Pirated Music

[Jaymes]

" So does that mean you advocate taking a BMW off a car lot without paying because you can't afford it?"

If you could download a BMW... Then again, BMWs are available in America.

 

[CaptainXeroid]

...As far as the legality of it, I'm up in the air about it...

There's no reason to be up in the air. When you acquire copywrited material without compensating the artist, you have committed theft of intellectual property. The fact that you don't have the money to pay for it is has no effect on the illegality of that action.

That being said, if ALL pirating stopped, the sales of CDs IMHO, would not go up much. I think most people steal music because they can and were never inclined to buy it. I don't think it's right that people steal music, but I'm not convinced on the recording industry claiming lost profits. I just listen to the radio myself.

 

[Unedited]

I think its amazon.com that allows you to preview abit a the first few songs of an album before you buy it, which is something I think all groups that are worried about piracy should do.

Amazon, and other sites that do that are nice, and I've used them several times when deciding whether or not to buy a CD, but nothing beats having the whole song. More than once I've found that I liked the chorus they played, but then when I listened to the rest of the song, I didn't like it.

 

[coldhearted_princess]

I like the fact that I can download and record all my favs. Instead of having to change the cd while driving, they're all on one disk. :jiggy:

 

[Crystallas]

The job curve changed, and the ballances are being made because of Piracy.
For every one job piracy has taken away, it has created 2 in its place. Blank Optical Media sells, hard drives sell, Writers sell, media players that support MP3s and many other formats sell ect.
Most of the artists like freedom of music sharing. Artists dont like people stealing their stuff before its released, but besides that I havent noticed many artists that think its stealing. Its the record labels that think its stealing, but ironically the record labels steal the rights to many bands music too regardless of who created it. So therefore many artists say they support the record labels decision because if they said otherwise, they would get a lot of crap from the most powerful people in the industry(which makes them afraid to not support their bosses decisions.)

Even Lars from Metalica corrected himself many times and said that he doesnt mind people downloading Metalica, it only makes him mad when a CD that is supposed to be released in 6 months becomes available to download ahead of the official release.

I dont know why people are so worried about robin hood? Stealling from the rich should be the last of our worries, now how corperations steal from the poor and get away with it by gov't regs, thats where the real issue is. I dont think Quincy Jones is having any issues supporting his family, and I dont think Joe Nobody Artist/Producer is mad that people now have the capabilities to market music on such a marvel of communication technology. Big companies just want to control what people aquire as their taste in music, and with piracy now, they dont have control... people do. I dont think there is one thing wrong with piracy, and I dont think I need to worry about the lowest % of artists that it affects... because everyone now has the same rules applied to them.

 

[Crystallas]

" So does that mean you advocate taking a BMW off a car lot without paying because you can't afford it?"

If you could download a BMW... Then again, BMWs are available in America.

Does that mean its wrong for me to take the materials to build a replica of a BMW and recreate it exactly? Its not illegal, I just cant sell it as a BMW original.

 

[Malus 12:9]

There is a virus spreading at the moment, which many believe is coming from RIAA, which deletes mp3s. Apparently a tactic to try and cease mp3 downloads. Nice try.

 

[Fluffy]

There is a virus spreading at the moment, which many believe is coming from RIAA, which deletes mp3s. Apparently a tactic to try and cease mp3 downloads. Nice try.

Do you have anymore information on this virus like a name etc. I would not want my music library deleted. Thanks very much.

Melody, I will acknowledge it is stealing if you can reconcile the definition of stealing with the category that downloading falls into (see my last post). This is where the difficulty lies for me. Having said that I doubt a legal definition of what I am doing is enough to make me feel it is morally wrong.

What is the difference between file sharing and recording songs off the radio or recording films off the television?

 

[EnhancedSpirit]

There's no reason to be up in the air. When you acquire copywrited material without compensating the artist, you have committed theft of intellectual property. The fact that you don't have the money to pay for it is has no effect on the illegality of that action.

But what if the music is out of print. What if the band is no longer around? What if the songs are rare and unusual?

 

[Crystallas]

You cant speak a language without commiting theft of intelectual property. Im surprized that we dont pay a monthly fee to oxford or websters. Intellectual and proprty together is an oxymoron. This is just a tool to convince people that its wrong to think what someone else may think, or wrong to see or hear what others may see or hear. Just seems more logical when you apply it to an exact digital replica.
Theres a reason why people dont put their own waterwells in their property for drinking water in modernday like they did years ago. Someone convinced them that drinking well water was piracy, no matter what kind of filters they had installed at home,it was bad, and not as clean as tap water since it was stollen property of mother nature.

 

[Fluffy]

But what if the music is out of print. What if the band is no longer around? What if the songs are rare and unusual?

