Comment Re:Donating to freenet will not solve anything (Score 2, Insightful) 346
Partly saying "What the last guy said."
I must say I agree with him, and the comparision with lending a book is a good one, okay, there is only one hard copy of that book that is being exchanged, meaning that the author/publisher has been paod, whereas there could be any number of copies of files. But those files (say MP3s) came from original copies too...somebody bought the album and maybe converted the tracks either for personal use (I'm very protective of my CDs...some have only been used once...) or because they felt the stuff was so damn good other people might like it too.
I have often introduced friends to books, or have been introduced to books by friends which has led me to but the book even though I've read it at least once already, or else other books by the same author.
Equally so, when I have been lent CDs, often of bands who are quite unknown or whatever, I have been known to buy a copy (which is a rare thing, I hate buying CDs, they are so overpriced in this country...thankfully these underfunded bands sell their CDs at half the price of the overpriced ones, they even keep these prices when the artists hit it big (say, Damien Rice, though damn him for his B-Side extras and so on...).
Also, I do download things, such as mp3s or music videos. Generally of Japanese (but moreso, non-western artists), this is because about 5 years ago I simply gave up on the western music industry, I already have any worthy oldies and everything from underground to mainstream music was just hypocritical forms of the same crap. I had an interest in Japan and started by checking out some of it's artists...I downloaded quite a few mp3s, clips from live shows and music videos to get a good feel for the stuff, and fell in love with it. I then went to buy things by these artists, using the wonderful export site www.cdjapan.co.jp, and have now bought about $900 worth of stuff, maybe more, a lotof the stuff by the one artist in fact. I bought all I owned in originally "illegal" digital formats (though no laws existed to say that these were illegal in Europe at the time, though I believe the EU has decided to allow people to be deported, or certainly tried under US law), and more.
Now I said earlier, I am not someone who buys music, I liked music since a young age, had people buy me things as gifts and such, but in my entire life I have bought/been given a total of 4 albums and 2 singles (previous to import shopping sprees), I just felt buying music was a waste of money and overly costly (about 23 euros or more for an album, I am a student, I get about 30 euro a month for whatever wants I have, I always felt books made more worthwhile purchases).
However, because of downloading mp3s I found something that I loved and was prepared to shell out a lot of money for it, 30 second song bites would never have convinced me to get any of it. There are some artists I have yet to get hard copies of what I own, but when I have money in my hand it flies out quite quickly! Interestingly, it costs me as much to export an album (with DVD, which does up the price) all the way from Japan by EMS as to buy one in my local music shop.
The transfer of copy-righted things can result in the exchange of fair cash, not always, I'd say I'm a somewhat rare type. I know I did download some western music/rip friends' CDs, but I just deleted them...the stuff was just dreadful. But the thought that transfering mp3s takes from the industry's earnings is absolute tripe. I *never* was happy buying stuff, and the stuff I did download I would never have paid good money for. The industry is losing money (though I doubt it is), because people are disillusioned.
Also, to further go on with the comment that this started with...
If you walk into a store and steal anything, you get arrested (some call this bad luck!), and you will get some punishments. What is different here?
Have a read of (or skip to the summary if you're lazy) http://offtheshelf.nowis.com/index.cfm?ID=5 - if you still don't see the difference you're blind. Net crime is persecuted (and prosecuted) more severely than anything else, firstly, because it is more wide-spread, but also because it's a great explanation for the fall of the entertainment industry. Certainly an explanation they'd prefer to "All your music, movies and television programmes are utter shite, nobody wants them." The pressure has come on politcal/police groups to tackle things like file distribution, because of the appeals, whinges and complaints of the entertainment industry. A time ago people would bought out of curiosity, and be pleasantly surprised with their finds, these days people download out of curiosity, and keep it to show off the length of their winamp playlist.
I must say I agree with him, and the comparision with lending a book is a good one, okay, there is only one hard copy of that book that is being exchanged, meaning that the author/publisher has been paod, whereas there could be any number of copies of files. But those files (say MP3s) came from original copies too...somebody bought the album and maybe converted the tracks either for personal use (I'm very protective of my CDs...some have only been used once...) or because they felt the stuff was so damn good other people might like it too.
I have often introduced friends to books, or have been introduced to books by friends which has led me to but the book even though I've read it at least once already, or else other books by the same author.
Equally so, when I have been lent CDs, often of bands who are quite unknown or whatever, I have been known to buy a copy (which is a rare thing, I hate buying CDs, they are so overpriced in this country...thankfully these underfunded bands sell their CDs at half the price of the overpriced ones, they even keep these prices when the artists hit it big (say, Damien Rice, though damn him for his B-Side extras and so on...).
Also, I do download things, such as mp3s or music videos. Generally of Japanese (but moreso, non-western artists), this is because about 5 years ago I simply gave up on the western music industry, I already have any worthy oldies and everything from underground to mainstream music was just hypocritical forms of the same crap. I had an interest in Japan and started by checking out some of it's artists...I downloaded quite a few mp3s, clips from live shows and music videos to get a good feel for the stuff, and fell in love with it. I then went to buy things by these artists, using the wonderful export site www.cdjapan.co.jp, and have now bought about $900 worth of stuff, maybe more, a lotof the stuff by the one artist in fact. I bought all I owned in originally "illegal" digital formats (though no laws existed to say that these were illegal in Europe at the time, though I believe the EU has decided to allow people to be deported, or certainly tried under US law), and more.
Now I said earlier, I am not someone who buys music, I liked music since a young age, had people buy me things as gifts and such, but in my entire life I have bought/been given a total of 4 albums and 2 singles (previous to import shopping sprees), I just felt buying music was a waste of money and overly costly (about 23 euros or more for an album, I am a student, I get about 30 euro a month for whatever wants I have, I always felt books made more worthwhile purchases).
However, because of downloading mp3s I found something that I loved and was prepared to shell out a lot of money for it, 30 second song bites would never have convinced me to get any of it. There are some artists I have yet to get hard copies of what I own, but when I have money in my hand it flies out quite quickly! Interestingly, it costs me as much to export an album (with DVD, which does up the price) all the way from Japan by EMS as to buy one in my local music shop.
The transfer of copy-righted things can result in the exchange of fair cash, not always, I'd say I'm a somewhat rare type. I know I did download some western music/rip friends' CDs, but I just deleted them...the stuff was just dreadful. But the thought that transfering mp3s takes from the industry's earnings is absolute tripe. I *never* was happy buying stuff, and the stuff I did download I would never have paid good money for. The industry is losing money (though I doubt it is), because people are disillusioned.
Also, to further go on with the comment that this started with...
If you walk into a store and steal anything, you get arrested (some call this bad luck!), and you will get some punishments. What is different here?
Have a read of (or skip to the summary if you're lazy) http://offtheshelf.nowis.com/index.cfm?ID=5 - if you still don't see the difference you're blind. Net crime is persecuted (and prosecuted) more severely than anything else, firstly, because it is more wide-spread, but also because it's a great explanation for the fall of the entertainment industry. Certainly an explanation they'd prefer to "All your music, movies and television programmes are utter shite, nobody wants them." The pressure has come on politcal/police groups to tackle things like file distribution, because of the appeals, whinges and complaints of the entertainment industry. A time ago people would bought out of curiosity, and be pleasantly surprised with their finds, these days people download out of curiosity, and keep it to show off the length of their winamp playlist.
