Why is piracy legal in Cayman?

Copyright law is 'intended' to be international (you'll have noticed the INTERPOL statement), however, as we see, very hard to effectively police. Just because the music/movie, etc. is in digital form doesn't mean there's nothing 'tangible' there, taking it without permission is the same as walking into an art store and taking something off the wall. Royalties are paid to artisits based on the number of sales, rentals, radio platys, etc., and by not purchasing/renting through legal channels, you are depriving them of those royalties. Yes, you say, "Why not? They're rich", but how would you feel if it was your song that you just paid $20,000 to record, or your movie that you spent $20M making? Can I start selling 'burned' copies of Hi Tide, Barefott, etc.? Guess so according to the posts, I'll setup my download shop today. Don't worry though, I'll only sell to people in the US, so it won't 'infringe' on any Cayman laws.

 As for the rental shops here, in North America, EU, etc., each rental is tracked, and royalties are payed based on the number of times it is rented. If the shops track all their rentals here - who do they pay the royalties to? There's no ASCAP/BMI, etc. here that oversees and governs this in Cayman. So while I note it IS illegal, and morally wrong, there's nore to it - how should we implement a proper procedure to 'get in compliance'?

Hmmm.

If I bought blank DVD's why can't I sell them with content?  I did work to download the content!  And how are you going to say that I am stealing?  How can you steal music?  How can you steal someone's idea?  Suppose you came up with the idea of tap dancing a certain way, and everyone decides to dance that same way. Should everyone pay you to dance that way, or else, they would be stealing??? 

People music or the contents of a film is not a physical object, and therefore CAN NOT BE STOLEN! The reason why it is against the law is because MONEY HAS MADE IT SO!!!  I have seen people for years, sell in Cayman, and because of creativity in running a business, poor people who can't afford to buy them, have something to entertain them at home.

So... everyone is doing it - not only in Cayman, but in the World.  There are so many pirates out there!  Are you going to arrest everyone???

Come on!  You need to grow up and live life!

Lets get something straight, if you watch TV or movies on this Island you are all pretty much thieves!

Lets break it down:

I purchased this DVD in Best Buy?! : Well guess what, that DVD you got in Best Buy is coded for Region 1 ONLY. Region 1 is U.S., Canada and U.S. Territories. This DVD was not intended to be viewed in the Caribbean, that would be Region 4. You are watching this movie Illegally!!!

I watch my TV and Movies on Westar : The majority of channels on Westar are not available for purchase in our region. XXXXX

I have Dish Network with a legal subscription : No such thing in Cayman. You cannot subscribe to Dish or Direct TV for that matter with a Cayman address. You might be paying for your subscription, but that false address you gave them means you’re a thief!!

I rent my Movies from Blockbuster : This is a particular favorite of mine. First of all Blockbuster in Cayman is NOT a legitimate Blockbuster franchise. Just go to the Blockbuster website and look at their corporate branding. Check out the Blockbuster logo. Now go to your Cayman Blockbuster or just check out the Cayman Blockbuster website. The logos are nothing alike. Now why would you spend all that money on franchise fees if you’re not even going to use the proper corporate logo? Go to the “store locator” on the real Blockbuster website, try and find a store in Cayman. Go to the Cayman Blockbuster site, try and find a link back to the real Blockbuster corporate site.

So, first of all there is defiantly some copyright and trademark infringement going on here.

Ok, but besides from the name, I am renting legal copies of movies right? Wrong!!! Besides from the region issue I spoke of earlier, DVD’s that are purchased for rental are NOT the same as DVD’s that are purchased for resale. Just because Mr. xyz goes to Wal-Mart and buys 20 copies of Legally Blond does not give him the right to rent those DVD’s. In fact, the license agreement on the DVD (the same notice we see at the beginning of the movie) expressly prohibits it. So guess what, Illegal!

All of you up in arms about these guys selling bootleg DVD’s get off your high horse. You are breaking the same moral or maybe even legal code that you are condemning them for. What you should be angry about is the quality of these bootleg DVD’s. That should be illegal!!

Don’t buy or rent bootleg DVD’s, but not because of any moral or legal reasons, because the quality is CRAP. They spend a lot of money in Hollywood making movies look good, you shouldn’t have to watch it with snow and voice sync issues.
 

Is it theft?

