piracy, yay or nay?
 

what do you buy, pirated software,games,dvd's,music or originals?
personally, as far as dvds are concerned, only originals ( the pirated stuff is usually bad quality and i do love them dvd boxes )

as far as music goes, a slightly different situation, and as a rule i first download all of my music ( bittorent style ) and only if i really like the album i buy it, and i buy all albums i really like....eventually.....( i'm not loaded so i can't buy them all at once )

software and games, all pirated, i don't believe i have a single peace of software that's legal, why? i don't have that kind of money, microsoft word costs like 200$ or summat, not to mention corel, photoshop and the likes.....200$ or 3$...hmmm.....toughy......

i'd be bancrupt if i actually bought all of it....also, i think software and games are horribly overpriced, if they nocked down the prices i'm sure there wold be much less pirated software arround...

oh, and you can try to explain that piracy is steeling till you're blue in the face but i just can't feel guilty for not making bill gates richer....sorry.....i'm not feeling it....intellectual property just isn't tangible enough for me to feel like i'm actually stealing.....

I am against piracy. I think it takes away from the quality and destroyes the intent of making the movie/game/music in the first place. To spend alot of time and money on something just to see it stolen is very very lame.


I agree that prices are very high, but if no one pirated softwate, music, etc. the prices would fall and competition would drive them down further. It's simple market economics.

It is only within the past year that I have begun downloading (stealing) music because it is so far gone now that it really is not going to make a difference. If someone asks me if I download I am always ashamed to say yes, however if I am at a show I will usually buy a CD and a shirt just to support the band.

I have come to the conclusion that the advent of downloading has presented us with a double edged sword:

1) the artists that we like are not being compensated for the music that they are making for us to enjoy

2) there are more artists to be discovered via the internet which allows us more variety in our choices.

As for Pop Music, unless legislation is made against piracy there will be no such thing as a platinum album and the measure of a bands greatness (poor choice of words, I apologise) will dwindle in numbers. I forget how many units MJ's Thriller sold but nothing will ever reach that point of popularity again.
The byproduct of this is that the record companies are going to be shoving a million gimmicky bands at us regardless of musical substance because of the way they look and the marketability of their attitude and fashions.

WE HAVE CREATED A MONSTER

In my country the normal monthly wage is 200 USD. I think this kinda explains it all ...

haha...well put, well put.....it's a bit higher in my country ( say 500$ ) but the software, cd, dvd and game prices are the same as if it were some rich western country.....

I worked in record and music stores for about 8 years - Needless to say, I got A LOT of free CD's. I became very used to not paying for my music. So, when I stopped working at those places, I started downloading. I still buy my music (whether it's from a CD store, or from iTunes), but I do download a good majority through file-sharing (mainly Limewire).

At it's core, downloading is illegal - which essentially makes it wrong. But, do I feel guilty? Hell no! I don't feel bad for for the artists, and I certainly do not feel bad for the labels.

Artists get paid good money when they make a record deal (assuming its a good deal) with the label(s), and from shows / performances / appearances. Labels make tons of money not only from CD sales, but also from licensing rights, appearances, videos, etc.

And take a look at who's shouting from the rooftops and complaining the most about downloading and/or file-sharing? It's usually the big labels (BMG, Sony, etc) and the big bands / artists (Metallica, Dr. Dre, etc) In other words, the people who are at the top, and want to stay there.

On the other hand, artists who are trying to get to where the "big boys" already are, want one thing first and foremost… They want people to listen to their music - That's it. Which is why, in many cases, artists are willing to give it away for free - and don't usually give a sh*t if people share.

And why should anyone trust the record labels? They rape the independent music retailers (who are the ones that got them to where there are now), while catering to the "big box" stores who sell their products at a loss in hopes that the music consumer will also buy a big-screen TV from them? Not only that, but as we now know, they secretly embedded anti-piracy software without telling the buying public, in hopes of nabbing the "evil" music-sharers… which makes no sense, since in most cases, it also happened to be the same person that just put $20 into their pockets.

If you ask me, it's yet another case of corporate hypocrisy.

^ it all depends on who you're downloading. If it's from a small homegrown label than that is simply not the case. If it's Columbia or Sony or some other monster label, than I'd agree that they won't miss the song. But at it's core it is an illegal act.

I don`t buy all this 'I only download from major labels' stuff.

In actual fact bands on major labels who don`t sell millions of albums are worse off than bands on small labels who sell around the same number of albums due to higher overheads.

There are lots of instances when a name indie band signs to a major puts out a couple of albums that just sell OK , and then split up.

is pirated like illegal, or bootlegged???

I buy when I can, but its not exactly that easy. For one, I have no money half the time, and for another, there isnt even a record shop in my town. We have a gazillion sport shops and butchers, but not a single record shop. Theres a HMV up in truro, but theres so many bands they dont sell that Im always being reccomended. If it wasnt for illegal downloading, these bands wouldnt get a mention half the time, therefore no one would buy their records, gig tickets or merchandise after deciding they like them through downloading their music.

Fook. That was longwinded.