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Comment by jhprks | Hacker News Reader

People breaking the law should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Digital rights management protects the artists and the publishers from having their rights violated by the criminals who watch movies using Popcorn Time. Furthermore, the creators of Popcorn Time are subject to being accessories to the crime.

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The existence of Popcorn Time serves as a pretty strong counter-example to the argument that DRM protects IP rights.

I have, however, had technical difficulty playing a movie I legally purchased through iTunes thanks to HDCP deciding it wanted the day off.

Another minor complaint: I want to run my movies through an audio filter I developed to improve stereo imaging on headphones, but I can't really do that with DRM'd content. (Annoyingly, attempting to open a Fairplay-protected item with an AVPlayer object on OS X 10.9 causes the process to be sent SIGKILL.)

Not that I think this justifies piracy, but I do think DRM is a lame non-solution that punishes paying customers while piracy continues to run rampant in spite of it.

> should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law

So - you feel the penalties set down in law are always just and appropriate? And maximum sentences/fines are the ideal that should be aimed for?

What are you trying to say exactly?

"So - you feel the penalties set down in law are always just and appropriate?"

I believe not all penalties set down in law are always just and appropriate, probably even some authorities may see it this way too, but just imagine that you were to ask that question if you were set in front of a judge to justify your piracy acts, do you really think that'll get you out of trouble?

I think instead I will ask myself whether I give a shit how a judge rules on enforcing laws I think are insane.

Non-commercial piracy should be a civil matter, not a criminal one.

Well, I don't see how downloading non-commercial products can be seen as a piracy at all. It would make whole lot sense to me if you were to say that non-commercial software downloading should be a civil matter, not a criminal one, but here we're talking about pirating commercial products in popcorn time, which can be categorized into criminal matter.

I mean non-commercial in the sense that the person doing the downloading (or uploading) isn't doing so to generate a commercial benefit, not whether or not the product being pirated is commercial in nature.

>which can be categorized into criminal matter.

Of course it can be categorised into criminal matter, that's the point: it is, but it shouldn't be.

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