@Syd Not quite true. They're still including the extended interviews with Lauren Faust and the like. They've simply run out of money to edit and include all of the many hours of extra footage they have, though.

Only internet pirates and Somalian pirates.

That would be pretty stupid of them. I think the actual reason is that they just can't afford to do the bonus features.

@Story: Well, hey. If people are gonna steal your stuff, especially when you've bent over backwards to give them nods and such before, then fuck 'em and give them less to steal.

@Red Savant: That would be a valid argument, if not for the fact that they're fucking far more people than the ones who actually pirated the material. That argument applied to this case is "if people are going to steal from you, then fuck 'em, and fuck the people loosely affiliated with them who didn't steal from you and in many cases materially supported you, and give them less to enjoy." Now if you treat that as a necessary evil (as they seem to), then that's one thing. But "if people are going to steal from you, fuck 'em and give them less to steal" doesn't apply at all to this situation, and in fact amounts to shooting yourself in the foot out of spite.

Basically, for me, the question is "how much more work (=money) would it take to include the bonus material on the disc?" If it's a major amount, then okay, if they're convinced they can't make it back via sales, that only makes sense. If it would be easy to include it, then they're just being dicks in response to other people being dicks. I suspect the first one is true, then.

I suspect they're presuming too much about what levels of piracy mean for levels of sales. It's entirely plausible that I'm wrong, I don't have access to the numbers. But that's the way it appears, based upon what little I know.

EDIT: Also, piracy is not the same thing as theft. They're both unethical, but not to the same degree. And treating them as equal crimes is stupid, for the same reason we shouldn't treat assault as murder.

edited 7th Feb '13 11:05:32 PM by Hsere

Wait, so stealing something is less wrong if what you're stealing is digital? And not all theft is created equal, either. It depends on the value of what is stolen.

Ahem... I believe there is a separate thread for piracy and its effects elsewhere on these forums?

on one hand, I want to hate pirates for the whole brony doc thing.

on the other hand, I want to like pirates for sticking it to the MIAA and the RIAA, the people responsible for SOPA almost being a thing.

in other news, fimfiction seems to be down or something, I'm getting 502 errors...

edited 7th Feb '13 11:25:29 PM by Blissey1

Piracy is bad. In most cases the damage it does is horribly overblown as an excuse to pass restrictive legislation that corners the market and quashes competition. Occasionally it hits a small-time crowdfunded project that couldn't afford to lose those sales.

Like, that's my stance speaking as someone who works in the entertainment industry. Usually it's publishers who lose a tiny percent of profits, then cut our budget for the next one so they can make the same bottom line at the end of the quarter. Once you get down to independents, it hurts a lot more.

edited 7th Feb '13 11:32:24 PM by Pykrete

William Anderson deserves more credit:

This should totally become Luna's theme throughout the series.

The current discussion concerns piracy's effect on MLP:Fi M. That is a legitimate and worthwhile discussion to have, and is on-topic for this thread. In order to be able to have a coherent discussion about piracy's effect on Fi M, it is necessary to clearly discuss the nature of piracy. Thus, a brief discussion on the nature of piracy is warranted, necessary, and on-topic. If the mods want this moved, they will move it, and I'll consult with them about what they consider to be appropriate postings in the future and abide by their decision.

Strictly speaking, it's impossible to steal something that's digital, though piracy is still immoral. To illustrate this point, consider the following two hypotheticals:

Situation 1: I am in need of a car. I am walking by a car dealer. I happen to possess the superpower to overcome any lock, including those on car ignitions. I spot a car I wish to possess. I utilize my superpower to overcome the locks, start the car, and drive it away. For the sake of argument, let's say I get away with it with no negative repercussions for me.

The negative repercussions for the dealer are clear. He no longer has access to that car, and he lacks the ability to sell that car. His assets sheet now lists one less car than it would have had I simply walked by the lot and done nothing.

Situation 2: This is basically identical to situation one, except that I now possess the power to conjure into being a perfect copy of any car I see. The original "model" remains wholly unaffected when I use this power. I copy, rather than transfer the car. Imagine that instead of doing what I did in Situation 1, I use this power on the car I want. I take this newly-created car, and drive it away. Again, let us assume that there are no negative repercussions for this for me.

