Illegally Downloading Media.

[jasminepotts]

In the case of the limewire:
The files that are on it are files that are on people's computers and they are coming up because limewire is searching for the files and allowing people to download them. So if the government were wanting to attach viruses onto them then they'd have to find a way of getting into everyone's system and attaching the files. Which I doubt they would put the effort into doing that.
Fair enough, an artist will put in the effort to making the music etc, but they should be happy that people are at least listening to it. But the majority just do it for money. I'm for illegal downloading but only of music. But only if its done a small amount. There are so many young people that love music but simply can't afford it due to a lack of job or something along those lines. I think people should possibly make the effort and get off their arses if they want to see a film in the cinema instead of buying a cheap version with crap sound quality, bad picture and more often than not; someone's head walking in front of the screen several times.
I'm up for music downloading but not so much films and such

 

[Zerokku]

In the case of the limewire:
The files that are on it are files that are on people's computers and they are coming up because limewire is searching for the files and allowing people to download them. So if the government were wanting to attach viruses onto them then they'd have to find a way of getting into everyone's system and attaching the files. Which I doubt they would put the effort into doing that.
Fair enough, an artist will put in the effort to making the music etc, but they should be happy that people are at least listening to it. But the majority just do it for money. I'm for illegal downloading but only of music. But only if its done a small amount. There are so many young people that love music but simply can't afford it due to a lack of job or something along those lines. I think people should possibly make the effort and get off their arses if they want to see a film in the cinema instead of buying a cheap version with crap sound quality, bad picture and more often than not; someone's head walking in front of the screen several times.
I'm up for music downloading but not so much films and such

The problem with limewire and the like is, like I mentioned on the previous page, When you buy some form of digital media, you are not given the legal right/license to redistribute the contents of said media, only the right to own it and use it within the boundaries of the law.

 

[MekanikStik]

You know, I don't see a point in arguing with you. Morally, you stand completely correct in saying that stealing is wrong, and that pirating is stealing.

What is absurd is that even though most people know this, they don't care. I don't. Pirating is my way of consciously objecting to capitalism and big business. It is me following my internal instinct oh prioritizing self of others. I know it's wrong, but I still do it anyways. And the problem is pirating will continue, not matter how large the scale. People will find ways to break through any lock you can make, and can crack any code you create to stop them. It is virtually impossible to stop piracy (I say virtually because I hope I never have to eat these words.)

Also, I am not one of those people who pirates everything I own. I buy cd's that I enjoy, but If I want one song, i'll limewire it. I see the movies I really want to see, but if I am unsure of how good it will be, I'll wait for the dvd release to dl it. I buy games I enjoy, but experiment with roms I am not sure of. That's my philoshpy on piracy.

 

[Sir Kenneth]

The Record Companies profit too much off of their Artists hardships while fucking over the artists themselves because of this.

That's quite a statement you got there. If a band has contractually signed over the rights to their music to the record label, don't they have as much right to benefit from the sales as the band? What is "too much" profit anyway? Do you decide whether it's right or wrong to download songs by a certain band depending on individual contracts with record labels, or do you just go ahead and asume that all labels are scum?

I listen to and buy a lot of "underground" music put out by small independent labels. Small independent labels run by people who put a lof of their own money into putting out music that they love and work several jobs at the same time to keep the boat afloat. I think they deserve some support for putting some great music out there.

 

[karmiccancer]

Is piracy right or wrong?
yes or no?

...what!?

yes it is right or wrong, meaning one of the two...? or does it lie in some grey are...o00oo.

okay im done

actually i'm glad its worded like that, because i dont think its right or wrong

i think its a matter of relative damage to the artist
if an artists needs their record sales to survive as a person and as an artist
then yes, (its wrong)

and if they dont then no. (it's okay to do it )

basically steal from bob dylan. not from the brian jonestown massacre.

i mean honestly objectively i'd really have to say either way its neither right or wrong, considering that i dont think that people can have possesions, therefore they can not have an intrinsic right to said possesions

but thats a whole arguement on native american spirituality and communism that i dont want to go on to. (so dont reply to that)

we are consumers, unless of course we're producers, but most of us are consumers.

and as consumers we dont really a responsibility to consume anything,
we have a responsibility not to harm what we dont need to
but some things arent really being harmed
example
if i download the new oh i dunno neil young record off of limewire, (god knows why, i hate to say neil, but i dont know if southern men need you around anyhow, i mean what the hell was that with the apple and the headphones, this...from the guy who brought us harvest.) y'know what, someone else is still gonna buy that record, and neil young is still gonna have food to eat and is still gonna be able to put out new records. (in a way actually it might be my responsibility instead to steal that record, because if enough people do it neil will see his drop in record sales and will realize (hopefully?) man this really sucks.)

