Author Topic: A Moral Dilemma  (Read 6463 times)

MustachianAccountant

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A Moral Dilemma
« on: February 21, 2014, 08:35:05 AM »
In the name of reducing clutter, I recently purchased a piece of software that can rip DVDs to my hard drive. By the end of the month, I should have all my CDs (400-ish) and DVDs (100-ish) on my hard drive. I will then be able to get rid of my physical copies, allowing me to get rid of all the storage space they were taking up. Which leads to the question:
How to get rid of the physical copies?
Since I'm technically keeping the music and movies, is it ethical to sell them on Half.com or some similar site?
Or give them to the library?
Or am I stuck putting them in the trash?

Elaine

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Re: A Moral Dilemma
« Reply #1 on: February 21, 2014, 08:41:26 AM »
I would sell them or donate them to a library.

iamlindoro

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Re: A Moral Dilemma
« Reply #2 on: February 21, 2014, 08:43:02 AM »
Recycle all the packaging, keep all the discs on two 500-disc spindles so that you can get at them if you have a catastrophic failure/RAID enclosure fire/shit happens.

Speaking as someone who has had to go through the ripping exercise a few times even though the ripped copies were on redundant storage.  :)

windawake

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Re: A Moral Dilemma
« Reply #3 on: February 21, 2014, 08:43:51 AM »
I'd either donate them to the library or put them up on Craigslist for free.

RadicalPersonalFinance

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Re: A Moral Dilemma
« Reply #4 on: February 21, 2014, 08:44:25 AM »
That's tough. 

In my mind, the fact that you're asking the question would indicate that it tickles your conscience to not destroy them.  Follow your conscience and your own code of ethics absent others' approval.

Being able to sleep well at night is worth more than any amount of monetary gain.

MustachianAccountant

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Re: A Moral Dilemma
« Reply #5 on: February 21, 2014, 08:48:22 AM »
That's tough. 

In my mind, the fact that you're asking the question would indicate that it tickles your conscience to not destroy them.  Follow your conscience and your own code of ethics absent others' approval.

Being able to sleep well at night is worth more than any amount of monetary gain.

Well, it only tickles it. I'd probably be able to sleep just fine if I sold them. ;-)
On the other hand, the thought of dumping them in a landfill also tickles my conscience. Recycling the packaging is only marginally better, and I don't relish the thought of pulling out all the inserts, especially in the CDs.

Mister Fancypants

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Re: A Moral Dilemma
« Reply #6 on: February 21, 2014, 09:24:53 AM »
Recycle all the packaging, keep all the discs on two 500-disc spindles so that you can get at them if you have a catastrophic failure/RAID enclosure fire/shit happens.

Speaking as someone who has had to go through the ripping exercise a few times even though the ripped copies were on redundant storage.  :)

Been there done that.... keep the media... RAID enclosures will and do fail. Whatever small amount of money you get for selling the CD/DVD collection is nowhere near the cost of replacing it if you have catastrophic failure. I would go so far as to keep the media in a different physical location, like a family member or friend’s house on spindles.

I am speaking as a software engineer, we do DR/BCP drills all the time at work, I have a home network setup at and everything critical is backed up remotely, now music and movies are far from critical, but think about the time and money you have already put into this....

Just saying....

-Mister FancyPants

sherr

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Re: A Moral Dilemma
« Reply #7 on: February 21, 2014, 09:34:29 AM »
I'll chime in and agree you should keep the physical media. Not only as a backup but also for the moral reasons.

Ripping your CD's / DVD's and then selling them is exactly the same morally as just downloading them in the first place. You are creating another unauthorized copy of the work that the artist / whomever does not get paid for. If you believe the latter to be immoral, you have to believe the former is too.

That being said I'm not really convinced that downloading music / whatever *is* immoral. I guess I see the argument, but then I also think it's immoral to charge as much as they do for a digital copy that costs them absolutely nothing to copy / distribute / sell. And if both sides are wrong, what are you to do? But regardless, if you have a problem morally with downloading things free off the net then you should have exactly the same moral problem with copying and selling.