The negative repercussions for the dealer are substantially less. Strictly speaking, nothing he possessed has been taken from him. He still has the car, can still sell it, and can still drive it if he so chooses. He has suffered no loss, relative to the situation in which I walk by the lot and do nothing. Furthermore, and perhaps more importantly, he does not now need to live in fear that someone may come and rob him of everything he possesses (assuming my behavior is common in each case).

"But wait!" Says Hypothetical Disagreer. "You are only considering your actions on an individual scale, in isolation! If everyone had that power and behaved as you did, automobile dealers everywhere would go out of business, as would car manufacturers. Many livelihoods would be lost, and we would be deprived of an important service." (I'm assuming here that cars can only be duplicated from cars made "the old fashioned way", otherwise the analogy doesn't really work).

Indeed, that is correct. Which is why piracy, despite not being theft, is immoral. However, an individual action in the case of piracy has no appreciable negative effect on anyone, unlike an individual theft. Furthermore, even en masse, the consequences are substantially less:

Imagine a world in which every single person torrented, on average, 2 C Ds a month, and paid for the rest of the ones they acquired — this world would be quite similar to the one we're living in now. Now imagine a world in which every single person shoplifted 2 C Ds a month, and paid for the rest of the ones they acquired. I think it's pretty clear that this would be a significantly worse world to live in.

Precisely. My point is that calling "piracy" "theft" is like calling "shoplifting" "grand theft auto", and treating it as such. We certainly sholdn't condone shoplifting, but neither should we pretend it is a much worse transgression than it actually is.

There's a reason people who would never shoplift pirate music and movies, and it isn't just because our brains do weird things sometimes. There are excellent reasons to regard these as separate transgressions of different levels of severity.

EDIT: Added the middle quote to clarify which parts of the statement I addressed with the first few paragraphs.

edited 7th Feb '13 11:58:45 PM by Hsere

human!Lyra and Bonbon

Spike was Cybersix and also the New Rainbow Dash, so clearly Dashie must be Mare Do Well too

*Reads through thread*

Wait, Mando and Sibsy are in a relationship? Wow, after all the shipping of them too, that's really funny. I wonder what came first, the relationship or the shipping of them two? Probably the former, but it would be amazing if it was the latter.

Of course, it is entirely possible that they're both trolling us. Which would be kind of awesome in its own way, honestly. They seem to be doing that whole "don't correct people when they say it's true but don't ever actually say it's true yourself" thing.

EDIT: From what I've heard, the shipping meme was started partially by them. Or at least they jumped on the "draw ship-pics of Mando and Wildfire" bandwagon early. However, they were always clear that it was their characters who were together, not them. Guess this might change that.

edited 8th Feb '13 12:20:50 AM by Hsere

Either way, still funny. ^_^

I gotta say, the way Sibsy has been handling those trolls in the comment section is great.

Screw those guys and their disgusting jokes. I don't care who started what, just stop.

edited 8th Feb '13 12:34:08 AM by edvedd

Trolls gonna troll, ignore the underside of the bridge :V

She ended up Changeling food

I'm leaning toward "trolling" at this point.

Doesn't Sibsy already have a fiance?

Fascinating

edited 8th Feb '13 1:09:29 AM by AceOfScarabs

I've heard that, but I also heard that Tabitha St. Jermain was Zecora's VA. Anyway, I think investigating that further might be crossing the line into "prying." If they're actually trolling us, we'll find out soon enough. And well-played to them. Well-played to them either way, I suppose.

edited 8th Feb '13 1:17:36 AM by Hsere

Yeah, that's what makes me wonder.

Or was there a separation I didn't hear about? No idea, really.

edited 8th Feb '13 1:10:18 AM by edvedd

She's okay...

Or maybe Mando is the fiance all along!

In (vaguely) more serious news, the new episode is upon us soon! Lets see what kind of world building stuff gets thrown at us this time!

I don't think Chrysalis actually ate it. I'm pretty sure she just stove its head in in front of the CMC for giggles.

That issue got kinda disturbing with the whole "extreme violence not quite shown". Still hilarious at all other times, just...I mean, that was a thing that happened.

edited 8th Feb '13 2:19:40 AM by Pykrete