Online piracy is socially acceptable behaviour if not, the norm here. The market provides for it, the consumer sees no need to fork out extra dough for the same item.

Up till two years ago, I had no issues with downloading a song I liked or a movie I wanted to watch. Until, I had a conversation with JC who works for Universal. His take was this – effort from various people are put into making that movie/record so, if we (the consumers) want to enjoy the product, we should be more than comfortable with paying the price requested.

At the end of the day, if no one bought CDs then the people who made them would not feel gratified in giving their absolute best (though not always the case). Simple concept, I guess?

Two months ago, a Singaporean anime licensor decides to go after illegal downloaders. Unfortunately, they have come under alot of flak because the majority of downloaders are teenagers who are unable to afford the premium that is placed on buying an original much less afford the fine slapped.

This afternoon, I received a call from my mum who works for a major ISP. She asks me if I have been downloading any anime illegally. That’s right, mum…. I do. Can’t you see my altar of escaflowne?

The ISP she works for has also been forced to fork over the information. According to her, they were adamant not to at the beginning but the company involved managed to get a court order which required them to.

Now I find that more alarming than an illegal download. Sure, the activity is wrong but it is that easy for the ISP to feed me to wolves? Certainly, there have to be more constructive methods which would avoid prosecuting minors who probably can’t afford to buy lunch without an allowance much less a 10 disc series of their favourite anime.

This is my afternoon dilemma – All because I went to THAT CD SHOP and couldn’t find a cd from The Wreckers. Country music is not too popular here in Asia. Damn it. Now, I have to head to Borders and pay $45 for an imported CD because I’m not ready to download a couple country tunes and be served with the papers which tells me that I have been fined $5000 for copyright infringment.

PS: Should I go ahead and delete my massive online web porn collection? I kid.