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Jonez
Joined: Sep 19, 2003
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Piracy
October 1, 2003 - 11:50 AM
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I was reading an article on piracy that’s featured in this month’s Zine. The article depicted the so-called advantages of p2p networks. However, I beg to differ with the author. How can a person knowingly download a bootlegged file, justify their actions? I see it as theft, plagiarism. People are deliberately taking music from the artist without their consent. And in my opinion, that qualifies as stealing. I understand that programs like Kazaa or Morpheous are a great privilege and convenience to their members, but it’s still not just. As an individual who chooses to pay for the actual CD and other merchandise, I stand by the law and penalization of illegal downloads.
Think about it this way: Can you walk into your favourite store, and walk out with whatever you want? Whatever you manage to steal, it’s still called stealing.
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amy
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Re: Piracy
October 1, 2003 - 01:45 AM
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Stealing it is. I, however, lack ANY sympathy whatsoever for the (major label) record industries. Their decline is mostly due to signing "stars" like Mariah Carey for a ridiculous sum, then having to pay her another ridiculous sum to kick her off the label.
I buy albums of artists I want to support, and I don't want to be supporting some executive's Porsche habit.
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Jonez
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Re: Piracy
October 1, 2003 - 03:09 AM
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I completely agree. i support the law because it reinstates principle into our society. Maybe im going for a long shot, but if nothing was done about piracy, how long would the bootlegging continue?
The record companies and sympathy for the artists have nothing to do with my opinion on the situation.
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Luke Lieberman
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Re: Piracy
October 1, 2003 - 03:56 AM
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Actually - as a side note the Oscars have eliminated academy screeners as a reaction to piracy.
Academy screeners are the dvds of the nominees that get mailed out to every one in the academy before voting so they can make educated descisions.
A freind of mine's parents got them and I was watching the Two Towers on DVD almost 8 months ago.
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Mikael
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Re: Piracy
October 1, 2003 - 05:20 AM
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I think one of the reasons that bootlegging and piracy exists is because of the high prices of CDs and DVDs - it costs very little to actually make a CD.
I'm all for supporting artists I like, but I feel that the big music companies overcharge for their CDs and quite frankly, as has been pointed out, I'd rather that my money not go to fund the board of trustees and their yachts.
If prices were reasonable for CDs then I think that bootlegging would decrease. Universal has recently decided to drop their CD prices from $16-$18 to the $10-12 dollar price range because CD purchases have been declining for the past 3 years... the catch is that they're asking alot more in terms of advertising in music stores, but at least it will benefit the consumer!
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Luke Lieberman
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Re: Piracy
October 1, 2003 - 05:52 AM
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there is a new effective ad campeign against piracy that seeks to show that it is not just about execs and their yachts.
When you pirate something you are hurting the whole industry - the sound engeneers, grips electrics, PA, AC's, Wardrobe assistants ect.
I think it is a good add - Although I think the arguement could be made that Ben Affleck doesn't need 20 million dollars to dress up as a super-hero.
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Laura Chan
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Re: Piracy
October 3, 2003 - 11:36 AM
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Piracy is so rampant in the Philippines I don't even know where to begin. I'm not innocent of piracy and I'm not proud of it, of course, though I guess not as guilty as I should be. But as was stated: the originals are too pricey. And because of import tax and everything, things are more expensive here. Of course that fact doesn't justify you but it makes things a lot more understandable.
For example: A $50 (original) game is reduced to a $6 dollar (pirated) game in my country. The audience these games actually want to address, the youth, now finds it more affordable, thus they go and buy the pirated one.
It's wrong, there's no doubt about that. I can't even justify myself in saying that the originals are too expensive because I can always be refuted with the fact that if that's that important to me then I would earn money for it. I guess you can never justify piracy on any count and you can't really blame the record labels because they're just trying to run a business. It's a pretty sorry state of affairs because I doubt those who pirate are willing to bend without an assurance that what they want can be significantly more affordable.
