts on downloading media, such as music?
It's ok if you're checking a music artist out, to determine whether or not you want to invest money in purchasing one of their albums. Many artists do post legal downloads of samples of their music for this purpose.

5. What do you think about the strictness of the laws dealing with media piracy? (i.e. – should they be more strict, less, strict, etc)
I think they are becoming too strict. The most recently enacted laws impost jail times for media piracy, which I dont agree with. Many people who are prosecuted get off easy in comparison to the punishment they could face. I think the RIAA and MPAA are a bit too zealous in their enforcement of copyright, but I also think that the situation with the internet has gotten so bad that they probably arent left with too many other options.

6. What do you think should happen to those who are caught pirating media?
Probation and small fines.

I think the most important fact that the media companies havent really picked up on is that the ease of downloading files has facilitated filesharing communities where the participants have downloaded a lot more content than they ever would have paid for if they didnt have the option of downloading for free. You can't make a direct comparison between revenue lost and the monetary value corresponding to the amount of files traded.

Media Ethics & Law Survey
Piracy
1. Have you heard of media piracy before?
A. Yes

2. What does media piracy mean to you?
Illegally obtaining copyrighted material from an unauthorised source.

3. Do you think media piracy affects you? If so, how?
Yeah, it gives me a great opportunity to try before I buy. I dont mind paying a tiny bit more at the register if it means I can buy a music with absolute certainty that I will like the music on it.

4. What are your thoughts on downloading media, such as music?
I think it's an unfortunate case of something which if properly regulated and used to its full potential could be really advantageous for everyone involved. But it never will be.

5. What do you think about the strictness of the laws dealing with media piracy? (i.e. ? should they be more strict, less, strict, etc)
If would be nice if they were uniformly enforced.

6. What do you think should happen to those who are caught pirating media?
Jail terms and fines for the mass-piraters. They are stealing property, and we live in a society that needs laws against acts like stealing.

dammit, you stole my thunder. :p

Although I am a capitalist through and through, I believe that the RIAA (and now the MPAA too) embody everything that is wrong with capitalism (such as using your power to intimidate others and ruining other people's lives just so you can pad your bottom line) and I would love to see them lose everything. It's been a long time coming.

1. Have you heard of media piracy before?
Yes.

2. What does media piracy mean to you?
The acquisition of media that I don't have a legal right to.

3. Do you think media piracy affects you? If so, how?
It's used as a hollow excuse for increasingly intolerable pricing and copy protection policies. On the plus side, it provides me with many hours of entertainment and fuels a burgeoning appreciation for arts, all of which is would be out of reach if not for my media piracy.

4. What are your thoughts on downloading media, such as music?
It's amoral. What counts as a good or service that deserves compensation is grounded solely in relatively rapidly shifting societal mores and bought laws. What's more, it is inevitable. You just can't stop it without compromising rights and freedoms that America has treasured for centuries. Musicians made a living before any recordings were possible, and would presumably continue to make a living if recordings were no longer profitable. It's simply the stress skewing the system, forcing rigid orthogonal models to bend or break, and distorting previously clear copyright law into bizarre contortions.

5. What do you think about the strictness of the laws dealing with media piracy? (i.e. – should they be more strict, less, strict, etc)
It depends what new model hashes out. Laws will have to balance the artist's entirely legitimate rights to ownership and acknowledgment, while confronting the inability to regulate or control a work once it has escaped to the wild.

6. What do you think should happen to those who are caught pirating media?
Restitution, I guess. Maybe community service, you know, to balance leeching off society with contributing to society.