is it worth the risk
Are any of you concerned about the recent intiative of the music industry to try and stop free music downloads? They have recieved records from internet service providers and are hunting people down. A 12 year girl got sued and her parents had to pay $1000 per song, or something to that effect, and that is only one of the first people that will be sued by the record industry. Are you going to continue downloading or or are you going to stop.
lol they made her pay 2 dollars a song, which came out to 2,000 dollars. My friends friend got sued for 9 billion, but the judge told the RIAA that they were retarded and lowered it to 15,000. which is still a large amount.
I dont care either way really, Im not buying the music of these manufactured pop stars with no talent. I think the only creative minds that are still around are the people who were here before britney and all them came on the scene. Linkin Park and Evanescense are all that remain of the new school talent.
Originally posted by SaTsuJiN
lol they made her pay 2 dollars a song, which came out to 2,000 dollars. My friends friend got sued for 9 billion, but the judge told the RIAA that they were retarded and lowered it to 15,000. which is still a large amount.I dont care either way really, Im not buying the music of these manufactured pop stars with no talent. I think the only creative minds that are still around are the people who were here before britney and all them came on the scene. Linkin Park and Evanescense are all that remain of the new school talent.
hahaha 9 BILLION?? YOU WERE KIDDING RIGHT!? HAHAH smart judge
Unless you are a heavy abuser..........you have nothing to worry about. Every person they have targeted so far has downloaded 1000+ songs..........they're going for the habitual downloaders, the big fish if you will. In the last year I've probably downloaded 15 songs.......if that. When people are downloading 1000+ songs, they are clearly music fiends and would purchase the music if no free downloads were available on the internet. I believe they should be sued. Like I said........unless you are downloading hundreds of songs and basically spending your life with a set of headphones on, you shouldn't have anything to worry about.
Re: is it worth the risk
I verily couldn't write the words I am thinking to describe my contempt for record companies right now. If I did, the mods would probably eject me from the board, and the church would excommunicate me. However I can say this for sure: record companies are only interested in one thing. one thing only MONEY CASH DINERO LOOT POUNDS LIRR SHEKLES (sp?) They're pissed off cuz their fat bloated gelatinous underworked overpaid arrogant hideous asses are losing money from record sales. Then they have the nerve to come out and say that they are the victims here because they have been cheated out of a few million dollars. Please you low class high brow sleight handed cultural wasteland! You make hundreds of millions of dollars in a week! I just saw a commercial that incessed me to no end. It was like 45 seconds of workers in the music and movie industry telling the camera what their job was with their name in little print on the screen. The end of all the clips was some narrator saying "when you pirate music you hurt the little guys" or something along those lines.... Oh please!
It's funny though. The situation the record companies are in they totally brought upon themselves with the digital revolution. I was told that when CD's first came out, the industry was pushing them like crazy. They didn't even give people a choice in the matter. DIGITAL IS THE WAY OF THE FUTURE!!(I wouldn't know I was but a wee spermling). They were right, and I got nothing against digital. I'm so for it, and here's why: CD's are mere pennies to make. especially if you buy them in bulk and pretty cheap to write (hell anyone can aquire the tech to write CD's now adays), yet how much did you pay for the new Missy CD? Ohhhhhhhh now do you get my drift? How much did you pay for that CD, compared to how much is it to manufacture a CD complete with jewel case and what not? Not to mention, the more you CD's manufactured the cheaper it is for the maker. I couldn't give exact numbers but I can tell you who got the short end of that stick. More on the next page...
