I am much less outraged at the moment, but if you talked to me 12 hours ago you would have gotten quite an earful of a rant from me.
Today after preschool the monkey and I went over to our library. He loves to play on their kid-friendly computer with the age appropriate games and I like to peruse the newest books on the shelves. While we were sitting at the computer station another patron, a grandmother, started talking to me about random things. She was there with her granddaughter, who had just turned four years old in January. During the course of the rather one-sided conversation, I learned the child's age, listened to the child being admonished for having messy hair, and was encouraged to tell the child how messy her hair looked in hopes that said child would let the grandma brush it. Kid said no! (I was quietly cheering for the girl to protest!)
At some point the grandma placed a cell phone call to someone, offering to sell them a hard drive that contained over 250 games. I tried not to hear all the details, but in a quiet room its hard not to listen. Another mother and her children joined us in the children's library and somehow the conversation turned to video games, specifically games for the Wii system.
The grandma was the one doing most of the talking and she volunteered that she loves her Wii and just acquired a hard drive filled with over 250 games and that she just had her Wii modified and the hard drive added. She explained it was great because she didn't have to handle the game cds/discs anymore. The other mom commented that they only had a handful of games and we discussed one of her family's favorites, a dance game. Grandma jumped in with a comment that she has so many games, including the dance games in different versions, etc. She mentioned how she was trying to sell the hard drive she had, since she had copied all the games to her own drive. She then went on a rant about how outrageous the video games prices are and that copying them was the way to go.
At some point I just saw this woman as a thief, but I bit my tongue. The thoughts of copyright infringement were screaming in my head. I've had my online writing copied without permission...it isn't very nice. While I didn't lose money from it, the game programmers certainly are off of this woman. I finally couldn't control myself and made the comment to grandma that I wondered if it was illegal. She thought I meant modifying the game system...she went into a lengthy explanation of how to "mod" your system while it is under warranty so that if you have a problem you can undo it an not invalidate your warranty. When I started to mention copy right infringement she defended herself by saying there was nothing wrong with copying dvds or games, since she wasn't selling them for profit. She then went into a lengthy dissertation on how overpriced games are and that she is on a fixed income. She deserves to be able to own any game she wants and shouldn't have to pay $25 to $50 for each game. It isn't fair that they charge so much money! Her kids want to play the games! I really wanted to point out to her that there are laws against copying movies that you do not purchase, but she realized that I wasn't on her side with this issue and quickly stopped talking to me and just had a quieter conversation with the other mom there. I could still hear them talking, it wasn't that big of a room...and it was quiet since it was the library! She told the mom that it is easy to copy movies that can be borrowed from the library. Grrr.
At that point I decided it would be better for us to leave than me to go into a lecture about how stealing other people's works, whether they are written, artistic or creative digital games, was wrong and how it does hurt the original author/artist/designer. That stealing the games was taking money away from someone else's income, and food from their table.
Later, when I was calmer and talking with my husband about it, we discussed the ridiculous sense of entitlement so many people have in our greedy society. Copying video games is just the tip of the iceburg as to what many people feel they deserve. Bootleg movies, purses, clothing, etc. is all out there for sale. Stealing goods and services in general is rampant. The attitude that just because I want it I should have it is everywhere. I usually see it with teens, but when a mature adult expresses that attitude it shocks me. Does anyone believe in delayed gratification anymore? Saving up for something special? And who has time to play 250 video games?
In the end, the saddest thing to me about this situation today was that this grandma was teaching her four year old granddaughter that what she was doing was ok. She was spreading the sense of entitlement to the next generation.
Ironically, the reason we go to the library is because I don't want to spend money on toddler computer games when we can use them for free at the library. Now that I'm not working, I do not have a book buying budget. I borrow most books from the library or friends, visit a used book shop occasionally, and only buy books once in a while now. I want my son to learn the importance of libraries, budgeting income and being honest. He will understand the importance of delayed gratification and how to value things that are costly.
Apparently I'm still outraged! Forgive my rant!