As far as I am aware, it is legal to download any song that no longer or has never had a copywright. Assumedly, if the band does not pass along their copywright to anybody else then their songs become a free for all. This is why it is perfectly legal for anybody to cover a classical piece, such as Mozart, and release such a cover without having to pay any sort of fee.

 

[Malus 12:9]

I wish the Peer-to-peer authorities thought the same way, Fluff.

 

[stonestew]

Justify it all you want...but recognize that it's stealing.

I'm curious as to how many of you would like it if your employer told you that he only liked how you worked one hour of the day so that's all you're getting paid for?

Again, for the life of me , can anybody have nothing more to worry about than if the rich get richer. Does daddy own Sony??? If i tell you I have an album and I want you to download it for free, does this not tell you the truth of the matter. Does my music not count because it's not endorsed by your daddy's label.

 

[Malus 12:9]

I think a lot of today's artists wouldn't miss a few dollars. There's always a teen sucked into buying the cd, and you know, monkey see, monkey do.

 

[Fluffy]

I wish the Peer-to-peer authorities thought the same way, Fluff.

I am not necessarily justifying it Renaldo. Just I don't agree with the view that it is stealing when it clearly isn't, in my mind, since I am not TAKING anything.

Artists do need money. Sueing your customers and limiting the a wonderful system of musical distribution is just an incredibly bad business tactic on their part. How on earth could something like KaZaA compete with a decent monthly subscription music server, the proceeds going to the artists, as long as the prices were kept right and people were able to get what they wanted. At the moment if I sign up to Napster then I MUST have Windows XP because of the stupid copywrighting laws and what are the chances Ill find anything by Children of Bodom or Mastodon when there are only 1 billion legal files out there, mostly from pop or rap artists earlier albums (ie the stuff I already have) or countless independent labels with crap music.

 

[Melody]

Does that mean its wrong for me to take the materials to build a replica of a BMW and recreate it exactly? Its not illegal, I just cant sell it as a BMW original.

Apples and oranges. Now let's compare apples. If you want to tape yourself singing that song to listen to over and over...and not sell it....that's not illegal.

 

[ayani]

i download music off the internet. however, i keep the sound files on my computer, as opposed to maing CDs with them.

i figure if i want a CD that bad i should save up for it. but if i just want to listen to some tunes on my computer, i shouldn't have to pay for that.

 

[Melody]

Words...fail me. I'm not surprised that so many download music and justify why they do it but I am concerned for our society that so many refuse to see it as theft.

When you read about the woman who embezzled 3 million dollars from a company, remember that she most probably did not wake up one morning and say, "Gee....I think I'll start scamming the company so I can go on a cruise." No, she worked up to it.

Everytime you step over that line of legality....and get away with it....it's easier to step over it just a bit more. It becomes easier to justify walking away from the cash register with that extra $10 that the cashier incorrectly gave you for change. To justify the $40 sweater that the clerk only charged you $20 for and you didn't correct her. To justify the pens, notebooks and other office supplies that amount to several hundred (or thousand) dollars each year that you "borrow" from the office.

It does not matter whether the recording industry will lose money or not. It does not matter whether the recording artists say "it's ok" to copy when the recording company owns the copyright. It does not matter whether you like only one song or think the price of the CD is too much. It is theft.

 

[Melody]

I am not necessarily justifying it Renaldo. Just I don't agree with the view that it is stealing when it clearly isn't, in my mind, since I am not TAKING anything.

But you are. You may not have gone into a store and ripped off a CD, but you have downloaded copyrighted music from the internet and are listening to it over and over without compensating the owner.

 

[Fluffy]

But you are. You may not have gone into a store and ripped off a CD, but you have downloaded copyrighted music from the internet and are listening to it over and over without compensating the owner.

That is because there is a very large difference between me going into a store and nicking a CD and me borrowing and copying a CD off of one of my friends. File sharing is identical to the latter which is far more widespread and you don't see them cracking down on that. What you are suggesting is that if I wanted to borrow my neighbours lawnmower to do my lawn, I would have to send a small fee to the maker of that lawnmower because otherwise I am cheating them out of profit. Furthermore you are saying that this should be described as theft.

File sharing is even further away from stealing that borrowing an item off of a friend because I am making my own copy so I take nothing away from anybody. This is IDENTICAL to recording a movie off the television or are you about to tell me that is theft as well?

I am perfectly open to any rational arguement which either shows the difference between file sharing and borrowing/copying or one which shows that borrowing/copying is theft but simply reiterating your stance does not do either.

Again I am NOT saying I justify file sharing in any sense of the word. I just cannot even begin to understand how people can see this as theft for the reasons given above.