2008 Woodie Awards
Small decisions affect your everyday life
Sam Sotheara
Issue date: 12/2/05 Section: Opinion
- Page 1 of 2 next >
Doritos or Cheetos, Pepsi or Coke, aren't life-changing major-impact choices, but selections we still make. How often do you think about why you prefer Pepsi over Coke, or vice versa? Probably never or very little, and it's not really worth a thought. I doubt knowing why you choose what you choose will change your decision either.
We do make decisions daily that matter, and beg for a second thought. From the moment we wipe our eyes in the morning and rest our heads at night, we're faced with constant ethical dilemmas. They're not huge ethical end-of-the-world decisions, but decisions just the same.
When you know a musician or group is releasing a new album soon, it's easy to log into a torrent search or website and download the album two weeks before it's released. Regardless if you think it's piracy or not, you are enjoying music that an artist created and you did not offer royalties to that artist, nor did you receive a copy from someone who did. So it's not sharing, either.
Sure, you could purchase the album once it's released, but are you really going to, considering it's already in your CD player? Who's going to know and care, right? Yeah, there are some people, including me, who prefer the quality sound of compact discs over MP3s, even though downloading today is much quicker than it was yesterday.
With the emergence of cheaper broadband connection services, downloading movies today is just as easy as downloading music during the old Napster days. Now you can literally watch a movie that's in theaters and not bother with lines, bad seats and obnoxious people. And keep $8.50 in your wallet.
Is that piracy? Well, did you send Spielberg a check? Not everyone cares enough about movies and music to put forth the effort and time to download, not that it takes a lot of effort. So, is electronically receiving movies or music any different from stealing a DVD at Wal-Mart? You at least put some real thought into stealing a DVD, right? How much thought do you put into what you say?
We do make decisions daily that matter, and beg for a second thought. From the moment we wipe our eyes in the morning and rest our heads at night, we're faced with constant ethical dilemmas. They're not huge ethical end-of-the-world decisions, but decisions just the same.
When you know a musician or group is releasing a new album soon, it's easy to log into a torrent search or website and download the album two weeks before it's released. Regardless if you think it's piracy or not, you are enjoying music that an artist created and you did not offer royalties to that artist, nor did you receive a copy from someone who did. So it's not sharing, either.
Sure, you could purchase the album once it's released, but are you really going to, considering it's already in your CD player? Who's going to know and care, right? Yeah, there are some people, including me, who prefer the quality sound of compact discs over MP3s, even though downloading today is much quicker than it was yesterday.
With the emergence of cheaper broadband connection services, downloading movies today is just as easy as downloading music during the old Napster days. Now you can literally watch a movie that's in theaters and not bother with lines, bad seats and obnoxious people. And keep $8.50 in your wallet.
Is that piracy? Well, did you send Spielberg a check? Not everyone cares enough about movies and music to put forth the effort and time to download, not that it takes a lot of effort. So, is electronically receiving movies or music any different from stealing a DVD at Wal-Mart? You at least put some real thought into stealing a DVD, right? How much thought do you put into what you say?
Be the first to comment on this story