Firstrow has served me fine for two or three years and it's free, so I'm sticking with http://firstrowus1.eu/
Taking something doesn't mean the thing you are taking has to be a physical object. Take illegal streaming for example. Imagine the NBA spends lots of money to put on games. Broadcast companies spend lots of money to show the games on tv and fans can watch. Then lets say some guy comes along and pays the fee for NBA league pass and broadcasts the game second-hand to the world for half the price. Imagine that EVERYBODY skipped the NBA broadcast in favor of the cheaper pirated broadcast. The pirate didn't have to incur any of the costs that the broadcast company did to put on the game. Now the broadcast company isn't making any money, so they stop showing the games because they are losing money. Now nobody can watch the games. That is why it is wrong to copy. It isn't going to hurt them much when few people do it, but if everybody did it, then they couldn't stay in business. Their products need to be protected since they put so much money into creating the product. It is wrong both morally and logically to let others leech off of their work.
But Ballstreams shouldn't be an option... because it's illegal. Their prices are so cheap because they aren't spending money to bring the product to you like the NBA is with league pass.
You are not only stealing from the developer when taking code, but from other legitimate purchasers who have to pay a higher price to account for the loss from your theft. Technology development (apps/hardware/etc) is very expensive and can take a long time. Product price is set based on the number of users who would be willing to pay. Stealing reduces that market size. One person, taking one app is like one person taking a grape at the store. It's stealing but has no impact. Many people taking code for free is like crowds ransacking stores after a natural disaster - clearly an financial loss to the company. The one person taking a grape is as much a thief as they would be if they were running with a mob in the streets but on their own they have little impact to a large organization.
They are almost certainly just reselling you the NBA league pass feed, which they are streaming. I don't see how the quality or customer service is going to improve by doing that.
F**kin' A! I had a somewhat decent response but the whole thing disappeared when I accidentally hit the back button on my browser.* Quickly: Thank you for the thoughtful responses. Though I don't wish to come off "cavalier", I still disagree with you. Theft, stealing, etc. implies property, as only property can be stolen, since only property can belong to someone. A characteristic of property is scarcity. Ideas and knowledge are not scarce, clearly. Therefore they are not property. Therefore they cannot be stolen. They can be shared. This is a key difference. Sharing = we both have it; stealing = only I have it. Just because many people work many hours and spend lots of money on something, doesn't make that something "property" and grant that something property rights. Good reading: Spoiler *You could even say that IE stole my text! The bastards!
Just taking physical property is not the limitations of stealing. Let's say someone tells you that they will pay you $10 per student attending for you to teach a class, and 100 students come. Then you teach the class, but only 50 of the 100 students actually pay you. Call it stealing or whatever you want, you are out $500 from the people who didn't pay. Ideas and knowledge are absolutely scarce. If anyone could do what a doctor does we wouldn't pay doctors so much. Not everyone can write a good book or create good software. What is the incentive for anyone to create anything that you are "borrowing", if everyone just took it for free? Who should have to pay the creators if not you?
That is why we created the patent and copyright system. The patent system is broken, and copyrights last too long, but they are both there for a reason and it is not to oppress the proletariat. It is to encourage creation of new works. Society as a whole grants the property rights because they want the benefits of that creation. Since there is no such thing as a property right except in the context of a society, arguing for its non-existance is silly.
I sent a message to BallStreams admin just now regarding the legality and seriousness of the situation taken from some members comments on this thread that stood out to me and created it into a message for them, and here is their reply:
I sent a message asking if we could pay with Paypal & he emailed me a link within 2 minutes to do so. Think I'm going to take the risk. Watching on my TV this year via my PS3 is just so much more alluring than crappy streams in a tiny box in the corner of my PC screen.
Well of course the admin of ballstreams - the guy trying to get your money - is going to tell you it'll all be OK. This is D&D material right here, so it is spoilered. Spoiler Also, honest to God, last post in this thread on this matter for me. Someone can start an IP thread in the D&D if they want to talk to me about how wrong I am. Spoiler We? I had no part in creating that terrible system. Even if that was the intention, it doesn't work that way. Individuals act. "Society" doesn't act, much less "grant rights." Individuals within a society act. Individuals within a society grant so-called intellectual property rights. Whatever their motivation, they have no authority to grant these made-up "rights." Unless you live in the Garden of Eden, there is scarcity and therefore property. But, yeah, scarcity - and property - doesn't really matter when resources are superabundant. Or if you're alone on an island, property rights don't matter. But that has nothing to do with whether IP laws are legit or not.
They may not be breaking Dutch law, not being an expert on Dutch law I can't say. There certainly are copyright laws in the Netherlands: http://europa.eu/youreurope/busines...therlands_en_protecting-intellectual-property There are certainly cases like with the UFC where a website hosted in Romania was taken down and the UFC is going after the customers who watched streams from that site in the US. If you are completely confident in their legality then report them and see if anything happens: http://www.iprcenter.gov/referral The Netherlands also seem to be a member of the World Intellectual Property Organization http://www.wipo.int/copyright/en/ecommerce/ip_survey/chap3.html Even if it is legal in the Netherlands, it may end up in a situation like the following taken from the WIPO website: 89. The practice of retransmission of terrestrial radio stations' over-the-air broadcasts via the Internet has also raised copyright concerns. In National Football League et al v. iCraveTV.com, a case brought by United States and Canadian motion picture and broadcasting companies, the Court issued a permanent injunction to prevent iCraveTV.com, a Canadian website, from converting copyrighted television material from 17 North American television stations into digital Web broadcasts and streaming them over the Internet. [129] The unauthorized re-transmission was found to be an infringement of the plaintiffs' exclusive right to perform and display their works in the United States. Although iCraveTV's transmissions may have been legal under Canadian copyright law, they were not in accordance with United States law, and it was then impossible to prevent United States users from gaining Internet access to the service. iCraveTV has since relaunched its online service, broadcasting network and cable television programs, this time using copyright protection systems to prevent users in the United States from gaining access. [130] Regardless, it's not like I would ever expect someone from ballstreams.com or any other streaming site to admit that they are doing something illegal to a potential customer if they were.
All those who are signing up now. Why? The season hasn't started and CSN can still reach an agreement with the carriers...maybe. I am going to wait about 1 month after season begins. If ballstream is still up and nobody got arrested then I will try it.
Well, I don't have cable anyways and was going to do the NBA LP & IP trick. This is cheaper & I can stream it to my PS3. I hope they do work a deal out with the providers though so I can actually talk Rockets with other friends who aren't willing to switch to Comcast.
