Whats the best internet music file sharing thingy....?

by ScoobySnax 118 Replies latest jw friends

  • hillary_step
    hillary_step

    Skeptic,

    Most people steal because they won't get caught. However, you haven't convinced anyone that downloading music is legally stealing. It depends on your country.

    Are you just speaking for yourself all all the other readers when you use the phrase 'haven't convinced anyone'? It seems to me that a vast amount of ignorance is being bandied about by people with opinions, but no knowledge of the industry.

    All the worlds record companies, and most of the worlds musicians are firmly against the downloading of music which is illegal in all the countries that are at the forefront of this downloading, though it is true that Nigeria and the Falkland Islands are yet to pass opinion on the matter. I would challenge you to produce the name of five musicians of public note, who defend their fans right to illegally ( I am in North America ) download their music. Are their opinions to be ingnored, the very ones who create the music?

    Incidentally, people do not steal because they won't get caught, people steal because they are thieves. It is after they have stolen that they then hope that they will not get caught.

    BTW, if you try to steal electricity and you screw up, it can kill you. Now there is a motive not to steal electricity. I know how to handle electricity, and you won't get me tapping into the wires that are before my electrical meter. Not while they are live and can pump hundreds or thousands of amps through my heart. Only a few thousandths of a amp will kill you. And I am one of the few who could do it and live.

    I am a little baffled by this statement as it does not even get near to the heart of the matter of whether stealing from 'greedy' record companies which people do because it is easy, is actually any different from stealing from any another large 'greedy' corporations which deal in other commodities, such as electricty, phramaceuticals, motor cars etc. etc. Are you suggesting that CD's should be attached to the mains and if not paid for discharge enough voltage to kill a person...lol I hope not as it seems that you would be the only person to survive that particular ritual...

    Best regards - HS

  • hillary_step
  • Nomad Soul
    Nomad Soul

    WWW.IMESH.COM

    Sure, it has spyware, but it's fast. And If you're good, I can tell you how to remove the spyware, and still works if you remove the spyware, hehehehe.

  • Skeptic
    Skeptic

    HS,

    Are you just speaking for yourself all all the other readers when you use the phrase 'haven't convinced anyone'?

    Well, you got me there. Logically, I cannot speak for all readers.

    It seems to me that a vast amount of ignorance is being bandied about by people with opinions, but no knowledge of the industry.

    Yup, that's me.

    I believe that Napster lost their trial because they were centralized. If they had moved the mp3s from one computer to a maximum of two others, they would have been within U.S. law. I could be wrong, as I am relying on my memory.

    All the worlds record companies, and most of the worlds musicians are firmly against the downloading of music which is illegal in all the countries that are at the forefront of this downloading, though it is true that Nigeria and the Falkland Islands are yet to pass opinion on the matter. I would challenge you to produce the name of five musicians of public note, who defend their fans right to illegally ( I am in North America ) download their music. Are their opinions to be ingnored, the very ones who create the music?

    I wouldn't want people illegally downloading my music either. I would want the royalties. I write software for a living. Of course, I don't want people copying my software. I want the dough. That said, I have no strong objection to people making personal copies of software. I don't have any illegal copies myself simply because I have a hangover morality from the days when software piracy was considered by everyone to be morally wrong. Also, the sources I have for any illegal software on the planet are likely to plant a nasty virus in the illegal copy. Another reason is that my business is best ran if I stay well within the law. That said, I know people are going to copy my software. So I charge enough that I make money anyway. And the illegal copies are advertising. If I desire, I can put in copy protection to minimize the amount of illegal copying. As for businesses losing money, well the software industry suffers from people writing software for free. Much high quality, fully featured software is available legally for nothing. The GNU Project is a good example of this. Try to compete with that. Yet we do. For the record, I currently have no unpaid for copies of music, except for a Celine Dion CD that was in my CD drive when I bought my computer. It is obviously a home-made copy. Do I download music from the net? Of course. And half or more of what I get is crap. Seriously, store-bought music is much better. The rest of it I tire of listening to after a while and delete. When I get a CD burner I will probably burn them on to CDs. But for now, I delete them to save on disk space. Am I a hypocrite for my view? Yes. I figured I would just admit that up front. The truth is, my view on copying most things is mixed, inconsistent and hypocritical.

