<p>Wait a second, you guys DON’T turn yourselves in after speeding?
I couldn’t live with myself if I broke the law without my due punishment. The government is like my father and I must turn myself in if I break any of my daddy’s rules.
Shame on everyone!</p>
<p>B4 I get flamed, I’m joking</p>
<p>Illegally downloading music is stealing.</p>
<p>When you illegally download a song, you are robbing a musician of what they’ve earned through their intellectual/physical labor, labor that was specifically engaged in because of the expectation of payment. Not that crazy passion isn’t the motive for most musicians, but they’re all aware like the rest of us that they need to be able to feed themselves. So they work hard and expect to be paid. Is there something wrong with that? I do understand one’s sympathy for starving artists lessens when the artists aren’t actually starving and are in fact living in mansions. However, a musician’s success is not justification to steal from them.</p>
<p>Likewise, the reasoning that it’s okay to illegally download music because CD profits go mostly to the record label anyway seems hollow. Now I’m not pretending that I know a lot about the music industry and how it functions, but I do know that record companies do a heck of a lot for their artists. Wikipedia has a nice summary: “A record label… coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion, and enforcement of copyright protection of sound recordings and music videos; conducts talent scouting and development of new artists (“artists and repertoire” or A&R); and maintains contracts with recording artists and their managers.” These services are expensive. Record labels recruit promising talent, pay them contracts, and assist them in every media avenue… and they’re supposed to do all this for free? What? They are owed compensation for their work like everybody else. Also, these record companies employ (fund, more accurately) a lot of people. When they lose millions, that has a negative effect on graphic artists, dancers, cinematographers… normal people, not just the CEOs. Worse, if record labels were to lose so much money that they had to drop artists and minimize their recruitment effort, artists across the world would lose opportunities to share their music.</p>
<p>By the way, I am definitely not a model citizen. I speed and I download music. But I’m not going to sit here and justify what I do only because it’s beneficial to me. I know that speeding kills and that illegally downloading music hurts people in other ways. I would be totally against a proposition to repeal speeding law, even though I speed sometimes; similarly, I can’t condemn the laws that punish this kind of virtual robbery. Those laws are only fair.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>You killed your entire argument…</p>
<p>Not really. I own up to why it’s wrong. If someone proposed to do away with speeding laws, you’d be against that, right? Even though you’ve sped in your lifetime? We’ve all gone over the speed limit before, but I think most of us would agree that speeding laws are “right”. I can defend these copyright laws in the same way.</p>
<p>Edit: Could you address the points I made in my original post? I’m interested in another’s opinion.</p>
<p>for all we know, he might not even exist</p>
<p>I think murder is wrong because (insert reasons here). I murder people. Thus my reasons for thinking murder is wrong are invalid?</p>
<p>Ironically enough, this guy shares the last name of a great Mathematician who wrote the book “Ordinary Differential Equations”. Pretty good book, I may add.</p>
<p>I’d just like to point out that for the most part the music which is mainstream right now can be easily reproduced by the average citizen on computerized music engineering programs such as GarageBand. I find it amazing that musicians today make millions off of CD’s and music downloads for making music that the average citizen could have come up with in their sleep. Before you disagree on this one, just think it over. How many of the recent popular songs can be easily reproduced within one hour by the average middle school child using music engineering software?</p>
<p>On the subject of downloading music– the way I see it is that if all downloads of music were free, then there would seem to be no incentive for musicians to allow their music to be placed onto the internet. However, there is an incentive: Live performances need audiences.</p>
<p>It is very simple. The musicians place their music online and encourage people to download. Some pay to download, while others do not. This is beside the point however, in light of the fact that the amount of money made by musicians through sales is considerably less than what they make through live performances. Now, what, may I ask, is the best way for musicians to advertise their music and thus get people to see them in concert? I think we already know the answer.</p>