Ok my point is the industry screwed itself by switching to digital because it's so easy to manufacture and make, that ANYONE can do it. And they did. Instead of buying CD's cats would copy from other people. Well that was cool, because someone, somewhere had to buy at least one cd for people to copy. Then the internet came along, sure the internet costs $$ but the information you get off it doesn't. So what happens now? You don't even have to buy CD's. So where does this leave the record companies, well hmmm where do they make all their profit? Off records. "Well record sales are down. This is a disturbing trend". Why are they down? "Piracy". Well we have control over the artists, TV, radio, magazines and what not, but this internet this free (key word) exchange of info, is posing a threat to our monopoly. Well the next obvious step is to control the internet. That mei amico is where we are right now. The industry wants to control the internet because it's the leak in their airtight seal to get any and every cent thats invested into anything musical. THEY WANT TO LIMIT OUR OPTIONS SO THAT WE HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO GIVE THEM OUR MONEY . They don't give a damn about art, what art is, or what art was, the only question they have is: Is art marketable? What about his cousin? But hey that's show biz!
#1. It IS stealing................no need to try to reason, stealing is wrong no matter who it's from. General Motors is a huge company but I don't go around stealing cars simply because GM has alot of money and I don't.
" record companies are only interested in one thing. one thing only MONEY CASH DINERO LOOT POUNDS LIRR SHEKLES (sp?) They're pissed off cuz their fat bloated gelatinous underworked overpaid arrogant hideous asses are losing money from record sales. Then they have the nerve to come out and say that they are the victims here because they have been cheated out of a few million dollars."
You said it...."record companies"......the purpose of company is to make money. The people who work for that company be it band, public relations, accountant, or CEO.........they all come into work every day and put their hours in. Why? To make money to support themselves and their families. Where does this money come from to pay these employees? It comes from the profit generated by the product they manufacture (just like every other company in the world), which in this case is recorded music. A loss in profit does directly affect the company. It affect employess pay (especially those with bonus incentives), it lessens the amount of money available for production of sed product, and it lessens the amount of money available to hire new employees (new bands) to produce their product....it also lessens the amount of money available to promote their product.
#2. "It was like 45 seconds of workers in the music and movie industry telling the camera what their job was with their name in little print on the screen. The end of all the clips was some narrator saying "when you pirate music you hurt the little guys" or something along those lines.... Oh please!"
When one person does it........you are correct, it does not affect the little guys. Sadly, one person is not doing this. Millions of people are doing this which is hurting the production companies.........and even crippling the smaller companies that aren't music industry giants like WB or Interscope.
Have you ever watched an indie film or bought an underground album? These are not produced by big companies. What if they produced their movie/album but nobody bought it? Everybody downloaded it for free. These small companies go out of business.......because they are earning no profit. When an indie record label goes out of business........it has to get rid of it's employees. These are all the management employees, aswell as the producers they use..........hell, even the roadies for the bands they have signed. Those are the little people who get hurt by this.
What if this whole scenerio had happened 15 years ago? There would have been no Epitaph records........no Death Row records......no Lookout records........no Suburban Noize records....no Sub Pop records........as these all started as very tiny labels who depended on every single album sale to stay alive. Now think of the albums these labels have produced and which bands they've jump started the careers of................you would have probably heard of these groups later on because they are talented but then again, if these labels hadn't given them their first shot they may have never gotten a shot. Groups like Rancid and Offspring (Epitaph records), Screeching Weasel and Green Day (Lookout Records), Snoop Doggy Dogg and Kurrupt (Death Row Records), Nirvana (Sup Pop Records), Kottonmouth Kings and The Corporate Avenger (Suburban Noize Records).
#3. "The situation the record companies are in they totally brought upon themselves with the digital revolution. I was told that when CD's first came out, the industry was pushing them like crazy. They didn't even give people a choice in the matter."
You have been sadly misinformed. Compact Discs came out in the mid eighties......around '85. It was the new hi-tech thing.......and because so not only were the CDs expensive but we're talking about $800 for the most basic of a CD player. They did not begin to gain in popularity untill ther early nineties.......when the cost began to drop. They were still running number 2 to cassette tapes untill the mid-late nineties. The CD revolution didn't really happen untill about '96 when CD sales began to outnumber cassette tape sales. That was a full decade after the CD had been produced.