    Incidentally, people do not steal because they won't get caught, people steal because they are thieves. It is after they have stolen that they then hope that they will not get caught.
    Only the stupid ones worry about getting caught after the crime is committed. There are always the percentage who are just plain old-fashioned criminals. For the average person, I think there are several reasons why they would commit an illegal act. 1) They don't know it is a crime. I honestly believe that it is legal to download music using Kazaa. Though I haven't checked Canadian law about this. 2) It is not normally considered morally wrong by them and/or their community. Illegal copying of music has always fallen into that category. As has taking home a pen from the office. People who would shamelessly tape music off the radio or a TV program using their VCR may not illegally copy software. Weird, but true. 3) They consider it to be a "minor" crime and think they can get away with it. Speeding is an example of this. 4) The penalities if caught are low. 5) They can screw the government or a big corporation somehow. That is the old "they deserve it" or "it won't hurt them" reasoning. 6) The argument that if everyone is honest, prices will go down and people will get richer is bogus. First, not everyone is going to become honest. Second, prices are set by the law of supply and demand. Businesses will not lower prices as long as people will pay the price asked. Thirdly, if people stopped downloading music, most would not purchase the CD anyway. True, if everyone became honest tomorrow, musicians would gain a little. But not by a lot, because lots of people just would not buy the CD. Those who would likely purchase it now anyway.
    I am a little baffled by this statement as it does not even get near to the heart of the matter of whether stealing from 'greedy' record companies which people do because it is easy, is actually any different from stealing from any another large 'greedy' corporations which deal in other commodities, such as electricty, phramaceuticals, motor cars etc. etc. Are you suggesting that CD's should be attached to the mains and if not paid for discharge enough voltage to kill a person...lol I hope not as it seems that you would be the only person to survive that particular ritual...

    No, there is little difference, other than people's perceptions. Your solution to the issue of illegal copying is interesting though. I feel for the musicians who craft their music and lose some of their profits to illegal copying. I feel for the software developers who craft their software and lose some of their profits to illegal copying. And no, I don't feel strongly enough about it to stop downloading music. Both need to find a business model that works because illegal copying will always be here. Perhaps someday and encoding method will be developed that eliminates casual copying. Sophisticated copying cannot be stopped. Richard

  • No Apologies
    No Apologies

    Hilary

    Not one person seems to have tackled this issue of why they are not stealing from the ‘greedy peddlars of gas, electricity, motor vehicles etc. etc.

    Ok, I'll bite. If I steal your gas or your car, that means I have it and you don't. I can use it however I like, and you have ben deprived of the use of said item. If I copy a mp3 file from someone else's computer to mine, he still has it. I have not deprived him of anything. He is no poorer now than he was before I copied the file. I can make a million copies and it will not affect him in the least.

    So how is that stealing?

    Also, you seem to assume that without record sales, artists will starve to death or be forced to *gasp* give up their musical aspirations. So how do you explain the fact that music has been popular for centuries without the benefit of music stores. Somehow Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, etc all managed to write some of the world's greatest music without selling a single album.

  • hillary_step
    hillary_step

    NoApologies,

    Thank you for your comments. I will start with your last point:

    Somehow Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, etc all managed to write some of the world's greatest music without selling a single album.

    Are you serious? These composers had benefactors that included Kings, Queens, Universities, Conservatoires, and individual benefactors. They also toured almost non-stop throughout Europe and some even further and most became very rich indeed by this potent money-making mix. I would like to see how long Mozart, or Mahler would tolerate their music being 'ripped' before they disembowelled the perpetrator with a conducting wand! How can you possibly compare the bicycle to the motor car. The both share wheels it is true, but that is where the similarities end.

    Ok, I'll bite. If I steal your gas or your car, that means I have it and you don't. I can use it however I like, and you have ben deprived of the use of said item. If I copy a mp3 file from someone else's computer to mine, he still has it.

    That you have focused on stealing something physical as opposed to copyright ( the right to allow copy ) theivery does not undermine my argument in that you are taking something from a person that you do not have the right to possess. Their express permission, either by mutual agreement, or by entering a purchase agreement with them or their representatives, in this case the record companies, is required to validate your ownership. In the case of ripped off MP3's this has not been granted.Your argument is unsound as you have decided what is legal in these cicrumstances and you have no right to do so.

    Also, you seem to assume that without record sales, artists will starve to death or be forced to *gasp* give up their musical aspirations. So how do you explain the fact that music has been popular for centuries without the benefit of music stores.

    Please note my point at the start of my post. I do not assume that artists will 'starve to death' or need to give up their 'musical aspirations' by having their work stolen. You assumed that I assume that, by putting words into my mouth to strengthen a weak argument! I did say however, because I have seen this first hand, that musicians are damaged financially by those who do not properly understand the mechanics of the trade stealing their music.

    Best regards - HS

  • Pleasuredome
    Pleasuredome

    hilary

    have you ever borrowed or lent a cd/tape/vinyl to/from anyone ever?

  • Abaddon
    Abaddon

    h_s;

    lol...Which shows as much about your ethics than it does those of the greedy corporations.

