92 year old WWII vet bootlegs 300,000 DVDs and sends them to American soldiers in Afghanastan Pages PREV 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 NEXT | |
Actually, I'm Australian. So... fuck you too! :P (Obviously a joke, but some times you gotta say it, 'cause it's the internet and all, lol.) | |
watch the MPAA call him a criminal, a disgrace to the service, and slap with a multimillion lawsuit complete with some jail time for trying to violate their copyright | |
Perhaps he doesnt feel that you dont need a military, but believes that you shouldnt be waging war and you do not need 80million trained and 2 million active. That it should be cut and those who complains about the war down in the middle-east and wants to have legalized crime as long as its for their sake should just 'leave' | |
Pretty awesome guy, he's also somewhat immune to prosecution an anyone gong after him for -this- would get so much bad press it'd be suicide. | |
I think the $30.000 to $100.000 he spent would have been plenty to buy enough movies and ship them out. It's not like every soldier needed to have 10 movies for him or herself. And if the guy really wanted to, instead of wasting time pirating and burning DVDs, he could have spent that time asking others to do the same thing he wanted to do, only legally. The fact is that there were other options, other LEGAL options, and it doesn't all have to be about quantity. Oh and just to be clear no, I wouldn't have him punished, his heart was indeed in the right place. It's just that his methods were extremely poorly chosen when there were many alternatives. | |
I not pro-piracy in any way, and I do feel for the revenue lost by the movie companies, but, come on. U.S. soldiers have to put up with REAL stress and trials. The MPAA fight against piracy and U.S. civilians like me argue about piracy on forums like this one. The latter is just really petty compared to the former. From the bigger picture? My thoughts on his piracy in this case? Whatever. Let them have it. Oh, and a 92-year-old man being THAT adept at piracy? Considering the usual technological ignorance present in his generation, that's boss. | |
Lol, I love how this thread has all these militant anti-piracy types conflicted between their eternal hatred of copyright infringement and general bumming of the US military XD I mean, not necessarily just you, JWAN, but your type in general. You either despise piracy, or you don't. If you start making exceptions (It's for a good cause! The guy's old! But I like guns and manly men!) then, well, you're a hypocrite. | |
Totally agree. | |
contrary to what people like Gravesend 'think' I applaud this old vet for doing what he did(both his own military service and the service he provided by sending the DVD's), and i could careless if its against the law. The men and women in our military are unsung heroes and I have the utmost respect for them for doing what they do and making the innumerable sacrifices that they make. If I had the means and the capability to do so I would send along something similar like newly released games to our soldiers | |
I sort of hope they do take him to court, as the press will hopefully tear them a new one for attacking a war hero. I just worry he could end up with a year or more in jail, but hopefully out of compassion they'll reduce it to life. I can't believe the government can't cut a deal to get a TV and a few dozen discs on the cheap in every base tho. Perhaps a netflix deal where they're swapped out every few months. | |
It's morally wrong and illegal but honestly why would we care? This is one of those cases were piracy didn't really hurt anyone, it's not like the soldiers could have bought those dvds while in Afghanistan. I mean he probably shouldn't have done it but he's 92 years old there's really no point in punishing him. | |
They get shitty pay for a shitty and difficult job where they risk their lifes and minds (it's amazing how many former soldiers have PTSD) to fight against terrorists. I think most of the respect comes from the "risk their lifes" part, it's just one of those things that immediately commands peoples respect. Yeah they get paid. Of course they get fucking paid, a lot of them have families. That doesn't mean they aren't willingly risking their lifes, even if it is for money. That takes balls. | |
Judging from the net the military are far from "unsung heroes", you guys practically treat them like they are gods. | |
He spent at a minimum, $30,000. He could have bought plenty of DVDs, I doubt they needed 300,000. | |
I respect this... and it'd be a better option, but that wouldn't do anything. That's like wearing no shoes to support sending shoes to Africa. It's a massive waste of time. This man got shit done. | |
