19 replies to this topic

[volycz]

I've recently seen a very interesting commercial against downloading. I don't remember the details but basically the main point is the idea that you don't steal things from other people in real life like shoplifting or robbing someone, etc etc, so why should you steal from singers and companies by downloading? It made a deep impression on me or otherwise I would've have remembered it.

However, the price of these music CDs, series, and movies are just too costly. Not to mention, how sometimes one Cd has only 2-3 songs that sound nice, while the other songs are not very good. These companies expect too much and are greedy. And what if some young person needed a software to do something important but does not know where he can actually purchase a full version of the software he wants or simply can't afford it? seriously some software are just waaay overpriced like microsoft xp pro etc.. The consumers are just tired of being ripped off and resort to downloading to save money.

Do you think downloading is wrong or justifiable?

[Frizzle]

Am I sinful person? Yes.
Do I care about someone losing millions when they make millions? No.

[Mr. Hobo]

Am I sinful person? Yes.
Do I care about someone losing millions when they make millions? No.

QFE. Why whould a person making 30k a year care about a person making 5 million a year losing a couple 100k.

The only time I'm against downloading songs is when there from a new band that needs the money.

Edited by Toxic Hobo, 07 March 2006 - 09:29 AM.

[Aimee]

There is always going to be someone downloading songs. With the advancement of technology (ex. mp3 players) there is no way around that. We as consumers are just taking advantage of the technology before us. The problem lies with the music industry itself. They need to grasp this change and figure out a way that it can work FOR them.

[Ives]

Well, you see, media through ISO music/dvd is theoretically a way to make sales. But this is my opinion.

Metallica pisses me off. They were a band that originally grew in popularity from free music they were promoting, but then they sue napster? They were having money troubles from the last two albums, so it was greed.

Toho is another company that managed the status of an internationally known movie company when they gave out the first half of Godzilla available on the televisions set for free. Many people liked this, so they went to see Godzilla, which made around 200 million, and in overall start a legacy that would benefit toho 1.8 billion dollars. However, when there was poor sales in 1989 "Godzilla vs. Biollante", they began to attack many people that were using bootlegs and whatnot at the time (despite the lack of internet.)

Off that topic, though...


You see, downloading music can and cant be beneficial. While some people download 12.2 gb of music, I don't personally think 512 mb of music could hurt. You may be questioning why I think this is fine - it's because this.

People listen to the music, so people will buy t shirts, albums, and whatnot just because theyre fans of the music. I originally downloaded a free version of system of a down and thats what got me to buy their albums in the end.

So in my conclusion - a little bit of downloading cant hurt, and can help with knowing if you want to buy an album or not. But downloading every piece of their music and not paying a dime towards them isn't right.

[Frizzle]

Are you a spokesperson for them Sm?

[Magma]

Artists make enought money so I think they should care less if people download their music. If they are real artists they should be proud people are downloading their music and not another artists. All the artists these days are in it for the money and nothing else. If it was for the music, they would let anybody have their music for free or little cost.

[Grizzly]

There are sites that allow legal downloading of music and movies for as little as $10 a month and their services are a lot better than free p2p softwares.

Also iTunes provides downloads of songs for $1 and downloads of CDs for $10.

And correct me if I'm wrong, but I do believe downloading music if legal. Sharing however is not.

[Melchoire]

Wrong. You are stealing money from the people who took their time to make the DVD's/Music.

Im not stealing, Im listening to music.

[Le Chango]

I think music isnt much a big deal, its not that expensive. But programs i can understand. If someone is downloading a program, they would have never paid for it anyway. The person then isnt losing money + this is the digital age, it takes no money or effort to make a copy of something (unless its on cd).

[travis]

If you reproduce it and sell it, its wrong.
IF you dowload it for personal use, only, then its great, and have fun with it.

[Mumei]

Artists don´t make much off their album sales, most of what they get is from tours/concerts, and the band merchandise sold there.

This is very true - most of the money from an album sale goes into the record company's profits

I see downloading music as a preview - and for me it replaces radio in that i'll download all the new stuff that's being released, if i like it, i'll probably go and hunt out anything else that band have done - if theres then more than 2 songs on an album i like i'll go and order that album, i'm probably different from most people in that respect, but i'll always pay for things i use and enjoy (like i've always given to shareware - and altho i will download 'trial' versions of program - i'll buy it if it's something i cannot do without - with the exception of MS Office which i begrudge paying for something that i feel should some free with XP)

[RandomNameIgnoreIt]

It depends.

Situations where it is right (in my opinion):

1) You're a kid who doesn't have money and couldn't buy it anyway.
2) You want to preview the album, and will buy it if you enjoy what you hear.
3) You only like a few scattered songs off a few scattered albums. If the bands want you to buy the whole CD, they should make the whole CD good, not just one song

Situations where it's not:

1) You just never want to pay despite having the means and download entire albums that you would find worthy of purchase regularly.
2) Download with the intent to resell.

[Ives]

It depends.

Situations where it is right (in my opinion):

1) You're a kid who doesn't have money and couldn't buy it anyway.
2) You want to preview the album, and will buy it if you enjoy what you hear.
3) You only like a few scattered songs off a few scattered albums. If the bands want you to buy the whole CD, they should make the whole CD good, not just one song

Situations where it's not:

1) You just never want to pay despite having the means and download entire albums that you would find worthy of purchase regularly.
2) Download with the intent to resell.

QFE

[Le Chango]

It depends.

Situations where it is right (in my opinion):

1) You're a kid who doesn't have money and couldn't buy it anyway.
2) You want to preview the album, and will buy it if you enjoy what you hear.
3) You only like a few scattered songs off a few scattered albums. If the bands want you to buy the whole CD, they should make the whole CD good, not just one song

Situations where it's not:

1) You just never want to pay despite having the means and download entire albums that you would find worthy of purchase regularly.
2) Download with the intent to resell.

TOTAL agre-ededed-ness

[Warlord]

If you intend on buying the albums when you can it should be ok

I look on the internet for hard to find stuff anyway (rare trance tracks etc....)
Stuff you can't even buy in a store because it's limited

Edited by Warlord, 09 March 2006 - 02:49 PM.

[|nfinite]

Just like that episode of South Park:

"Master P's Son can't get the new island in the Bahamas that he wanted for Christmas because of all the illegal downloading."

Why would they care? They make 50x more money by singing and appearing in movies that losing a few thousand dollars should mean nothing to them.

I work like this:

I'll download songs from Artists.

If I hear 4 songs by the artist that I like, from the same album, I'll go out and buy it.

Simple as that.

[Sean]

70% of the music I listen to, I wouldn't be able to buy their album in stores because they are mostly underground. So I download all my music. I have like 1.5gigs.. But no an astounding 20gigs like ome people have

Edited by Sean, 11 March 2006 - 12:08 PM.

[Will]

They can change the laws, they can sue us all,
but pirating will survive.

For sure. Stick it to the facists and all that jazz.