    Judgemental, aren’t we? How about the fact you are basing your ‘ethics’ on a set of laws that was passed to take advantage of technology and that these laws are now completely unenforceable due to new technology? Do you know what sumptuary laws are? They are obsolete too. And what about the law regarding London Taxi drivers needing to keep a bale of hay in the back of their cab? Mmm… that is obsolete too. Does that mean me wearing corduroy is immoral, or that taxi drivers san bales of hay have no ethics? Of course not. Equation of commercial law of a certain period with morality is very shakey at the best of times, utterly facile at others.

    h_s, your whole argument is that it is against the law and the law is right.

    That is an opinion if ever I heard one. You’re welcome to your opinion, but to judge others moral worth on that opinion is taking it a little too far!!

    The law is outmoded, and a gravy train that could exist because that is the way technology was for a few decades is not something to base the future on. Why not walk in front of motor cars with a red flag?!

    we are speaking about the equivalent of stealing a genuine Rolex from a Rolex factory.

    Utter rubbish (that’s MY opinion). File sharing is an effortless costless transaction that the artists are not even necessarily aware of. Your comparison is invalid. You might contend with ‘costless’, as you will say it reduces sales, but the research even on this is mixed as the overall downturn in music sales (caused by any number of things from it being an ‘Oh my god where’s the next Nirvana music is sooooooooooooooo boring’ period to computer games and internet surfing) makes it hard to draw any decent stats from it.

    All I can say is there is now a whole generation of people out there who think music comes free, and in the final event that can only damage musicians and the art of music.

    All I can say is that there are a whole generation of musicians and record company executives who think that the laws a particular set of circumstances allowed which lead to the accumulation of immense wealth by some should carry on unchanged, even if those laws are unenforceable and outmoded, and that amazingly some members of the public get fooled by their press releeases due to a simplistic viewpoint.

    In the final event these muscians and record company people are only interested in their own backs, and many of the arguments they make about musicians means THEM, not average working musicians who would not be effected by such a change of law. Hell, many musicians would benefit by the record industry moving from a monolithic dinosaur making millions for corporations and the few to individually run affairs run by artists for themselves with all profits going to them. It might mean no more mega bands, but so what? We're talking about music, not sex, size doesn't matter!

    As to playing live, well this works very well for the big stars who are rich anyway from record sales anyway, but most musicians do not fall into this league. There are only so many venues that can be played on the road before fatigue sets in, and clearing $500 per night after expenses is not exactly the American Dream...lol

    DUH! This is the ‘for a few decades it’s been possible to be very rich if you are very lucky in the music industry, this is now an unalienable right’ argument, and it sucks. No one makes people become musicians; if they don't like the conditions of work, they can do something else. $500 a night sounds good to me; if I could do it 50 times a year I'd quit my full time job as I'd far rather have a work once a week lifestyle with some cash limitations than a lots of money but no time doing the 9-6 lifestyle.

    Big Tex, exactly the poiunt I was maing about outmoded laws and desperate corporation protecting their business models against the inevitable; good examples!

  • foreword
    foreword

    Musicians welcome new technology, we are not against the downloading of music. To the contrary we see this as a much better way to communicate our art with the world.

    Many of us rejoice of the fact that record labels are losing money cause of this new medium. We are even happy that consumers have access to music easily. But we are still on the losing end of this battle. We are still being shafted, but by a different group.

    Francois brought up a good point earlier when he said that the prices for music don't make sense, and he's right, and musicians also feel that way too.

    A solution will need to arise from all this, otherwise there's no way in hell that consumers will have access to the constant flow of music they are accustomed to if musicians can't recuperate the investments they've made. Unless of course you wish to own a library of oldies and outdated music.

    The problem lies in the financiers of this art. These middlemen will have to disappear, cause they expect too much return on investment. Presently they are the ones negotiating and fighting so that they are not removed. Their negotiations are never in the interest of the art but in their own interest. And that's why musicians are so pissed, we know the workings of record labels, and history is proof of that.

    Talk to the beatles, ccr, rolling stones...and I could keep going forever in the list...they will tell you stories of abuse, extortion and deception.

    Musicians are artists and by nature not very money hungry, all we care about is the satisfaction of making music and enjoying the fact that people can listen to what we've created. But when we see ourselves being exploited, while others drive fancy cars, and we get shit from it all....well.... draw your own conclusions.

    When we call the consumers thieves, we only say this in hopes that they will join our battle against the labels. We provide a product that is enjoyable for you guys, so at least, agree with us.

    When the day comes, when music will be shared without the help of greedy record labels, you'll see that musicians and artists were not the ones to be greedy after all.

  • hillary_step
    hillary_step

    Abbadon,

    Judgemental, aren’t we?