They don't deserve special treatment. They aren't saints. NO ONE should break the law. I agree with what you said, but come on man. Lighten up just a little. It was pretty cool of this man to spend so much money and time sending nice things to the people who protect his freedom. What about setting the law aside? Then what do you think? | |
They aren't paid much, and either way, no one was saying he has a free pass to break the law. That said, this man is a fucking BOSS | |
No one has at all implied he should get a free pass to break the law here? You know, all the people saying how great it was and everything? Huh. Also don't care if they aren't paid much, just pointing out it isn't charity. | |
Well if I'm going to ignore the fact he ought to have paid, then well I guess that's nice to give lots of stuff to other people. | |
Of course, the great thing about all this is no matter what you say about this guy and our troops, the movies have already been sent, the soldiers have already been entertained, the old man isn't likely to be punished, and even if he is he knew and accepted these risks to make those guys happy. You could pray every day to every God for our guys to all get hit by IEDs for all it matters, the "damage" is done. That being said, like this man himself, I don't believe his actions were right, and I don't think the laws should be changed. Piracy is still theft, and theft is still wrong. But the courts have far worse things to deal with over a dying old man spending what's left of his hard earned money to try and help a few overworked guys in the desert feel happy, and they should spend their time on cases they can actually win. | |
What is so great about that? It's almost as if there's some part of my post I can't see saying he needed to be crucified when I just disapproved of what he did. | |
It was more of a composite answer to all your posts so far. You don't much seem to like soldiers, and I was angry about this until I realized how little it matters. Your "power" as far as this event goes stretches as far as mine, which is to say micrometers. The only difference in our opinions is I'm happy that the soldiers got to enjoy themselves while you seem a bit tiffed. Right or wrong (and please note I still consider it wrong), what's done is done. | |
Simple, that dude is fucking awsome and totally falls in the right for piracy. Plus you gotta give props to a 92 year old that use a computer that well. | |
I believe situations like this are more morality issues than legality issues. Yes, he broke the law, but he did so to help many soldiers with their mental health. What he did was morally right. I don't personally believe he should be punished in the slightest (my personal philosophy is if it doesn't hurt anyone, do whatever the hell you want), but the law is the law and he probably will be. He hurt no one by doing it, and at great cost to himself. It's rather unlikely a soldier is going to be able to buy these things, whether because of location or their family cannot afford it. I say why not help them out? Why not give them an hour or two of entertainment and a brief respite from the fact they've risked their lives for yet another day to serve their country, despite many not feeling the wars are necessary. The companies aren't technically losing money, as it would never have been spent in the first place. All of the professions people are claiming deserve more praise (not to dismiss their contributions to society) still get to go home and unwind. Unless the American government is flying them home every night without anyone knowing, the soldiers don't. Their work is their life, and sometimes death. | |
Well.... in a way he paid. He had to pay for all the discs. Unless he was just a rotten old man and somehow stole the discs. Maybe he had no problem with paying; he just wanted to send as much as he could and help out as many as possible, so instead he spent the money on discs(and computers?). This way he could maximize the amount of movies he could send. Let's not forget that he did spend $30,000 or more. You are right that he could've just bought DVD's legally, but nowhere close to 300k. | |
Or, you know, go to netflix, Amazon.com, or any digital film/TV distributor. Could the MPAA show more respect towards US soldiers and give them some freebies? Sure why not, it's not like anyone stationed over there can readily go to a theater and see what's just playing in the US. Do I support giving to current U.S. soldiers? Barring the people that knowingly and needlessly kill civilians, of course I do. But unless there are digital distribution rights that I'm not aware of that are keeping them from doing so, there are legitimate ways U.S. Soldiers in Afghanistan can watch movies, provided they have a PC and an internet connection. In fact, there are probably tons of sites dedicated to donating to U.S. Soldiers. The WWII vet could've done that legally. Also, piracy isn't an "all or nothing" mentality here. It might've been different if the topic title