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Comment by intended | Hacker News Reader

It's amazing that even on HN, the conversation is no longer moored to the past.

Copyright in America has been extended beyond reasonable restriction, driven by the MPAA and RIAA who began chipping away at the net as we knew it, and continue to do so today. All of this at the behest of firms which continue to use the most interesting of accounting techniques to show losses, while simultaneously doing everything in their power to make it harder for people to comfortably and easily access media (starting from the time of CDs to today).

All this on top of the fact that studies show that torrenting movies don't indicate lost sales and actually working as a signal to indicate the popularity of a product.

all this on the forum where it's reasonable to expect people to know the value of the network effect.

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Here's an interview question I might pose to candidates (for a coding job):

"Which torrent site with access to popular songs and movies over the past 5 years has been the best, meaning the one you use most?"

My candidate responds and says "Pirate Bay" or "Kat".

If I have several candidates, this guy will be the last possible choice if every candidate is qualified because I'm assuming he's okay with using copyrighted works without paying.

Consider these scenarios -- stealing in your opinion?

- go to a restaurant, eat a meal, then leave without paying (you enjoyed something you were supposed to pay for but you did not pay)

- use public transit and not pay for the ride

- hail a taxi then run away when you arrive at the destination and not pay

If I asked a candidate "would either of these 3 scenarios above be okay?" -- would they expect me to hire them if they said one or more would be acceptable?

If I asked the candidate "how many times have you enjoyed a copyrighted film or recording -- and not paid?" -- 99.99% sure that every candidate would say 'never' even if they'd done so dozens of times.

Why would they lie to me about that? "If I tell the hiring manager I watch, listen to copyrighted stuff without paying, he might think that was wrong and not hire me, so I have to lie."

"It's not stealing, I just disagree with copyright laws/distribution channels/etc."

No it's stealing.

Even as a hypothetical, it is an example so laden with meaning and implication that the only true measure of your argument will come when you actually apply it during a recruitment drive. Please go ahead and discuss this with a recruiter and see what they say.

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