yep, sound logic and all
its up there
i know it is^

(there are huge gaping holes in that arguement which basically has been reduced to the non-sequiter that i need someone to point out so i can make long winded defences of them to prove that i am smarter than them and therefore am right about piracy because i took 1 year of classes in college on philosophy, yessiree)

oh and

I'm all for downloading, as long as people don't take the piss. I'll download something (e.g. Metallica's Death Magnetic) and listen to it for abit.

pirating metalica *eehh watch out!

oh yes and a note about record companies
when we speak of record companies that rake in cash, im assuming that you mean the big four capitol and the like

see, most record companies go belly up in just a few years after creation
this is largely because only 10% of records actually make what it costs to produce them
its absurd i know, but those 10% make enough to cover the losses from all the rest
so any band really is quite a gamble
so if you're stealing from an artist know where they stand in sales, and know who their record company is. and if either of them are struggling, you probably shouldn't steal from them, because later, they wont have made any music for you to download illegally, being that they've lost their job
musicians, and the rest of the people at record companies do (contrary to popular belief) work, and pretty fucking hard actually.
its ridiculous how unlikely it is that you (as a musician) will make any money, let alone put yourself in some gross amount of debt, and its unlikely that they (as the record company) will do the same

and lets not bash them so much, i mean record companies are necessary
and a lot of them are really benevolent, and dedicated to putting out good music
i go to school in lincoln, and so i've seen a lot of the saddle creek stuff, which i mean, i really like.
and there's stuff like planit-x

bands cant really producae and package and distribute their albums on their own
i mean they can, but it takes a lot of work, almost too much work when combined with amount of work it takes to create and record an album
thats not to mention that they probably have some sort of day job to survive, ie eat and stuff

and when bands do try to manage themselves they put out "Magical Mystery Tour"
so lets thank apple, paraphone, and EMI
because we have the White Album

but yeah
dont hate them
and their capitalist ways
just steal from them
so long as it doesnt hurt

 

[aintnoscrub]

I can't stand it when people try to throw there views in my face about piracy and such, because i just don't care...i download all the time, old movies, new movies, old games, new games..you get the point. Anyway i'm aware its illegal i'm not one of those its thinks its fine but that doesn't stop me from doing it, as long as i've got internet access i will be downloading

 

[RioDragon]

To be honest, I download stuff a LOT. Oftentimes old games, mostly. And, while it may be technically illegal, I don't see why anyone would contest the kinds of games I download. They're normally rather old games that are never sold in stores any longer, or copies of games I bought with my own money and gave to a friend, just to check out what the game is all about first-hand.

As a Game Design major, this stuff interests me. I realize that piracy in games could very well happen to me when I'm a designer, but that kind of stuff normally doesn't happen until after a game is off shelves. And even then, it's often good for business by spreading word about games to other people.

Especially when it comes to roms of games that were never translated to English. it increases attention to that particular game/series to the point where eventually, the company would seek to profit from it by releasing English translations in the future, like I assume the game-importing community influenced Square and Atlus's approaches to localizing their titles.

 

[Hal Otacon]

Tbh i don't download that much stuff....

I donwnload mostly trial software on my Windows machine - and no need to download anything illegal on this machine since its Linux based so its free for software as its all open source

 

[Mokken]

The downloading Media as a whole by the RIAA and MPAA is flawed. The way it is set up is to benefit the Recording Studios more and fuck over the artists. Underground and Bands with very low publicity stand to gain MORE through free digital distribution of their media. When you burn music onto a CD to play in your CD player, this is technically illegal. When you change music that you download from iTunes from MP4 format to MP3 format, this is technically illegal.

 

[bara.desu]

THIS.

I'm not going to lie, either. I do not not torrent things from the vast series of tubes that is the internet (double negative ). Anyway, these are my thoughts on piracy.

Although I understand the concepts of copyright, my question is where do you draw the line? What I mean is, what if you went and bought a CD from a music store, put it on your iTunes so you can listen to it, and then lent it to a friend to listen to it too? According to reason, that's "illegal", because said friend didn't pay for the music. In a sense, the internet is no different. Someone had to go get the CD (to get the music), and then just gave their "friends" (the average user) a copy.

Yeah, those are my feelings on it.

 

[DarkSquall]

Nah, it's not wrong. I hate buying stuff so I simply download it, if I can't find a free download copy through the Limewire I simply google it. I download lots of stuff PSP games, songs, movies w/e. If it's illegal I'll do it

 

[Mokken]

That's quite a statement you got there. If a band has contractually signed over the rights to their music to the record label, don't they have as much right to benefit from the sales as the band? What is "too much" profit anyway?

