During my senior year of high school, I came upon an interesting app for my Mac that did something amazing: through a beautiful user interface, it let me select which shows and seasons I wanted to track and would automatically download a high quality version of each episode as it was released. It was seamless, clean, and best of all–free! Of course I had an inkling of concern what I was doing might not be terribly ethical or legal, but alas the process was too easy, and I didn’t have Netflix or the like.
Fast-forward to spring of Freshman year when I get an email from the Office of Community Standards requesting a conduct meeting regarding allegations by Home Box Office (HBO) that I was using nd-secure to illegally download episodes of their show, The Newsroom. Well…Yes, yes I did do that (which was crazy because I didn’t even watch the show!). I did not, in fact, have the meeting but did have a conversation with OIT who requested I remove all copies of the TV show from my computer and stop immediately any other illegal downloads. It was a necessary slap on the wrist but the threat of further repercussions by OIT (no internet access for me!) and the scary legal language from HBO caused me to think hard about whether it was worth it to “enjoy” this copyrighted content at the price of lots of legal hoops and moral quandaries.
My conclusions? First, it’s not worth it. Further, it’s not right.
I made a commitment to begin purchasing content (apps, songs, movies, and shows) I wanted to enjoy. Companies had already made it so easy for me to enjoy this content if only I paid for it. I didn’t have to have my laptop running all night torrenting files with strange extensions and having to convert them later so that I could sync it up with my iPad. I could tap a button and it would download in HD to my iPhone–and stay synced across every device. So it wasn’t worth the hassle, but it wasn’t worth the risk, either: I could actually enjoy my content, knowing my version of Photoshop wasn’t bootlegged or susceptible to weird issues, or that some company was chasing after me. (One time, the company I started was hit with a preemptive lawsuit from a Google image we had used for a photo on our website, asking for $500+ in payment–I emailed them nicely that I was sorry and took it down. No charges pressed.)
But beyond the convenience factor of “not living life like a fugitive” or spending precious time trying to save a few pennies, I reasoned that pirating stuff was just wrong. I am a creator and a developer–and I’ve seen some of my stuff copied and reproduced without my permission. Sad! Thus, in developing recent websites for clients, I’ve paid special attention to licensing information for the themes I use–ensuring not to cross any bounds. It’s a bit tedious, but it’s the right thing to do. Today, I buy all my songs, movies, TV shows, and apps–and I feel great doing so. We should be promoting the fair payment of quality work.