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Molly
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Re: Piracy
October 4, 2003 - 02:45 AM
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It's illegal and all but it's just so much easier and cheaper, I mean now that they're cracking down on kazaa and stuff you have to go out and spend 12 dollars on a cd just so you can have one song that you could have downloaded for free in 5 minutes, besides aren't pop stars rich enough?
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Willis
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Re: Piracy
October 5, 2003 - 02:04 AM
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Buying a CD is now a form of charity.
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Matt Wolpert
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Re: Piracy
October 5, 2003 - 06:52 AM
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Piracy is bad, and as a member of the entertainment industry, which is not doing that well right now, of course I want piracy to be curbed. But suing twelve year old girls and college kids is not the way to do it.
The leaders of the industry need to provide a viable alternative to P2P networks, something that people will actually use. They can sue all the people they want, but I don't think it's going to have much of an effect.
And you have to look at why people are doing this. Maybe it's because of the ever-balooning prices for movies and cd's. The entertainment industry is out of control...
Movie stars getting 30 million per movie? Come on! And the funny thing is that, even more than piracy, those salaries are hurting the major studios. So few movies are profitable anymore, and the biggest pricetag is the star salaries. That's why they have to charge $10/ticket...
Until they get the salary issue under control, and take a pro-active approach to the internet, piracy will continue.
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Mohammad Kamran
Joined: Oct 6, 2003
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I am sorry 4 "honesty"
October 6, 2003 - 12:28 PM
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i am really sorry 4 all those honest people in the world. i think that all the pirates shud be buried alive. u dont realize actually how bigger a crime 'piracy' is. u just think if u make something from ur heart and it gets stolen openly in front of your eyes and u cant do anything then tell me what will u think and do? this is such dissapointing that so many people are involved in this activity. i think that governments shud force the end of such applications as Kazaa and also vlock other activities that r supporting piracy of any kind.
c ya mates ith hope that one day this piracy thing gets out.
Kamran.
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Adam
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Re: Piracy
October 25, 2003 - 03:03 AM
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Do you know how much a CD should really cost?? $5 yep $5 not $20 or $10 but $5. CD stores pay $2 for them and then sell them for $20. That is why people download there music and the Boycott of the RIAA is growing.
Did you know that if you buy a CD and it is damaged in the package you can't take it back because once you open it they won't take it back. Did you know that if you buy a CD it is illegal to make a copy of it incase the original gets broken...if you make a copy you are a pirate in the eyes of the RIAA even if you have the original CD it is Piracy. If the CD you have bought breaks and you download the songs it is piracy. Nope if you buy a CD and it is broken or gets broken the only legal thing you can do is buy it again and pay another $20 for it. This is why people download music.
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Hugh Switzer
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Re: Piracy
October 25, 2003 - 03:06 AM
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Originally posted by amanz
Do you know how much a CD should really cost?? $5 yep $5 not $20 or $10 but $5. CD stores pay $2 for them and then sell them for $20.
Do you have proof of this? I can't believe that the recording industry wouldn't get more than that.
Did you know that if you buy a CD and it is damaged in the package you can't take it back because once you open it they won't take it back.
Untrue. Maybe at Billy-Bob's cd's, but I could return it to HMV if I wanted.
Did you know that if you buy a CD it is illegal to make a copy of it incase the original gets broken...if you make a copy you are a pirate in the eyes of the RIAA even if you have the original CD it is Piracy.
This is again untrue. Where is this information coming from?? Oh, and unless you share it (which is illegal) then the RIAA would never know or have any way of knowing.
If the CD you have bought breaks and you download the songs it is piracy.
Technically, but you did buy it so don't feel bad.
Nope if you buy a CD and it is broken or gets broken the only legal thing you can do is buy it again and pay another $20 for it. This is why people download music.
I've never broken a CD, be more careful, or of course, rip it to your computer, which IS legal by the way.
