Yes but an Ipad can't rip a CD to lossless in 4 minutes like my desktop's drive. An Ipad doesn't have a very large hard drive either. All those lossless files are big.

HAHA yeah, even though out of my 50,000 tracks a small number of them are from RIAA owned labels. I'd like to see the Japanese labels try to sue me for downloading their music.

But if I bought the music I would have bought a CD and gotten lossless files. Surely there is some inherent benefit there to buying. Of course certain sites make it just as easy to pirate lossless files, in which case $2.97 a song is reasonable. Too bad though for the person who has pirated 20,000 songs because they still would owe around $60,000. Also what about the pirate who downloads songs from albums with 50 tracks like a soundtrack album? Shouldn't that downloading be converted into buying the album three times for a total of anywhere between $45 and $60 rather than paying $150?

One thing I would like to see is some defendant where the RIAA sues someone who uses downloading to sample and buys a ton of albums each year. The RIAA can't as easily suggest that by downloading music a person is hurting the industry if that same downloader is actually buying way more music than the average consumer.

The article mentions both piracy and the sale of counterfeited goods. However, it is unclear if this simply stops web sites selling bootleg copies of movies, or also allows shutting down of sites where people post movies (through torrents or direct downloads). If it is about shutting down web sites where counterfeited movies are sold then I am all for it, provided they fix the inherent due process problem. At least if you are going to get a court order, do it in the form of an injunction so you have to show likelihood of success in some other suit still pending.

Just as the declarations of international human rights in the past, even if this is passed, it will be another silly international resolution with no binding effect on individual countries. While I agree with the purpose of this law more than the international declaration on human rights, it doesn't make this any less pointless. I would certainly like to see countries stop regulating the internet but there has to be a better way to go about protecting individual internet freedoms.

Only if you are a dude.

Bah so if I read this article correctly, all those times I spent shortcutting the annoying puzzles I face in RPGs set me up to forever struggle with the same puzzles when presented to me until I actually try to figure them out! Its no wonder I still reach for the guide book. The positive of this article though is what I think many knew instinctively is confirmed; by challenging yourself with a task to determine the answer yourself, you actually remember that answer better. [Of course one would hope you formulated the correct answer in the process otherwise you would be filling your head with wrong answers.] I for one have always avoided the use of those blasted GPS navs because I lack the visualization necessary to understand how far 500 feet or 1/2 miles is when the voice tells me my turn will be X feet away. This of course keeps me driving the way I should be if I want to build a mental image of the streets I travel so I use google maps to find out where my destination is and then make my own map for getting there.

I agree, this is sad and not likely to be very beneficial. If I heard this poor of a recording in anything as a soundtrack I would laugh at the creator for using such poor recordings. I would rather not listen to anything than this drivel.

This is interesting but I am surprised that there is even a demand online for people to download bollywood films. I think any web site who refuses to comply with a takedown notice deserves what they get.

Music is the most likely to be pirated also because taste in music is much more personal than movies or video games and it is far more difficult to rely on reviews to determine if something is going to be worth checking out. Usually I can tell from a movie trailer and a few reviews if a movie is worth watching. This is a one-time payment for a single experience that I can easily skip on and watch the same movie on Netflix down the road if I choose. Video games are usually pretty easy to predict if you will like it by checking out the numerous gameplay videos and video reviews out there that tell you exactly what you are getting into with the game. Music, on the other hand, is much more difficult to review or predict if you will like a new release even if you are a fan of the group. Plus, unlike movies and video games where there is essentially one mainstream avenue of releases that is easy to follow, various labels are releasing music constantly and users don't always know what is coming out. I find it is much easier to find what new releases are out there by browsing a web site that provides downloads than any single online web site. Sure certain specialized sites are sufficient when it comes to niche genres of music and following their new releases page can sometimes be enough but I feel like I am more likely to ignore a great new group if I just use the traditional outlets. On the movie and video game side of things there are fairly reliable web sites that tell you what new releases are out on a given week and what is coming down the pipeline.

Well I listen to a variety of genres of music and I buy movie soundtracks, anime and video game soundtracks, heavy metal, hard rock, and japanese pop/rock etc. As I mentioned in the first post, some of the labels, especially those releasing older movie soundtracks usually limited edition stuff tend to give plenty of samples that I could easily determine if it was for me by sampling what is provided. However, the labels that put out soundtracks from new movies and TV rarely have many samples posted. Varese Sarabande used to post four or five decent length samples on their web site from a new release but has stopped posting samples altogether. Anything I buy of Japanese origin I will download first just because of the cost of importing. Most Japanese bands frequently release singles in anticipation of a new album but they aren't always represented on the album. Then finally there is heavy metal [I use loosely to include all types of metal I enjoy] in which most labels will provide one track to sample if you are lucky and a few bands who are more independent might post three tracks on their myspace page. I have been lucky that a few of the recent albums I bought based upon the one track available turned out to be good. In my experience bands who are independent enough that they post a ton of music on myspace and youtube I probably wouldn't know were releasing music unless I stumbled upon them somewhere. Those types of artists would benefit from illegal downloading because the user who sees a familiar poster putting up a debut album has the benefit of their past with the uploader and might check it out when they might otherwise ignore it.

Music stores? I don't think those exist much around here anymore. Even if they did, I doubt they would carry much of the metal and rock I would want to sample. From my experience when I tried to go to the few stores that still sell CDs they don't stock the music in the store but tell me to order it off their web site.

I really wish the music industry would realize how important it is to users to have an idea what they are getting before they buy it. I buy tons of music from small film music labels who put out limited edition soundtracks and they are by far the best when it comes to providing samples of their new releases. Film Score Monthly posts 1 minute clips for each track on their new release, in low bitrate but at least it usually gives me a good idea what I am getting into. Labels should provide moderate bitrate (192kbps) streams of the music online (or at least half of a new album) and offer lossless downloads for a reasonable price and users wouldn't need to download as much. As it is, most of the time I find the only way to discover a new group is to download an unknown album and give it a listen. I've purchased a number of debut albums and albums from independent artists after downloading their music if I find that it is impressive. There is way too much music out there to do otherwise and still have the finances to support quality music. If labels provided better samples, I would be able to discover the same groups without resorting to downloads.

I wonder how many of these people are subscribers of netflix and could validly wait and rent it as part of their monthly fee they pay but just download it because the dvd release is delayed pointlessly compared with the release of the academy award screeners. Haven't they realized by now that by making users wait a long time to see the movie that everyone is talking about, those same users are going to download the movie online rather than wait for it to be available on DVD or Blu-Ray? I know with these stupid agreements with movie companies to delay DVD availability on netflix in the hopes of getting me to buy it, I prefer to stick it to the stupid companies and download it earlier rather than waiting.