Your views on file sharing and piracy

[jasignhagj]

With the pirate bay coming to a close, i wanted to know, what are your views on file sharing and piracy.

 

 

 

i personally download tons of music (legal in canada, :D) some movies, mostly ones im not allowed to watch normally, and only older games i cant find in the stores (sim golf, Risk II, Starwars GB, etc)

 

 

 

I feel that for music, big bands and singers can make enough money off concerts, and most of the money from CD sales goes to the RIAA anyway.

[PoorLepRecon]

Piracy is unacceptable. You are stealing the game, movie, or music. If you own the game, movie, or music yourself, but download a digital copy, it's another story.

[forestfrolic]

Unless the band is massive, like really massive, most 'popular' bands still aren't that well off.

[Lenin64]

Stealing is a strong word there, buddy. Sure, nobody is getting money from it, but nobody is actually losing anything. It's as if the pirate would never have bought it anyway, no harm is actually done to anyone.

[PoorLepRecon]

Stealing is a strong word there, buddy. Sure, nobody is getting money from it, but nobody is actually losing anything. It's as if the pirate would never have bought it anyway, no harm is actually done to anyone.

 

 

 

They were obviously interested enough to download it, so they had a possibility of purchasing a legal copy. I don't see how it can't be stealing. You never bought it, yet you own a copy of it. It wasn't given away, you took it from a website that had obtained it illegitimatly.

[Zierro]

They were obviously interested enough to download it, so they had a possibility of purchasing a legal copy.

 

 

 

I've heard the opposite. People download to "sample" the company/band/whatever. That's not to say some people don't download stuff they already like, but I think downloading illegally is a great way to get to know new bands. In fact, you could say that you gain potential customers that way.

[PoorLepRecon]

They were obviously interested enough to download it, so they had a possibility of purchasing a legal copy.

 

 

 

I've heard the opposite. People download to "sample" the company/band/whatever. That's not to say some people don't download stuff they already like, but I think downloading illegally is a great way to get to know new bands.

 

 

 

But if they decide to sample every one of the company/bands/etc's products then a lot of money is lost on the original creator's part.

[All_Is_Great]

The pirate bay is coming to a close? Why am I missing all the news?

[Da Pirates]

Do you realize how much multi-millionaire companies make? It's like take iTunes for example, they raised about half of the songs on iTunes to $1.29 from $0.99. Steve Jobs (The CEO of Apple) already makes millions of dollars and now he wants more? I refuse to give to these greedy companies unless there is no other choice (For example: Microsoft prepaid cards for Xbox 360 needed register activiation) But for the most part, I refuse to give to those bastards.

 

 

 

Music

 

TV shows

 

Movies

 

Xbox 360 Games

 

 

 

You name it, i've made somone lose some money in their hefty paycheck.

[VEGHATERMEATLOVER]

I suopornit, everyone should have acsess to everything possible, advertisements should pay the software developers, that way.. Everybody wins

[Nadril]

Piracy is unacceptable. You are stealing the game, movie, or music. If you own the game, movie, or music yourself, but download a digital copy, it's another story.

 

 

 

Piracy is not theft. Theft implies that you are taking a product and leaving nothing behind. Piracy, or copyright infringement, is simply copying a file while leaving the original intact.

 

 

 

In other words the "victim" of a pirate doesn't lose anything except a potential sale, which is a loaded idea in its self anyways. It's been shown that there is no real correlation between piracy and sales numbers, as most of the time the pirate in question isn't going to buy the product anyways.

 

 

 

Just setting things straight here. I'm really not "pro piracy" or "anti piracy". I pirate plenty of things myself but I have no intentions on wanting it to be a legal process. The only thing I hope is that people will realize what consumers want and deliver instead of trying to protect themselves. I, for one, wish that there would be someone to take up a rental service for the PC -- using a digital distribution mean. I would certainly pay $8 to rent a PC game for a week than bother dealing with a torrent. However on the flip side I am not going to pay full price for a product which has 10 hours of gameplay in it.

 

 

 

And the music industry just has everything backwards right now, but they need to make major steps forward if they want people to stop pirating their music.

[Giordano]

When they're unnecessarily expensive, [bleep] 'em.

