Is file sharing evil?

[John Mc]

I don’t use Kazaa or any programs like that any more but that's mainly because its takes too long to download stuff and you don't know if the file is the song that it says it is. However I tried the "mycokemusic" site at the weekend and it was rubbish, the connection kept resetting. If record companies are going to start charging for these services then they should be better than the service already offered the existing illegal programmes. Yet I don't have a problem with record companies are taking people to court for file sharing. Its not as though people do it for some moral reason - to spread the joy of music, they just do it because they want something but don't want to have to pay for it.

[Tommy BOO]

I never really download any music, I don't even have those programs (like Kazaa or any others). I might download songs by some unknown bands every now and then but that's it. I usually buy all my music.
Anyway, I don't really have anything against people who copy music. The prices of new CDs pretty much everywhere are ridiculous at the moment, the record companies are making fuckloads of money all the time. It's not fair - music should be available for everyone. Of course artists and distributors deserve their own share of the money, but the problem is that most of the money goes to just a few pockets.
Maybe it's better that people share the music - sooner or later the record companies have to realise that not many people are willing to pay ridiculous amounts of money on their CDs and they have to decrease the prices. Maybe then I could start to buy brand new CDs again - I haven't bought any new music for ages, I only buy second-hand stuff and mid-price CDs because that's all I can afford!
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"Tommy Boo has played a pivotal role in my life. I've looked up to him since I was a kid and he has inspired every note of music I have ever written. The man is a fucking genius" -BC

[Melz]

File sharing isn't evil, but the viruses downloaded simply by having Kazaa installed ARE. PerfectNav, for instance - very annoying.

Melz.
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"It's too beautiful to stay inside..."

[Tommy BOO]

What's PerfectNav?
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"Tommy Boo has played a pivotal role in my life. I've looked up to him since I was a kid and he has inspired every note of music I have ever written. The man is a fucking genius" -BC

[Melz]

You know that page on the Internet that says "Website cannot be found"? Well once upon a time my computer started re-directing to a site called PerfectNav rather than that "Cannot find" screen. I've recently been told that "PerfectNav" is actually part of a virus or worm on Kazaa. I got rid of it thanks to a very helpful anti-virus website.

Melz.
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"It's too beautiful to stay inside..."

[John Mc]

Apparently the next step is for record companies to encode CD's so you can't sell them on, they'll only work on your machine. That will stop people being able to sell CD's second hand. I don't agree with that.

I got that Perfect Nav thing as well, I didn't realise it had happened due to downloading Kazaa. It was really annoying, loads of pop up adds and things.

[Melz]

I recommend "Spybot: Search And Destroy" to get rid of PerfectNav.

I don't agree with that only working on one machine idea either. I mean, I don't agree with the new copy-protection on recent CDs either (only one that springs to mind from the top of my head is the latest album by the Cooper Temple Clause) because it means I can't copy them to the hard disk on my mp3 player.

Such is life.


Melz.
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"It's too beautiful to stay inside..."

[Tommy BOO]

[John Mc]

Copy protection is really crap, once you've bought the music then you should be able to play it whereever you want. Like Tommy says they'll always be someone who knows how to copy CD's and they'll always be Napster/Kazaa type software around. I'm not sure what record companies can do to make people want to buy CD's instead of getting music for nothing but not allowing people to play the CD's they've paid for doesn't seem to make sense.

[mrfiresky]

what has happened is that the greedy bloated majors completly ignored the internet otherwise they could have just kept up to date and charged people to download years ago. Now they are running around trying to stop a market that would have been theirs anyway if they had had the foresight.

[John Mc]

Here's a link to a massive report which looked at the effect of downloading music on album sales. Its 52 pages long and so I've only read the abstract bit at the front. I'm bored at work but I'm not that bored. However their conclusion is "Downloads have an effect on sales which is statistically indistinguisable from zero". And even the most pessimistic estimate says that it takes 5000 downloads to reduce the amount of albums sold by 1. So perhaps file sharing isn't to blame for people not wanting to buy albums any more. I blame Jamie Cullem


http://tinyurl.com/yr5hf