Take digital media sales like iTunes. Out of that 99 cent download Major Labels get around 84 cents per song download. Minor Labels get around 65 cents. itunes keeps around 12 cents for operating profit.

Last august the Allman brothers sued their record label for $10 million citing digital exploitation and claiming the label only offers a small fraction of the money it makes through iTunes.

 

[Midnight Memoire]

I've downloaded my fair share of illegal music, never movies though. A lot of the music I download though is "tester" music or music rare/unavailable here in the States (IE: Ayumi Hamasaki, Origa, Wonder Girls...). For artists more available here, I typically download a few songs and then make a decision as to whether or not I feel I should purchase their music via iTunes or CD.

 

[Zerokku]

The downloading Media as a whole by the RIAA and MPAA is flawed. The way it is set up is to benefit the Recording Studios more and fuck over the artists. Underground and Bands with very low publicity stand to gain MORE through free digital distribution of their media. When you burn music onto a CD to play in your CD player, this is technically illegal. When you change music that you download from iTunes from MP4 format to MP3 format, this is technically illegal.

And where do you have any legal right to own that copy?

Who cares if you don't think the recording companies deserve the money. That isn't for you to decide if you still want to own said media. If it bothers you that much, then don't own it, but you don't have any legal right to own it without paying for it, regardless of your own personal feelings.

 

[Mokken]

Ok granted what I am doing isn't within the law. But the war on illegal music downloads is like the war on drugs. It's a failure.

The RIAA going after house moms that downloaded 24 songs and charging her near $24,000 per song is downright stupid.

 

[Zerokku]

I agree that its absurd, and my argument is more towards illegally downloading games more than anything. But the fact is the developer/publisher/whatever does not have the money they should have in order for a pirated copy to legally exist. Hence it is theft. That money they are entitled to is not given to them while the copy exists. It's not theft Not in the traditional sense, but it is nonetheless.

 

[Gingerbread Lesbian]

I'll download stuff, I honestly don't care less, especially with gaming companies since they're money hungry anyways. Take CoD4 for example, say £35 a game, Activision say a game could cost up to £50million, they've sold 13million copies which makes them around £455million yet with CoD5 they come out with a statement saying they're pushing the price up another £20 and make up some bullshit excuse. THIS is why people turn to piracy, because the prices of games at least are far, far to expensive and we especially in the UK have to put up with higher prices then nearly every other country. All being said, I still pay for my PS3 game, just not DS/PSP ones, I'll happily download those even though I could afford them, I just refuse to pay £30.

As for music, again I couldn't care.

PS. The poll makes no sense

 

[Zerokku]

All being said, I still pay for my PS3 game, just not DS/PSP ones, I'll happily download those even though I could afford them, I just refuse to pay £30.

...

/Facepalm

You do realize that handheld titles are often made by developers who actually need the money? Just look at say Retro Game Challenge for the DS. A fun and niche game that sold decently, but we won't be getting the sequel because the developer lost money localizing it, mostly because of piracy.

Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with you people who think you're entitled to own this stuff? Seriously?

 

[Midnight Memoire]

As I said in my previous post in this topic, availability seems to be a big issue when it comes to piracy. A lot of the things I tend to download are being downloaded due to lack of availability to me.

A good example would be Sega CD. How many of us have a working Sega CD? Honestly, how many of us really even bought a Sega CD?! Last time I saw a Sega CD it was $100.00. That's pretty expensive for a system that old. If I've the sudden urge to play Sonic CD, I'm going to download the ROM.

I suppose I could be wrong for doing that but I'm sure a few others can relate to that sort of thing.

Now, if you own the game system and are just not willing to purchase the game that's pretty blah (not sure what word to use there). By the time the ROM's become available for a game it's usually been knocked down in price anyway (unless it's FFVII...).

 

[Sir Kenneth]

Underground and Bands with very low publicity stand to gain MORE through free digital distribution of their media.

Okay, but shouldn't the underground bands and labels be able to decide whether or not they actually WANT their music to be distributed for free?

Take digital media sales like iTunes. Out of that 99 cent download Major Labels get around 84 cents per song download. Minor Labels get around 65 cents. itunes keeps around 12 cents for operating profit.

Last august the Allman brothers sued their record label for $10 million citing digital exploitation and claiming the label only offers a small fraction of the money it makes through iTunes.

Whatever part of that money goes to the band, is contractually between the label and the band. If the band own the rights to their own music, they'll be getting a substantial percentage. If they don't, they'll probably be getting a little less. Whatever the case is, they'll be getting whatever they have contractually agreed to, and if they don't they can always sue.