Poll: Ripping Netflix

[sara_merry99]

I was talking to someone recently who is a member of Netflix and has been for as long as Netflix has been around. What said person *does* with the DVDs from Netflix is to rip them onto the computer, thereby using Netflix essentially like The Pirate Bay (only, you know, without the viruses but with some assembly required

Comments

[jlsgaladriel]

I don't get netFlix, so I haven't.

I know a pastoral type shouldn't engage in ambiguous moral behaviour, but I'm somewhere in the middle on this one. Perhaps films aren't analagous to software, but since I don't rent many films, and I do deal with software, that's my best guide.

I own the word processor that I prefer to use. It's called Mellel, and it's excellent. When the first version got beyond patching, I even bought a new one, so I've paid for it more than once.

I have pirated copies of other word processors on my mac. I use them to open files folks send in proprietary formats. Even were I a millionaire, I wouldn't pay for them.

I don't know what the film equivalent of this stance is. Maybe there isn't one. But I suspect there is, and it's related to formatting issues, in the same way my word processing example is about file format standards (or the lack of them.) I'd be much more likely to copy something I already owned in one format so that I could continue to watch it in the technological flavour of the month. After all, I'd have *paid* for the performance; it's not my choice that the industry fosters competing proprietary formats and is slow to embrace standards.

[rhianne]

Amen to this as well! If I had something on 'proper' DVD and then wanted to watch it on my iPod, there's no way I'd pay for it again through iTunes - I'd just rip it from the DVDs. As you said - I'd already have paid for the performance...

[sara_merry99]

Oh, yes! Once I've paid for it, I've paid for it.

[sara_merry99]

I actually agree with you utterly about this--once I've paid for a performance and the artists/producers/powers that be have gotten my money, I figure I've done my part. If I need it in a different format, I don't feel a single qualm about arranging for that so I can enjoy the performance on, for example, my media player.

(There are also some things I've bought more than once--mostly favorite movies and music in new formats.)

I'm not sure where I'd stand about the software--especially since there's so much open-source software available now that will do most file conversions. Though that might not be the case for a Mac, I don't know.

[jlsgaladriel]

The problem with file format conversions is that they lose information, because the standards are sub-par, because the software industry (read "Microsoft") has little interest in promoting good standards.

Even when I send a professor a paper -- in rtf format, on the theory that any word processor can open it -- it loses basic things like the running header with my name and page numbers.

Likewise, if someone sends me a document for the church in .doc format, I want to see *everything* they sent, not just whatever information makes it through a translator. This doesn't mean I'm willing to pay for microsoft word, which I hate and never ever choose to use. I have no wish to create incentives for Microsoft to continue to play poorly with others.

[sara_merry99]

True--though I've found that going with .doc formats through OpenOffice.Org works well. Looking at my own papers on both sides of that, I haven't noticed any loss of information. And I haven't yet had a prof that couldn't deal with .doc.

But yeah, it's an imperfect system for sure.