    Judge me as judgemental if you wish, though this is rather judgemental of you....lol Your whole argument Abbadon, seems to be summed up in this statement :

    - The laws involved in protecting the interests of musical recording are outmoded and not in line with presently available technology, therefore it is fine to break them.

    You note :

    h_s, your whole argument is that it is against the law and the law is right. - That is an opinion if ever I heard one. You’re welcome to your opinion, but to judge others moral worth on that opinion is taking it a little too far!!

    Laws may be open to opinion, but they are laws nonethless and it is not just a matter of opinion as to which ones we obey and which ones we do not. Heaven forbid that should be the case. I am rather surprised at the weakness of your arguments Abbadon. You normally put on a better show.

    As it is, my whole argument is NOT 'that it is against the law and the law is right', and I suspect you have not read my many posts on this thread very carefully. My arguments are far more complex and if you read my posts you will note my concerns of the damage being done to individual performers and the rights that they have over their own intellectual property. The Law recognizes the danger, and has done with the published word for over a century where the plaigerism and theiving of intellectual property is concerned. This is what is happening with the present situation of music 'swapping' over the Internet.

    Utter rubbish (that’s MY opinion). File sharing is an effortless costless transaction that the artists are not even necessarily aware of. Your comparison is invalid. You might contend with ‘costless’, as you will say it reduces sales, but the research even on this is mixed as the overall downturn in music sales (

    It might not surprise you to know that I am going to disagree with your opinion...lol If you read the posts that involved the 'Rolex' illustration, the writer based his argument on cheap knock-offs'. My argument is that what is being produced in ripping mp3's is not a 'cheap knock-off' it is the real Mcoy. The word 'copy' is the only thing this argument has in common with what is happening to musicians songs, and this word is being misused.

    Your statement regarding a mixed result on the effect of unathorised copying of music over the Internet is again mistaken. It does reduce sales, the figures speak for themselves. Market polling has been taken in most developed countries and the people who are taking this music from the Internet, themselves admit that since doing so, they purchase fewer CD's.

    Very few musicians that I have met in my life are interested in money above art. Record companies are just corporations, greedy and selfish as are most megalithic empires. They differ not one iota in their core values than drug companies, motor vehicle companies, oil companies and the rest. The argument that I attacked is one that states it is fine to take from record companies because they are greedy. Nobody seems to offer a similar defence for these other companies. If you cannot see an unethical self-justification here, then there is no hope.

    What you also have not focused on is this issue is that apart from Law, the musicians view ripping off mp3's of their work as stealing ( remember I issued a challenge for five names of well known musicians who agree with this activity ), the record companies view it as stealing from them, it seems the only people who do not view it as stealing are the fans.

    DUH! This is the ‘for a few decades it’s been possible to be very rich if you are very lucky in the music industry, this is now an unalienable right’ argument, and it sucks. No one makes people become musicians; if they don't like the conditions of work, they can do something else. $500 a night sounds good to me; if I could do it 50 times a year I'd quit my full time job as I'd far rather have a work once a week lifestyle with some cash limitations than a lots of money but no time doing the 9-6 lifestyle.

    The statement quoted above reveals two things about yourself Abbadon. You do not read other peoples posts carefully before you answer them and that you have a woeful ignorance as have had some others on this thread of the music industry. Let me re-iterate for the third time that touring with music has a fatigue factor attached to it that does not allow for it to be excercised at will and that $500.00 on which tax and air flights are paid is less that $500.00. DUH! This is my business Abbadon, I have experience on my side. Music tours are expensive, take a tremendous amount of behind the scenes activity and cannot just be undertaken fifty times a year when a person needs to pay for their bills. Perhaps if you played a small club, on your doorstep you might, but do you think you would fill it regularly...lol As to the urban myth of all musicians being 'very rich' in the pre-internet days and now expecting it as a right, I will not even bother answering this point as I am sure that on second thoughts you will see the weakness of your argument. It again shows a very limited internal knowledge of the industry.

    I have highlighted a section of your quote which has nothing to do with the issue at hand, is a rather silly argument and one with which many irate management groups have tried hitting union negotiators around the head with for decades. I hope that you consider retracting this statement.

    Anyway, nice chatting to you. I always quit threads when I find that I am wasting time repeating myself. This indicates that either I am not explaining myself very well, or that we are all fixed in our respective positions. If either of these notions are the case then no more can be said than has been said, so I will bugga 'orf now.

    Best regards - HS

    Pleasuredome,

    Yes, I have borrowed CD's, tapes etc. This has nothing to do with the issue at hand. If I were to make copies of the CD that I borrowed, then it would, just as it would copying software that does not belong to me with a view to cheating the companies who manufacture it.

    HS

    edited to include an additional paragraph.

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