MustachianAccountant

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Re: A Moral Dilemma
« Reply #8 on: February 21, 2014, 10:40:42 AM »
Recycle all the packaging, keep all the discs on two 500-disc spindles so that you can get at them if you have a catastrophic failure/RAID enclosure fire/shit happens.

Speaking as someone who has had to go through the ripping exercise a few times even though the ripped copies were on redundant storage.  :)

Been there done that.... keep the media... RAID enclosures will and do fail. Whatever small amount of money you get for selling the CD/DVD collection is nowhere near the cost of replacing it if you have catastrophic failure. I would go so far as to keep the media in a different physical location, like a family member or friend’s house on spindles.

I am speaking as a software engineer, we do DR/BCP drills all the time at work, I have a home network setup at and everything critical is backed up remotely, now music and movies are far from critical, but think about the time and money you have already put into this....

Just saying....

-Mister FancyPants

We pay $60/yr for Carbonite so we don't have to worry about this. $5/month to have everything automatically backed up and not have to worry about losing all our pictures is worth it.
(I realize I could use another cloud service, but Carbonite just runs in the background with minimal user input, and unlimited storage, it's worth it.)

chucklesmcgee

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Re: A Moral Dilemma
« Reply #9 on: February 21, 2014, 02:07:13 PM »
Recycle all the packaging, keep all the discs on two 500-disc spindles so that you can get at them if you have a catastrophic failure/RAID enclosure fire/shit happens.

Speaking as someone who has had to go through the ripping exercise a few times even though the ripped copies were on redundant storage.  :)

Been there done that.... keep the media... RAID enclosures will and do fail. Whatever small amount of money you get for selling the CD/DVD collection is nowhere near the cost of replacing it if you have catastrophic failure.
-Mister FancyPants

Yeah, but why bother replacing it if it does die? These are just commercially available movies and music, right? CDs and DVDs are already on their way out, by the time your RAID enclosure dies you probably won't care about a physical media library.

Mister Fancypants

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Re: A Moral Dilemma
« Reply #10 on: February 21, 2014, 02:13:16 PM »
Recycle all the packaging, keep all the discs on two 500-disc spindles so that you can get at them if you have a catastrophic failure/RAID enclosure fire/shit happens.

Speaking as someone who has had to go through the ripping exercise a few times even though the ripped copies were on redundant storage.  :)

Been there done that.... keep the media... RAID enclosures will and do fail. Whatever small amount of money you get for selling the CD/DVD collection is nowhere near the cost of replacing it if you have catastrophic failure.
-Mister FancyPants

Yeah, but why bother replacing it if it does die? These are just commercially available movies and music, right? CDs and DVDs are already on their way out, by the time your RAID enclosure dies you probably won't care about a physical media library.

I meant replace the digital copy on a new RAID enclosure, which would require the original media.

KingCoin

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Re: A Moral Dilemma
« Reply #11 on: February 21, 2014, 02:31:30 PM »
I'd just sell them in bulk to the highest bidder or donate them if you don't want to deal with the hassle. Trying to sell them individually is almost certainly not worth the time unless you have something rare and sought after.

The world is rapidly hurdling toward a completely on-demand model for media, so whether you have physical copies, digital copies, "backups", or some combination of the above is quickly becoming irrelevant. I suspect that in a couple years you'll view this collection as a waste of hard drive space.

marty998

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Re: A Moral Dilemma
« Reply #12 on: February 21, 2014, 04:51:33 PM »
Do you have younger cousins, nieces or nephews? Pass the CDs to them.

Kids today should listen to proper music. (Said without any hint of sarcasm or generational irony :) )

zachd

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Re: A Moral Dilemma
« Reply #13 on: February 21, 2014, 05:32:22 PM »


I would sell them for as much as I could and not look back although you missed the window for them being worth something by, well, quite a few years.

But there are still some DVDs or CDs that might be worth a little more than others if they are out of print, there are phone apps that can scan bar codes and tell you the amazon prices.

Probably the CDs have more of a chance being worth something than the DVDs.

Morally, record companies were price fixing for years and a lot of musicians who sold albums barely got to see any profit from their work.  Personally I wouldn't feel too bad selling them.

But that's me.  Do what you feel comfortable with.

I have one backup of my files on an extra hard drive.  For extra protection, I gave my files to as many friends who would take them.