was "92 Year Old WWII vet bootlegs 300,000 games and sends them to American soldiers in Afghanistan", because the game and movie industry are two entirely different boats. You have a lot more stability and job security in the movie industry than the game industry, not to mention when people hear of piracy for _____, people here take it as an attack against their fave game developer. I can make a wager that you have little or next to no people getting as defensive for directors or film studios by comparison, at least on The Escapist. Fact is, people here care more about game piracy than movie piracy. They're two different things. Don't blur the two. As a final note, I really don't hope the poor old man gets that big of a fine or goes to jail. As a human being he's pretty much on his last stretch before he meets his wife at the pearly gates, and to make his last years so miserable as to charge otherworldly exorbitant fines that everyone knows he won't be able to pay or sending him to jail is just despicable in my eyes. I don't think he should be immune to the law, but for fuck's sake, it's not like he killed a human being, or something else as malevolent that'd equate to spending life in prison. | |
Everyone here would be cheering if a convicted felon had sent 300000 DVDs overseas. | |
I agree with this, but unfortunately, in this country, you'll find that being a soldier does give you special treatment. The reasons given are horrendous, but faith does not arise from reasoning. We'll see what happens though. I'd prefer it if they DO let him go unpunished, because then that will give some strength to pirates' precedence-based arguments in court, and that is very much a good thing. | |
Hmm. Well I can't say I approve of piracy all that much. In most circumstances it seems so unnecessary. But really I only care about it so much. If he gets off I wouldn't care too much, him being at the end of his life, the act not being very dire, and the action being pretty irreversible. Seems hard to think of something appropriate, motives to strengthen piracy arguments aside. | |
The only thing I can think of to portray just how much of an awesome man this guy is. | |
That's pretty cool. But I would think that the soldiers could also buy dirt cheap pirated DVDs locally (or download movies like everyone else). But hey -- it's the thought that counts! The most surprising thing to me about this story is how tech-savvy and resourceful the guy is at 92 years of age. One question: How the heck did those packages clear customs? | |
I have no clue. Maybe because they were simply being shipped to troops, they didn't go through the same checks? As for the downloading/buying locally, there isn't anything to buy locally, and internet speeds are horribly slow (I think someone said 15 kbps earlier in the thread). | |
Semper fi old man. Semper fi. | |
That depends on your point of view, apparently. Teachers are also considered overpaid in this country but make less than equally qualified professionals in virtually every field of business....and they make even less at charter and private schools. Make of that what you will. That said....I'm not sure I'd say US soldiers are being "horribly underpaid". Underpaid, perhaps, but again, point of view and all. It's actually pretty easy to check what a typical soldier's wages are, just look at the Army website. An active duty private makes roughly $17k in standard pay, but that's not including their non-monetary pay....which includes things like free healthcare for their family (which tends to cost most families a pretty penny, roughly $13k a year according to the National Coalition of Health Care), education credits and benefits, stipends for food/housing/etc, bonuses that can be earned for having certain skillsets....and that's not even getting into things like ROTC or officer pay, which is substantially higher and comes with even more benefits. While the pay may not seem high, I would refrain from getting your violin out to play a sad tune for them. They're receiving a lot of non-monetary compensation while in active duty. Anyone who tries to say that they're not getting a pretty decent wage is fooling themselves, since overall their benefits package measures up pretty well to civilian roles actually. Now, is it enough compensation for going to other countries and killing other human beings? Well....that's somewhat hard to say. I suppose it depends on what sort of person you are, and exactly how evil you think the people they're killing are. Thus why Vietnam vets were generally spit on, while Afghani soldiers are glorious heroes, despite both conflicts being similarly shady, poorly managed, and morally questionable. | |
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Really? Most of the people I know go to the army because they didn't go to college, or are incapable of finding a job anywhere except the army.