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Luke Lieberman
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Re: Piracy
October 25, 2003 - 03:47 AM
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I agree with Hugh in a number of places there.
And oviously Britany Spears does not need to be making 50 million a year - she doesn't earn it.
But stars are not the ones effected by piracy. They command the saleries they command - and they have a team of lawyers and agents who make sure star saleries are ever increasing.
The one to think about is the little guy who doesn't have a team of lawyers protecting his salary - the freelance guy who is lucky to work for 3 consecutive months.
Do you realize that crew - nuts and bolts crew - grips, electrics, Production Coordinators, wardrobe, Assistant Camera ect - is becoming extinct in the US.
There is more film being shot right now in New Zealand than California - for real.
Labor is cheaper over seas and since the stars won't take a pay cut the little guy in America is getting squeezed right out of the bussiness.
Also I would like to dispell the idea that the Film and Music industries are making alot of money - they are not - don't beleive the Hype.
In the average fiscal quarter most studios publish net losses - most studios are operating literally in red ink.
The whole entertainment industry is really just a loss leader for the electronics industry - that is why so many studios are supported these huge multinational conglomerates like Time Warner and Sony.
So while agree that movie/pop stars desperately need to take a paycut - it also must be accepted that piracy hurts the little guy more.
There is an old addage - "crap always flows down hill"
Now then - lets turn the debate to another industry suffering from piracy - software - people pirate software all the time - and for the same reason - the price tag.
I am guilty of pirating software - there was a program that cost $1250 - I just couldn't afford it, but I needed it to stay competetive in my chosen career path.
This is a very difficult issue - I think it will ultimately come down to a compromise between distributer and consumer - prices have to come down and consumer ethics has to go up.
But how do you really motivate consumer ethics to go up?
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Me
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Re: Piracy
October 25, 2003 - 06:00 AM
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I download files.
Let me qualify that though- I don't keep thousands of music files on my computer. When someone mentions a band or artist I should listen to, they either loan/burn me a CD, or I download the files. If I like the music, I'll usually buy the cd within a few months. Music I don't like I delete, eventually- why waste hard drive space? I do, however, sometimes keep the files of music I've bought on my computer. Sheer laziness, often, or just wanting to be able to have the ease of playing it without loading a CD. Yes, I have stray files of songs I liked without liking the rest of a cd enough to buy it. And yes, sometimes it takes me a while to get around to buying CDs I like. But for the most part, I do buy- probably in large part because I have a guilty conscience. And as Luke mentioned, hardly all musicians are wealthy. The ones I listen to tend to be very un-wealthy, actually. So I like to support them. And having the whole cd- insert and all- is somehow more meaningful to me.
That said, however, I understand the frustration felt by others. What's "in" changes so fast these days that there's no way to keep up with CD purchases unless you have a bottomless pocket. CDs have been packaged around singles, which may or may not be representative of the rest of the CD. CDs are expensive- as countless newspapers articles have pointed out, recording companies used the introduction of the CD to jack up record prices, and when CDs became much more affordable to make, they never lowered prices. Universal, I believe, has recently taken the step of lowering most of its CDs to the $10-$12 range, which I think is wise. And many of today's "stars"- the ones who get radio play- are not only rich but often very ostentatious with their wealth- witness the "bling-bling" phenomenon.
This is not a cut-and-dried issue. Which is why recording companies are still being cautious in their pursuit of consumers- they've filed only a tiny percent of possible lawsuits and took a long time in doing so- for fear of further alienating their consumer base. I don't think that either side is completely right; many artists are unhappy as well, as they get a tiny portion of the profits made from CD sales. So the way we buy music may very well change. The success of Apple's iTunes is an indication that times may be a-changin'. If their prices are lower- a dollar a song is rather much when you're not getting any packaging and pay for the CD and case yourself- more people will start paying for their music. Which is not at all a bad thing, unless you're a CD store.
In the end, someone will win, someone will get hurt, and everyone else will settle for a compromise.
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