thanks McCulloh, so i can assume fairness and empathy are strongly related with duty, or obligation.. Knowing this, can I say, that talking about Piracy, is more than just a problem of a money, which had been posted by the two previous thread?
What I thought is, it's more into
Knowing your position, i had saw someone post this before, that, as if he's blaming that the production house is getting rich if they kept buying it from them, or the production house already get so much money as their profit, so losing one/ two millions dollar won't be a problem. Yes, it won't be a problem if you see it from money/ economical Point of View, but think more than that, just like what McCulloh previously mention, it's about fairness and empathy, don't reduce it as if it's only a matter of money.
Before I start going more depth in this topic, I want to write down what I believe, that as a Human, one from many aspects that make us
different from other creatures (animal/ plant) is us
knowing our duty and our right.
what i mean by
Knowing our position?
it's when you understand that you as a consumer, need to
do your duty, while
demanding for your right. What is your right and what is your duty is what you need
to know, instead thinking of others benefit (in this case, the profit that the production house has gained) or this is categorized as stealing or not.
You see, the entertainment industry
has done their duty, which is providing an entertainment (in this case, a movie).
Now, what they're asking for? money, do you think it's wrong for them to ask it? I don't think so, it's their
right, since they execute their
duty.
now, back to us, we're asking for our
right to watch it, but we also need to
understand what is our
duty?
It's to pay what they're asking for, right?
If I need to illustrate this, it's like you're living in a house, it's your house, you've the full ownership in it. But since you're living alone in a house with too many empty rooms, you decided to rent out some of your empty room, maybe it can increase your monthly income. One day, some people coming in, you ask them,
"do you KNOW if you want to USE this room, you need to pay?" He replies,
"yes of course." then he sleep there, take a bath there, do everything there, as if it's his home. Then one day, the you come and ask him for the money, "I rent out this room, so if you want to use it, you need to pay for it."
then they say, "no, I don't want to pay, you're already rich in this case, your house is so big, and you don't even use this room, so I assume it won't be a problem if I don't pay it." in this case, Yes,
the tenant is not taking the ownership of the house you rent, it's still
your house. but, what's the problem here?
the owner has
fulfill his duty to provide a good empty room, as it should. and he's only
asking for his right, to get the money for using his room. Is that so wrong to be blamed?
but what does that man do? he's
demanding his right, for using the empty room, but
doesn't care for the duty to pay for it.
If you see this, and saying. the tenant doesn't need to pay, he even need to be paid by the owner, because without the tenant, no one will use the empty room, or maybe no one will know if there are rooms to be rent in that place, it's almost the same like you help the owner to promoting it. If you think like that, I think your understanding of right and duty already flipped, it's almost the same like u're saying, if people buy a light bulb, and use the electricity, they need to get paid by the government, because if they're not using the light bulb, and electricity, no one will use it.
does this make sense?
No, it'll make no sense, because they execute their duty by providing electricity and light bulb, and you
Want it, while they asking their right, which is your duty for using it, by paying for it.
and yes, it will, only if your understanding of right and duty is flipped. If you're saying you don't want to use the electricity but u're forced to use it, so it's their duty to pay you for using it, I'll say it's already in a different case, because if you don't want to watch that movie from the first, no one will force you to download it.
it's more like a mutually symbiotic system (if you ever learn this).
If you're saying ur consumer will force you to download it, because they want to watch it, not you, so you don't want to get blamed, I believe it's nothing more your own selfishness, wanting money than for your own benefit, for your own profit, by blaming them, for they're forcing you.
If there are also Christian whom reading this thread, and giving their excuse for they don't want to participate in buying the original because they know, the one whom using their money, which is the production house, doesn't use it for good, but maybe for doing evil things. I just want to let u guys know, it's their own responsibility towards God, it's their own personal relationship towards God, it's written in the scripture, Romans 13, when Paul's talking about the taxes, it's talking about your obligation as a Christian to follow the law, and it's our own responsibility towards God, we can't blame others for it, because our relationship with God, is a
Personal relationship, instead of
impersonal relationship.
For it's God whom appoint them as your government. and you also need to understand where's the border line of "Following the Law" written by Paul, instead of blindly following whatever the law says. The only allowance we have for disobeying the authorities is if they demand that we disobey something God has commanded (Acts 5:29). It is not inherently evil to download and share music, movies, etc. However, it is ethically wrong to download and/or share copyrighted music, movies, etc., without the permission of the artist / publisher, which is piracy, because doing so is a violation of the law, and God commands us to obey the law. You need to balance your understanding of those two, because they're like two pillars as a foundation, if one of them is taller than the other one, you'll either falling down into one extreme side or you'll stand sideways. It's not only in the aspect of following the law of human or following the law of Christ, but also in all aspect of Christianity, i.e: love and justice, etc.
and, that's why, IMO, being a Christian, is not a simple task, and we must always and never stop learn from the scripture, that way hopefully, we can stay maintaining the balance.
Well, that's for me.. what do you guys think?
Hope I'm getting respond for describing my thought in here..
