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... the part that kills us is when a fetishist who refuses to support SF producers (and searches for pirated material instead) proclaims "he cannot afford to buy".

So what does this person think about the rest of us? Does he think those of us who volunteer to pay are rich?

Here's a message to the <B>displacedlighters</B> of the world, first about "us":

We don't pay because we're rich, we pay because we're "honest". Plus, we have enough brains to understand that producers will soon fold up tent and quit once they tire of seeing their work pirated and downloaded one thief at a time. It doesn't take a Rhodes Scholar to figure out that a talented person like Fran at SmokingSweeties will eventually decide to throw in the towel once he determines that, for every person who pays, hundreds of dishonest people are ripping him off.

Fran himself said he best when he essentially asked, "How would you like it if you had to work at your job for less than break even?"

What I wouldn't give to be standing in the corner of a room some Friday afternoon when "displacedlighter" opened up his pay envelope and saw that his weekly pay ended up at 10 percent of the agreed upon rate. I'd lay 100,000 to one odds he'd come completely unglued.

Then I'd love to hear his boss say, "Well, here's the explanation. Seems that 90% of our customers say they just can't afford to pay. They love what you do, displacedlighter. They think you're one of the best, but 90 percent steal our services and therefore expect you to work for free."

Put the shoe on the other foot and I absolutely guarantee that displacedlighter would wail like a wounded banshee. He'd scream bloody murder. There'd be no end to the wailing. And that would be BEFORE we told him that the reduction in pay was going to be permanent.

Now about "them":

People who refuse to pay do so because they have no moral compass. Look no further. It's as simple as that. Any one of us could figure out a good reason not to pay if we rationalized an excuse to justify stealing. We'd just have to sacrafice our morals.

And that (i.e., rationalization) is what enables a wothless b--stard  like displacedlighter to be able to lay his head oh his pillow and find a way to go to sleep at night.

"I'm not one of the the bad guys," rationalized DL, "I don't upload pirated files to the internet. Someone else does the dirty work. I just watch for free."

What's the solution?

Would it ever be possible to get a person (thief) like DL to pay? The answer tedhnically is "Yes". A thief as passionate as DL would pay IF he was unable to steal what he needed. Put that in the bank.

The man spends hour after hour scouring the sharing sites for what he needs. He has already stated that the stolen material is always soon removed, so thieves like DL probably check certain sites 12, 15, 20 times a day.

But he will NEVER pay until their are no places where he can steal. That's a given. Give the displacedlighters of the world one place where they can steal and they'll never ante up a dime.

And what happens when all the Frans and Adams and Steves and Scotts of the world decide they've been ripped-off enough and decide to give up? The displacedlighters of the world will shrug and say, "Too bad, I really enjoyed watching (read "stealing") stealing their material for free. I guess the rich people (read "honest people") who were willing to pay are now out of luck."

To prevent that from happening, we -- as a community -- have to hope that the SF producers will band togther and organize a manageable method to police the sharing sites and stem the tide. In fact, that's probably our only hope.

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