[abbydog95]

I have downloaded stuff from Utorrent, i dont do it very often but its not legal here in the USA :o :ohnoes:

[Millard]

I only pirate movies, thats mainly because the Film industry is extremely [developmentally delayed]ed. £12 for a DVD i will only wach once? No thanks. And then getting an anti piracy advert before the Film that i just bought is [bleep]ing insulting.

 

 

 

I don't pirate movies that are or have just come out in the Cinema though.

[rangeor]

Stealing is a strong word there, buddy. Sure, nobody is getting money from it, but nobody is actually losing anything. It's as if the pirate would never have bought it anyway, no harm is actually done to anyone.

 

Then how come U2 is selling concert tickets for $300 per person? To make up some of their losses from pirating, that's why. I used to be indifferent regarding pirating, but $300 to see Muse (opening for U2) is just plain ridiculous.

[Zierro]

But if they decide to sample every one of the company/bands/etc's products then a lot of money is lost on the original creator's part.

 

 

 

I don't think downloading all of them would count as sampling though. What I meant by sampling is testing out the waters - seeing if one or two of their songs has any effect on you. If it does, then you could be a potential consumer.

 

 

 

To me, having fans is much better than having money. First of all, I hate the notion that music should be a capitalistic business affair. Secondly, not everyone has the money to spend on albums - so sometimes you wouldn't be missing out on money, they wouldn't be able to buy it anyways. You'd just be losing out on a fan, their money is irrelevant when they can't afford it. Finally, albums and videos make the perfect gifts. They're not too cheap and not too expensive. Gifts are a big part of our society, which means the demand for having gift-like products is enormous. Oh yeah, and did I forget to mention burnt CD's are terrible presents? :mrgreen:

[Nadril]

Stealing is a strong word there, buddy. Sure, nobody is getting money from it, but nobody is actually losing anything. It's as if the pirate would never have bought it anyway, no harm is actually done to anyone.

 

Then how come U2 is selling concert tickets for $300 per person? To make up some of their losses from pirating, that's why. I used to be indifferent regarding pirating, but $300 to see Muse (opening for U2) is just plain ridiculous.

 

 

 

Or maybe it's because people will pay $300 to see them? Blaming U2's greed on piracy is just [bleep]ing ridiculous.

[Jernlov]

I don't really know how I stand on the issue; I guess I'm neither for nor against.

 

 

 

What does irk me, though, is the "hey, my money doesn't go 100% to the band!" argument. Well let me tell you: record labels also need money too. How else are they supposed to make up for the cost of promotion, recording, and distribution? No labels = significant decrease in the amount of music available; and self-releasing is such a damn arduous process that I'm not surprised people aren't taking up on it - especially if you intend to release physical copies of your material; releasing onto the Internet makes it significantly easier, but then you have the issue of paying for digital downloads (which I think is absurd). Even with the popularity of such services as iTunes, I still think that if you're going to release music digitally, it should be free because I believe that there is no feeling of ownership toward digital music. Or we could just abolish this abomination altogether and focus on physical copies.

 

 

 

Sure, I download a lot. Do I feel bad? Yeah, a bit. However, if it weren't for such I would have never been interested in music at all. My perception on the issue drastically changed when I got more interested in recording and releasing music: I used to be all butthurt about pretty much everything I covered above, but I can finally see it from an artist's point of view now. Also, if you think bands make a huge amount off touring then you're in cloud [bleep]ing cuckoo land. The cost of touring is far, far, far more than you want to believe it to be. Figures will vary from band-to-band, but they don't make as much as you like to think. However, seeing your favourite band live makes you feel like a real fan. Take English math rock band Maybeshewill as an example. They're frequently asked to tour outside of the UK. However, even though they make music at a minimal cost to themselves, they've stated that they can't tour because piracy is costing a lot of money that isn't theirs; i.e. costing the people who promote them and release their records. It's kind of rare for a band to be so forward like that, and you should all at least give this a thought when you next download an album.

 

 

 

On the flipside, I doubt some lesser-known bands would have enjoyed what little success and accolade they actually have attained if it wasn't for people sharing their music illegally. The trend with myself and friends is we buy music that we enjoyed. The only time when I don't consider buying CDs is when I have to pay an extortionate import charge because they simply aren't sold in my country. I also lack a job, so I can't own as much music physically as I would like to. Downloading has also exposed me to stuff that's out of print and thus almost impossible to get hold of regardless.