Before you try and dram up some excuses to cover youself, cut through the c**p.

When God views this will he see it as stealing? You can try and fool yourself but you can't fool God.

But then I suppose Cayman isn't a Christian society.

And if it is maybe we should start actually acting like it

As someone who is in the industry that’s affected by this, I have to say al of these comments are ill-informed, short-sighted and ignorant.  Not only are BILLIONS lost to bootlegging, but serves as major funding for terrorism

Baah humbug.

If DNet does not want their signal unscrambled they should keep it out of my yard.

It's thin ice really to call it theft and let me explain why. Here is English Law description of theft.

In English law, theft was codified into a statutory offence in the Theft Act 1968 which defines it as:

"A person is guilty of theft, if he dishonestly appropriates property belonging to another with the intention of permanently depriving the other of it".

Now with Satellite dish there is no deprevation at all. No one is deprived the property. Dish N still are allowed to send and each and all of their clients still receive so no deprevation of the property as such.

But lets break it down.

appropriates property translates into the wrongly assertion of right of ownership. This can mean physically taking of property or failure of return.

Well since the signal is not "taken" as such because all parties still have use of the signal then the property is not technically appropriated.

The kicker is the last part of the sentence which states "permanently depriving the other of it". This is not correct again there is no deprevation at all.

Let's frame this another way.

Some people like to assimulate a signal as a physical item so as to attach the word theft to it. Now if we use that premise I would say what if someone left a car in your drive way day in day out for years on end and they would not remove it. After a certain period of time would you not have rights to that car if they refused to remove it? (get back to this in a sec)

Now some would say if a situation like that arose you would call the police and they would remove it. Well a signal in this case is unlike a car because it can not be collected by a local anything really and moved. That takes the big guy DN to move their signal but would they do it because one man in the Cayman Islands don't want their signal coming into his yard? Hell no. So basically its a refusal to remove of which the law can do basically nothing about. So what is Joe Blow to do?

So saying that after awhile do I not have some rights to my property and what is in it especially when the original owners don't care about violating my space.

Now to the point from above. I guess you all have heard land claims house. So say you bought a property here and went away for 2 years only to come back and find someone has built a home on top of it. Who now owns what? Well unless the home builder decides to move the house (and I be gracious enough to allow it) the home would become mine because it is on my land and the land owner has rights to all items thereon. Same should hold true with the car in time. How long I don't know exactly.

I know this is a lot of dribble and seeming crap but it's the realities of the situation. Who knows in 20 years or so we might find out that the reason we have more brain tumors and the lot is because of all these things being beamed down at us.

I'm actually just trying to play devil's advocate here as to TV and how that actually is kind of different from say DVD but even that too is shady at best.

Here is my point and this goes back to the days of Tape recorders really. We think we buy a Music CD but in fact we are only renting the property.

Generally when a sale is executed there is the exchange of one item for another and usually this is a payment in one form or another for a product or service. Generally the ownership of that product exchanges also.This does not happen in terms of certain items such as music, videos, games etc. These basically amount to rental where you are allowed to use the property for as long as you see fit but you can not do anything more with it.

Many people still today struggle with that concept because in their minds when they BUY something it's THEIRS and they have all rights to do what they want with that CD including making copies of it and possibly sharing with their friends. Well they don't.

The problem is that these industries did something underhanded many moons ago by implication. The term sale should never have been used with these industries because what they are doing are not in fact a SALE. Their are no rights truly exchanged here. But they did it because it's more sellable a term than saying to someone I want you to pay this price for the item but it's not yours even though you can keep it for as long as you want but it does not "BELONG" to you. It still belongs to the artist or creator.

Well I think I have rambled enough.

   Crime grows in any kind of society that will tolerate it in any form.  Caymans crime will grow to the point of acceptance in the community.  It grows quickly now because it is so accepted and it will only start to slow down when the community as a whole will not accept it.  Crime on Cayman now as bad as it is will grow much much worse because of this.  No amount of complaining will have any effect at all.  Nothing the police can do will slow it down.  A leader that begs is a begger and can lead no one.  Only when the community as a whole takes action by itself for itself will the tide turn.  The fact that this (Small) Crime is barely noticed here in this country and not tolerated at all in all developed countrys clearly shows Caymanians stance on crime.  That and the fact that crime is growing and nothing is stopping it.