Do YOU Steal Music??
"Don't Steal Music." So reads Apple's disclaimer for iTunes and iPod. Naturally, we all worship Steve as our God, but do we do as he says?
I for one do steal music.
I have a difficult time subscribing to the music industry's definition of theft. If anyone really wants to get into that debate, we could arrange it.
- Pook :cool:
I for one do steal music.
I have a difficult time subscribing to the music industry's definition of theft. If anyone really wants to get into that debate, we could arrange it.
- Pook :cool:
Comments
I am stealing music right now while listening to stolen music and burning a CD of stolen music. I'm also sharing all my stolen music with millions of other music thieves.
Warez, baby, all you can eat.
[ 12-08-2001: Message edited by: groverat ]</p>
I don't steal music. I'm just borrowing it. I have every intention of giving back when I'm done.
Hell, it wasnt even illeagle until the DMCA was passed (talk about a sign that North America is going to Hell).
Why can't they charge 5-8 bucks for a CD? Sales would sky rocket. I guess there are more reasons for the high prices but I would buy so many CDs at those prices.
With current prices I its too hard to buy an album you are unsure that you'll like.
I like to say that I "creatively obtain" it... just like I obtained all this other software on my Mac. :cool:
I'm not judgemental about people who DO decide to download all their music without paying for anything, but I wonder why there seems to be this sense that MP3 downloading is somehow some kind of really impressive accomplishment. Is it really some kind of cool, elite hacker-like escapade? Or is it just something any 8-year-old can do, whether they know about computers & the internet or not?
Besides, if you hear something really great and really love it, don't you want to buy the CD anyway?
Of course, it also goes without saying (just stating facts here, not preaching) that if EVERYONE decided to "steal" their music, 90% of the artists we love would decide to do something different with their time.... work at a bank, instead of releasing CDs that nobody buys. There would still be grass roots "indie" artists who don't mind performing for free, and who record tracks in their basement demo studio and convert them to MP3 for free distribution (some artists already operate this way), but the great majority of the artists who had to work a full-time day job to pay for food and rent, would end up giving up music eventually. Bands break up all the time because they can't make a living at their music, and a continuation of this trend will just mean that MORE bands break up, SOONER, or never even get going (to the point where you'd hear of them) in the first place.
Just a couple of points about the other perspective. Please don't read the above as sour grapes whining from somebody who's part of the "music establishment." My label is small, and not particularly hurt by the whole Napster & MP3 phenomenon. Most of the musicians I know personally, don't make their living from their music anyway and enjoy the wider exposure they get from MP3 trading. They view it sort of like radio airplay.
In fact, didn't RIAA's records show that sales were not affected by the use of Napster in '00? I recall some clams that sales actually increased! Imagine that...
A totally agree that if I like an artist (and I have the money) that I would buy the album. I'm just not in that kind of financial position right now. The same goes for software and that's why I (legally) try to get on so many beta test lists.
[ 12-08-2001: Message edited by: starfleetX ]</p>
I mean I tried to find some VST plug-ins several times, but all I found were sites that sent me round in neverending circles. WTF is wrong with them, can I sue them for false advertising?
What do you mean? Illegal??! Oh well, take me away.
J :cool:
My feeling is that the music industry in its current incarnation destroys more music than it creates. Huge numbers of musicians "don't make it", but still create great music. Those musicians get frustrated and leave the industry. The internet and the digital revolution will change all this. Just as we are beginning to see great indie movies made, small musicians should be able to present themselves with the right forum online. Right now, most of us will never hear this great stuff, because the distribution channels are controlled by trolls and ogres with big clubs. This digital revolution levels the playing field. Most of the well known musicians that are marketed by the labels are not better than everyone else, they are just produced and marketed more effectively. They get airplay time purchased on big radio. Well, radio is no longer going to be the primary mode of distribution of this stuff. It still is, but it won't be.
My brief experience with mp3s has been a bit disappointing, because it can't yet show me the music I would love but don't know. When it can do that, the revolution started by the napster shot across the bow, will really get underway.
The current industry trolls and ogers are slowing the adoption of killer technology (even criminalising it!), because they are losing control. For that lack of vision, they deserve to lose control. I have no problem with that; it even smells of the free market in a cowboy way that I admire.
Let the little guys be heard! I've had it up to here wil having Madonna or the Jacksons--in their varied horrible incarnations--stuffed down my throat!
As far as stealing music, it depends what your definition of stealing music is.
<strong>... and people do have a right to make a copy of a cd they just bought. </strong><hr></blockquote>
Yes, this is true in North America. But what a lot of people don't know in the UK is that it is illegal to even make a copy of a CD that you own in Britain. I remember reading this in a MacUser magazine last year.
I guess this makes all MP3s of commercially produced music illegal in the UK. Crrrrazy. <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" />
I rip them to MP3 just in case they ever lose the CD. Honestly.
I do hope people start to value what musicians do a little more though. I mean people pay ten bucks to go to a movie, but try getting people to pay that to go see a local band.
Other times I'll download an MP3 just to see if I like the music or not. For example, a while back when Moby came on the scene and everyone was talking about him. I didn't really want to buy the CD cause I generally don't listen to techno by myself, but I wanted to see what Moby's grooves were all about. So I checked out an MP3 and decided to go buy a used CD.
Used CDs are the way to go as far as price is concerned. Unfortunately it doesn't support the artist either. So its not much different from d/ling mp3s in my opinion.
However, I like going to the music store and looking through the CD selection.
downloading one of Trick Fall's songs now...thanks man.
But now the laws were changed. I can now make copies for myself of original CDs or music legally copied (Internet download still illegal). So now I can borrow my friends cds (as long as they weren´t illegally copied themself) and make a legal copy for myself and then borrow this cd to another friend aso. In trade for this they have placed a special tax on CD-r and CD-RW, removable memory chips that will go directly to artists.
So now I am borrowing all the CDs I like from my liberary , ripping them onto my HD and playing them from there. All legally and free.
So no I do no steal music but only because we don´t have laws against it. If we had I would be enemy of the state #1.
But then again I buy for at least $70 vinyl every month
I like to say that I "creatively obtain" it... just like I obtained all this other software on my Mac.
Its not theft, Ive tried to explain this so many times... It is copyright infringments (well, under the DMCA at least) and often considered fraud (isnt fraud a great term? You can use to to cover anything you feel is unfair), but its not theft under any deffinition of theft that wasnt made up by/for the RIAA or software industry.
Not that I condone software piracy or anything, no.
Besides, if you hear something really great and really love it, don't you want to buy the CD anyway?
Damn straight. Actually its more a value thing for me, if I fond a lot of songs by the person I like on one album I go buy the album. If they have CDs with 2 good songs that boatloads of crap (one of the problems that I have with Aphex Twin and most techno artists) then I dont buy it.
Examples: Moby, got a few MP3s, loved 'em, bought the CD. The Richard D James album, to this day I say its one of the best Ive gotten.
I looked at the 400 or so records I have in boxes and thought, well, I paid for them, why shouldn't I be able to play them on my computer and my iPod?
Yes, in the states and Canada its leagle too.