Maybe your friend was thinking of DVD players.........that is the only format that has ever been invented to just overtake the previous format in a few years. The BetaMax held it's ground longer against VHS than VHS held against DVDs.
#4. The music industry does not wish to control the internet. They only wish to control their property, which is the product they spend their money to manufacture, which is the music they produce. This is why all movies and albums are copyrighted.......hey, guess what.......so are all books. How about that. Do you think it would be okay for somebody to take the next John Grisham novel and photo copy it and give it to people for free so they wouldn't buy his book? Call it sharing if you will but you aren't loaning your copy to somebody......you are creating another copy when you download a song........which would be the same as photo copying John Grisham's new novel. Ofcourse it would be stealing money right out of his pocket wouldn't it. He took the time out of his life to write a story...........his publisher took the time and money to press, publish, and promote the book............then everybody should get it for free? um....no.
#5. By reading your two replies I've come to a conclusion. You do not see the big picture. You think of musicians as big rock stars. You think of Record Companies as being one of the big 4 record companies......ofcourse all of these guys are filthy rich so you don't feel bad about stealing from them.
Let me let you in a little secret. For every big rock star there is with an album.........there are 500 small musicians to are living dirt poor with all of their bandmates in a roach infested apartment while trying to get a big record deal. They depend on every single dollar they can get from selling one of their cds just so they can buy food and pay their rent.
For every big corporate music recording company there is (basically 4 + their subsidiaries) there are literally HUNDREDS of small indie record labels who literally depend on the money from every cd sold just to stay in business allowing their employees to keep their jobs which feeds their families. If you download their music and don't buy the cds.......the company is no longer in business and cannot make more music.....and cannot earn money to live.
You need to stop thinking of the top 10% of the music industry which is filthy rich. Look at the big picture. I'm sure you have local bands where you live, I know I do here. Do they look filthy rich when you go to your local bar to see them play? I think not........they all have regular jobs because they can't make enough money to live on by playing music alone. Now you want people to not even buy their cds.......you think people should get their music for free?
When I was young I copied music off the raido and made tapes
Then I was able to buy albums and I made mix tapes for all my friends, even for girlfriends, soft romantic music yaknow...
So how is now different? Technology? Morals? Values?
I download music to make mix CD's now and I will not stop
To get me off the radar I turned off my file sharing option
I disagree............the public does not need to know their names, only their local communties and record label scouts need to know their names. It does a musician no good at all for the public to know who they are if the public refuses to buy their albums because they are downloading them for free. Not to mention that you d/l songs off Kazaa because you are wanting a song........you have to type in what you are looking for. If you do not know who the band is, how would you know one of their songs to look for it? Even then, as I said........how would that be doing the band any good if you are stealing their music for free and not purchasing their product. Sure you'd know the name of the band who's music you're stealing is........but that wouldn't really do the band any good.
there are a few bands that i have found on kazzaa that have become my favorite, were it not for kazzaa i never would have found them and bought their cd's. Getting a bands name into the public is crucial, this is obvious and i dont understand how you can try to argue against it, obviously the more people who know about them, the more people will buy their cd's. simple really. and as far as the whole stealing from the record companies thing goes... yes, technically its stealing, but it in no way captures the spirit thought of when you think of stealing. The songs are being provided and delivered to you for a more reasonable price then the record companies sell the same items for. Not only this, but i feel the record companies are soley responsable for all this. Thye have no interest in making good quality music anymore, all they care about is money, STEALING money from thje public buy raising record prices for sub-standard music. as i said before, if they record companies want people to stop pirating music, then they should start producing music that is worth the publics hard earned money. if not, then they get what they have coming to them.
and diegocalo has a great point, the bands get like 50 cents for every cd sold, the rest goes to the company. the bands main profit comes from revenue made from live shows and such. thus kazzaa helping to get their name to the public will probably bring more people to their shows, thus helping them.