 

 

 

It has its ups and downs. Just remember that it's copyright infringement and not theft; the two are drastically different cases.

[justcallmedaddy]

Stealing is a strong word there, buddy. Sure, nobody is getting money from it, but nobody is actually losing anything. It's as if the pirate would never have bought it anyway, no harm is actually done to anyone.

 

 

 

They were obviously interested enough to download it, so they had a possibility of purchasing a legal copy. I don't see how it can't be stealing. You never bought it, yet you own a copy of it. It wasn't given away, you took it from a website that had obtained it illegitimatly.

 

 

 

99 cents a song on iTunes is [bleep]ing rediculous, I'll buy my favorite bands albums, but I'll never buy songs from itunes when I have the opportunity to download for free.

[rangeor]

Or maybe it's because people will pay $300 to see them? Blaming U2's greed on piracy is just [bleep] ridiculous.

 

Their manager's pissed off at pirates and is trying to punish them. When they released their last album they refused to give out samples to journalists and organized meetings for them to listen where they were forced to give up any electronic devices they had, to keep their album from getting leaked. It did though. There's no doubt in my mind their manager's just being childish and trying to show the pirates who's boss by raising ticket prices.

[Nadril]

Or maybe it's because people will pay $300 to see them? Blaming U2's greed on piracy is just [bleep] ridiculous.

 

Their manager's pissed off at pirates and is trying to punish them. When they released their last album they refused to give out samples to journalists and organized meetings for them to listen where they were forced to give up any electronic devices they had, to keep their album from getting leaked. It did though. There's no doubt in my mind their manager's just being childish and trying to show the pirates who's boss by raising ticket prices.

 

 

 

Well ok, yeah, that's just them being childish about the entire thing. It certainly isn't a normal thing.

[ElkNight]

Piracy is unacceptable. You are stealing the game, movie, or music. If you own the game, movie, or music yourself, but download a digital copy, it's another story.

 

http://blog.taragana.com/e/2009/06/13/piracy-helps-bands-make-better-music-says-fleet-foxes-robin-pecknold-9108/

 

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-9744037-16.html

 

http://torrentfreak.com/pirated-youtube-clip-boosts-bands-album-sales-090727/

 

http://www.pollstar.com/blogs/news/archive/2009/04/23/663094.aspx

 

http://torrentfreak.com/music-piracy-not-that-bad-industry-says-090118/

 

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20071021/002050.shtml

 

http://www.alymysto.com/2009/07/28/in-an-age-of-piracy-the-music-industry-is-thriving/

 

 

 

I didnt read all of them all the way through, but I think you get the point.

 

 

 

I go to concerts of bands I would have never heard of if I had to buy their music.

[Lateralus]

If anyone is robbing the bands, it's the record companies. Overhaul the whole system. If piracy will bring it crashing down then I'm with the pirates.

[Latinoking]

I must say file sharing has led me to listen to more and newer genres of music..which I like. Friends always share something with me when they get it and give it to me.

 

Do you realize how much multi-millionaire companies make? It's like take iTunes for example, they raised about half of the songs on iTunes to $1.29 from $0.99. Steve Jobs (The CEO of Apple) already makes millions of dollars and now he wants more?

 

Yeah I noticed that too. I was mad. I'm glad people are 1-staring the songs and ranting.

[Giordano]

I only pirate movies, thats mainly because the Film industry is extremely [developmentally delayed]. £12 for a DVD i will only wach once? No thanks. And then getting an anti piracy advert before the Film that i just bought is [bleep] insulting.

 

 

 

I don't pirate movies that are or have just come out in the Cinema though.

 

That's my rule of thumb on pirating movies...kinda hypocritical since my family owned a video rental store, but that was back in the day. *cough* :lol:

 

 

 

On the theme of music, it also affects low budget filmmakers. In order to get a good scene going, you'll need some good music. It's really a tiresome process, unless you know EXACTLY what you want. But most of the times you wouldn't, so you'll need to search through several songs. Buying them would be too costly, especially if you just wanted to see if it'll work. Pirating would be a fast way to download several songs at once to compare.