On my previous post I talked about how your local, average, technophile person is more likely to be a freaken pirate then anything law abiding. Now, it’s a common fact that the general Commerce Industry is against Piracy. Heck, if they can get Jackie “Amazing” Chan and Arnold “I’m back – as a politician!!!” Governor to do an ad on piracy, you know they are very concerned.

However. The local ISPs don’t really seemed to have put THAT much thought into making an anti-piracy stand. In fact…I think they’re pretty much fueling the idea without even knowing it.

Don’t believe me? Check this out. Below is an advertisement from the country’s biggest ISP (and the only megalomaniac, monopolistic one) advertising their new amazing “Connect with Connect” Internet deals…

Noticed anything unusual? Normal bunch of people all gathered around, using their own PCs and laptops to connect to the “wuuuuuuunnderful!” Internet…

However, upon closer examination….

“I’m always downloading cool music!” …. ? O rly?

Lets take a moment to examine all the possible LEGAL avenues of downloading music from the Internet LEGALLY and music that is actually on the top 40 charts and not some obscure indi hippy free download band desperate for attention.

1) Apple Online – These guys are great! They offer the latest albums, singles all in one convenient – oh no wait…you have to pay for it. Oh…no problem…they only cost like $1 each….thats cheap! Awesome! Oh … no wait…they require a credit card for an online transaction….

Do you know how hard it is to obtain a credit card from one of the banks around here? They ask so many questions about your work and whether or not you’ve fucked your boss, require so many legal documents that range from your last pay slip to a ‘permission to fuck your daughter’ form, and then when they’re happy – they slap the biggest interest rate ever on the card.

An average fijian does not have access to a credit card. Period. Unless of course if they own a big import company or stay overseas where obtaining a credit card is about as easy as standing on your front porch and have them hand deliver it to you.

2) Napster – They offer music too! And the latest ones as well! Wow! Lemme just….oh no…wait…credit card required for an online – nevermind…

Now…on the other hand….the FREE alternative which includes P2P software, a large sharing (at times viruses as well) community are as follows:

1) Limewire – Hmmm….doesn’t require a credit card

2) Emule – No credit card here…

3) Bittorrent – Nope. Can’t see the Master Card logo anywhere here…

As you can see, gentle, law abiding, tech-savy citizens who use the ever easy to obtain credit card to purchase music online are almost…non-existent here.

Is it safe to say that, theoretically, if we were all to have credit cards with affordable interest rates, we’d be all buying music from the real deal?

Hell no. We’d just borrow the CD from our friends and rip it straight to MP3 onto our hard drives Some of us anyways.

And don’t even get me started on movies…

PS: Upon further inspection of the advert in question, I couldn’t help but notice this part:

Oh yeah. Right. First off, unlimited downloads sounds like you’re using a really nice phat piece of broadband that’ll have your downloads within the minute.

No.

What they really meant was – Unlimited Downloads & High Speed Internet using our Ultra Uber phat 128k line which is quickly and mercilessly cut down to 56k after hitting the download cap of what? 750mb. Isn’t that great.

And by the way, just what is it you’re downloading? I thought so

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