Oh, and another thing... I'd love to support artists and creators that I like. In fact I do it all the time. I buy games, I buy downloadable music even when it's offered in such a way that I could just as easily download it for free... to the best of my limited possibilities, I try to support the content creators whose work I appreciate.
But then sometimes I run into a situation like this (for example): there's a comic that I want to read. I go to the only place selling it, but the international shipping costs are stupidly high, making it infeasible to order that way. I look into electronic versions, which are all behind a web-based flash reader - talk about DRM: they don't even let me download it as ebooks. At this point I still grit my teeth and pay the amount to read the comics with their e-reader, hoping they'll never bail out with my paid content - and what do I get: after paying for the content, buying a couple of issues, they inform me that they've made a mistake, that the content I've bought shouldn't be available in my country, and that I can't buy any further issues of that comic. After some back and forth with the support they agreed to make the comics I already bought available to read for me, which was a nice gesture, but I still couldn't get any more new issues.
So at that point, I feel I've gone as far as I can to support the creators. There I am, ready and willing to throw money at them, even going so far as to allow them to potentially rip me off with their online DRM, and they don't want to take my money because of some imaginary lines drawn in sand. FFS, it's the 21st century, we live in a global village, get over it already! So at that point, YES, I will torrent those comics. How would the creators benefit from me NOT seeing their content, if they give me no opportunity to pay for it in any case?
But then sometimes I run into a situation like this (for example): there's a comic that I want to read. I go to the only place selling it, but the international shipping costs are stupidly high, making it infeasible to order that way. I look into electronic versions, which are all behind a web-based flash reader - talk about DRM: they don't even let me download it as ebooks. At this point I still grit my teeth and pay the amount to read the comics with their e-reader, hoping they'll never bail out with my paid content - and what do I get: after paying for the content, buying a couple of issues, they inform me that they've made a mistake, that the content I've bought shouldn't be available in my country, and that I can't buy any further issues of that comic. After some back and forth with the support they agreed to make the comics I already bought available to read for me, which was a nice gesture, but I still couldn't get any more new issues.
So at that point, I feel I've gone as far as I can to support the creators. There I am, ready and willing to throw money at them, even going so far as to allow them to potentially rip me off with their online DRM, and they don't want to take my money because of some imaginary lines drawn in sand. FFS, it's the 21st century, we live in a global village, get over it already! So at that point, YES, I will torrent those comics. How would the creators benefit from me NOT seeing their content, if they give me no opportunity to pay for it in any case?
Comment