Originally posted by jlillyThieves and murders get off all the time, but they are still thieves and murders. I love how "you" fought off the piracy case. How much did "your lawyer" get paid for defending you?
What are you talking about if I went in front of a judge? HA! Good one!
I successfully fought off a piracy case when I was at UCLA. I got caught and was forced by the RIAA to settle $1416.52 or go to court.
I chose court.
And I f***** won.
End of story.
Originally posted by shortcircuitIf you take a shirt, it is missing. Someone is out the price of a shirt. If you download a song, no one ends up missing anything.
OK, take it to another extreme. Why buy clothes, just steal them. The mark up on retail clothing is 200% anyway. And no need to buy food, just steal it. Heck it grows free on the trees or runs wild in the fields, right? No need to buy gas...it is way overpriced. Just siphon away. Of course, you won't mind if a few of the guys and me come over to your ho ...[text shortened]... s that if you went before the judge in a courtroom, you would lose 100 times out of a hundred.
Of course, you won't mind if a few of the guys and me come over to your house nightly and take whatever we want.
Correct would be, you won't mind if a few of the guys and me come over to your house nightly and MAKE A COPY of whatever we want.
🙂
Again, I don't download illegally, but there are good arguments for it.
Originally posted by jlillyLIE!
What are you talking about if I went in front of a judge? HA! Good one!
I successfully fought off a piracy case when I was at UCLA. I got caught and was forced by the RIAA to settle $1416.52 or go to court.
I chose court.
And I f***** won.
End of story.
And I think you are a waste of a person. FREE FREE FREE everybody wants something for nothing. Why dont you get off your welfare ass and work for something?
Originally posted by rbmorrisJust making copies does nothing. If you use those after you copy them then you are doing something that will put them at a loss, but then you did more than just copy them didn't you?
There are, but that wasn't one of them.
Can I come over and make copies of your bank statements?
Pictures of your spouse in compromising positions?
The unfinished manuscript you've been working on?
Originally posted by paulbuchmanfromficsI think you are hung up over replication versus earned revenue. When people illegally download, or pirate, a copy of a CD or a DVD or a computer game or software that they would have had to purchase in order to obtain it otherwise, it is theft. It can either be theft of revenue or theft of service, but it definitely is theft. This is not to be confused with public domain shareware or freeware or music given free of charge. I will guarantee you that none of the artists, music companies, production companies, movie studios, software companies or gaming companies would freely choose to have you pirate a copy of their work rather than purchase one. Just think about it. Use common sense and it is quite easy to understand. This world is becoming all about getting something for nothing.
If you take a shirt, it is missing. Someone is out the price of a shirt. If you download a song, no one ends up missing anything.
Of course, you won't mind if a few of the guys and me come over to your house nightly and take whatever we want.
Correct would be, you won't mind if a few of the guys and me come over to your house nightly ...[text shortened]... ver we want.
🙂
Again, I don't download illegally, but there are good arguments for it.
Using your arguement, it is like having sex with a hooker and then refusing to pay her. When you are finished, she still has all of her body parts in working order, so no harm, right? Wrong!! Which is why her pimp hunts you down and kicks your ass and gets the money out of you because you were attempting to steal from him.
Originally posted by shortcircuitWow... Great example. *clap clap*
Using your arguement, it is like having sex with a hooker and then refusing to pay her. When you are finished, she still has all of her body parts in working order, so no harm, right? Wrong!! Which is why her pimp hunts you down and kicks your ass and gets the money out of you because you were attempting to steal from him.
Technically making a mix tape for someone is illegal... no-ones bothered though because it spreads the music around, I know plenty of people who buy the albums after they've got a copy of it from someone else or the web.
Films are the same pretty much... alot of people who download them buy them anyway, or their friends buy them when they've seen the film.
The music industry (and film industry) really has to embrace the change rather than struggle against it because they won't win.... they just won't.
I-tunes has gone part of the way towards this, as have bands like radiohead realeasing their album for 'as much as you want to pay'.
Of course radiohead are big already, but the format that they released it in worked... Pay small fee for the basic album, pay a higher set fee for the artwork box and extra stuff.
'Small' bands mostly do it in their spare time, trying to garner enough interest in themselves to make it bigger. Free copies of their work can only help in that it raises awareness of these acts and increases the fanbase, leading to better ticket sales at gigs and a higher profile which lets them sign record contracts. And people will still buy the CD's, because people like material goods not just data.
Sure CD sales are down (a little - I'm sure 50cents gutted that he's missed out on another potential few thousand), but the problem of bands making money is the major labels taking whacking great profit cuts because there are so many bands out there that they can afford to squeeze them dry and move onto the 'next big thing.' Why do you think so many larger bands start their own labels? It's so they can release stuff on their own terms.
This problem has just arisen in the last few years, the industry will adjust the same as it did when people started copying each others tapes. It's just on a larger scale, but so are the profits nowadays... so I think it balances out. It'll absorb it and move on. Plus when a multi-million earning band like Metallica sue a college kid in Arkansas for downloading an album they look like tools. ( - it seems to be the choice of insult these days).
Originally posted by FeastboyI think that you have over-simplified this issue a little - true, there is plenty of publicity and money to be made from making available free downloads but this is a different issue to modern cyber-criminals taking what they want when they want it.
Technically making a mix tape for someone is illegal... no-ones bothered though because it spreads the music around, I know plenty of people who buy the albums after they've got a copy of it from someone else or the web.
Films are the same pretty much... alot of people who download them buy them anyway, or their friends buy them when they've seen the fi lbum they look like tools. ( - it seems to be the choice of insult these days).
I agree with a lot of your points at the top about the way that music and film sharing can boost sales and interest in products, but I feel that this is a small minority. Most users will take what they want to and the money never makes it to those who are directly responsible for the music - the artist themselves.
The problems are exactly as you said - Radiohead is a big band, Major labels make great profits. Piracy won't affect them, but it will hurt those who are smaller and need the revenue to continue working.
I will put forward one final point in this - have you ever wondered why there are so many sequels of films released? Or why the bands created from talent contests get the most number 1s? Of course, it is the publishers, record labels and film studios looking to make money off a sure thing - you have to remember that what is popular is not necessarily good. If piracy continues in this fashion, we will be left with bland pop acts who are here today and gone tomorrow in the charts and Pirates of the Caribbean 10: The Curse of the Geriatric Sailor as our only entertainment.
It is so often that the real creativity and interest in the arts is that on the periphery and so there is usually little profit to be made - piracy will eradicate this creativity and we will be left with the bilge that Studios think we like (as it is popular)
Right, rant over - I'm off to listen to Geraldine McQueen's new album.....