<p>Now, the question that one might ask is this: what happens when everyone just downloads music for free and no longer pays for concert tickets to see the artist or band perform live? The answer is simple: music creation will stop. There will be no benefit for the musicians to put their music online for minimal charge or for free.</p>
<p>Paying for the music is one way that people show their appreciation for the group that is making the music.</p>
<p>every dollar that i count can’t go in my account, my accountant can’t count up all the money in a hour, 'cuz it’s coming too fast and i’m scared it won’t last. look that white girl in the face told her this was our last dance, god damnnnnn.</p>
<p>speedin’ got my heart racing, i don’t have the nominations you could blame that on my occupation. ceasar’s palace, ceasar’s salad, you ain’t a boss little ***** 'cuz your cheese is average.</p>
<p>in the benz, AK, ridin’ shotgun. it’s a benz, ‘cuz your broke till you got one. it ain’t nothin, doin’ 100 in the maybach. throwing money out the roof, mother**** the break pads.</p>
<p>fortunately, they ALWAYS will offer a settlement for like 4-5 grand.</p>
<p>Last gasp of a dead or dying business model</p>
<p>sure the method is “easy.” Being able to come up with something that sounds good is not.</p>
<p>Can someone explain what is the best way to download free music safely? I don’t want any viruses or to end up paying a lot of money like this guy.</p>
<p>^ Same. I was using Limewire (and I never had problems as far as viruses go), but I don’t want it being traced. </p>
<p>And oh, please to this whole “debate”. It’s so awful how downloading free music keeps me up at night. </p>
<p>I was 15 when I got my iPod. I didn’t have an income and my parents didn’t want to pay for every song or album I wanted to get. So by this logic I should have just forgone the iPod and stuck to the radio. Also, I listen to a lot of indie/smaller-known artists who make their music available for free download. So if they can afford to do that, with music I’d gladly pay for, then I’m sure these bigger, more mainstream artists can afford to forsake a couple million in downloads.</p>
<p>Bands that live and tour out of their van to do shows in my area deserve the $10 they are asking for their CD and maybe a band t shirt as well.
Bands that wouldn’t know the difference between be downloading music, burning it, buying it or not listening to it at all are probably not going to get the overpriced $20 they are asking from me.</p>
<p>Just because I download music, it doesn’t mean that I would have bought it, therefore there is no lost income for the musician. period. I will continue to download music for as long as I can.</p>
<p>Rapidshare or direct linked files would be best because you aren’t sharing the file, so, from what I’ve heard you would not be caught.</p>
<p>The music industry really does set itself up for this problem. Given the available technology and the high price of downloading legal music with only a small chance of being caught, people will obviously download the music illegally. I know that people would still download illegally if music were cheaper, but I am sure that more people would buy music.</p>
<p>Personally, I support bands and artists that are independent because they do need that money and that support. Emusic is also good and less expensive than iTunes or Amazon. I know that downloading music is illegal, but as HisGraceFillsMe said, I doubt that these artists are losing out on a lot of money because of it.</p>
<p>the big artists dont care if you downloadin their music for free lol … its true they make their cashhh on tours etc. so if people are hearin their music all the time then naturaly people gona buy tickets for their concerts !!! illegal music downoading is indirectly promoting them lol sounds stupid but its true</p>
<p>
Reproducing something already created isn’t exactly the same as creating something from scratch now is it? I mean lets be serious, the average middle school child can recite the equation E=MC^2 all day, but that doesn’t make them as smart as Einstein. Similarly, just because just about everyone understands the basics of the theory of evolution (they may even understand it better than Darwin himself) doesn’t mean that they are great scientists… The hip-hop/pop music that is so popular right now may not hold a candle to other genres in terms of creativity but that doesn’t mean that the average person could create popular music.</p>
<p>None of this means that I’m against pirating, I just thought that the quoted argument was amazingly stupid.</p>
<p>Flyer, the penalty imposed is also stealing. The penalty is outrageous.</p>