Homestar Runner Wiki Forum

I saw that they're trying to get the BitTorrent guy.

You could listen to the radio online for free. You do have a computer, right?

Anyhoo, I still believe in supporting bands that need the support, like those on small labels. And while I understand the illegality and moral wrongness of downloading regardless of whose music it is (you guys do make some good points), I still do it occasionally.

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First off, I really don't have any problem with legal downloads (like iTunes, or the new Napster).
Now, for the rest of my post: Ya know, I've been thinking about this ever since the early days of Napster. I've worked in and around the music industry, as a stage tech at a 1500 seat performance facility, worked with "somewhat big" musicians as well as "up and comers" and some "has-beens". From what I gather from most of the people I work with, the music industry has been hurt by illegal downloading, although not as bad as RIAA would have you believe. Most of the people I worked with really didn't make a lot of money from their albums, most of their revenue came from touring. Still, their "not a lot of money" that they made from album sales was part of their income. Whenever someone downloads an album illegally instead of buying it, that represents some income (albeit a very small amount) that the artist won't get. If several people illegally download an album instead of buying it, that reperesents a larger amount of income the artist won't get. If 1000's or millions of people illegally download an album instead of buying it.... well, you get the point.
Illegally downloading is stealing, and I really don't think that's right. With that said, there are a lot of things I don't think are good, wholesome activities, but I still do them, and I have to say, I am guilty of illegally downloading music, although it's been quite a while (think: back before Napster shut down, and most of that was stuff I couldn't find at Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Suncoast, etc.). A wrong, is a wrong, though.

I do still download music, but it all comes from artist sites, iTunes, Wal-Mart.com, etc. or trading sites (some bands I like allow, even encourage recording and free trading of their live shows). I also buy a lot of music.

Although it's a bit off topic, I've never downloaded movies, my neighbors in the dorm did it, but I found the quality waaaaay too crappy for my tastes. (Imagine that, being a good little boy because I was unhappy with choppy, low resolution video.)

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If you can't fix it with a hammer, you have an electrical problem.

Just so we're clear on this, illegally downloading music is not stealing. It's still a crime and against the law, but it is not the same thing as theft. The music industry calls it stealing, but you cannot be convicted for theft for illegally downloading music any more than you can be convicted for copyright infringement for nicking someone's stereo.

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That's another thing, I absolutely hate how the major labels are structured in terms of how much money an artist makes off of their own albums. As they're structured now, the label makes most of the money while the band makes a pittance. Since the band is what made the music in the first place and the label is just distributing it, it doesn't seem right to me at all.

Quite a while ago, in fact, indie rock hero and famed producer (or as he likes to credit himself, engineer) Steve Albini wrote an article about just how much money your average major label band makes from an album. The numbers might be a bit out of date, but the article is still really enlightening. You can find it somewhere around here, with the money totals at the bottom of the article for easy reference. (WARNING: ARTICLE CONTAINS PROFANITY)

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Yeah. Shut up, kid.

Sunrise had a talk on it. According to what they had said, it's technically illegal to tape TV shows as well as burning CDs & DVDs, as well as downloading songs. But that is for Australia. They said how in USA there is a more common sense law that allows you to do that kind of stuff for personal use (except the music downloading), that doesn't apply yet in Australia.

The website has link to http://www.copyright.org.au/

Well, there is now. At the rate things are going, it won't last. The industry is trying very, very hard to reverse the Betamax decision, and don't forget about the Broadcast Flag.

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I used to use Napster. I built up a huge mp3 collection at one time. But that was before the legal/moral questions started popping up.

These days, I get most of my mp3's from Acid Planet, which is totally free, and the artists WANT you to download their music. Besides, I'm a Freestyle freak anyway, and the best Freestyle I can find anywhere is on Acid Planet under the "Breaks" genre.

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Lots of artists put music up for free download, you not only allowed to listen to bands who sell records. Hell, surely you must have a local scene? I know I've got a couple hours of mp3s of local bands from their sites

For myself, I restrict downloading to stuff which is freely given away (those local dudes), bootlegged to begin with, or out of print. If someone wants to reissue, say, Echo by AR And Machines, I'll buy it, but as it stands it's been out of print for three decades and I don't see it making its way back onto the shelves any time soon

As a user of music downloading, I can say that it's not as easy as typing in a song and suddenly having it. It can take ages to even find the song sometimes and then longer to download it, especially if it's popular. I still buy CDs even though I have WinMX.

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Guten tag, Johann, du riechst ganz richtig. Danke schon, Heidi. Und du auch. - A Bit of Fry and Laurie

Here are my thoughts on the issue
Downloading music is not doing anyone immense harm, but you are taking money away from the artists which is bad. I live in an upper-middle class neighborhood and my family can afford to buy things like CDs (for the most part. My brother just went to college so we have to cut back on things like that just a little bit) I think that buying CDs for one song on them, however, is just radiculous. In this case things like iTunes would be helpful. I actually detest things like Napster and Kazaa because
-If you remove the program, you can't still have the music
-It brings you nasty spyware (even Kazaa light)
-It doesn't have the consent of most of the artists
-The people who make the music are not paid

I think that buying the whole CD, if you really like the band, is your best bet.

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You know what? It probably is. But I've been downloading for years and I can sleep at night.

Kazaa has been extremely terrible for quite a long time now. And you haven't checked out Napster lately, have you? It's become one of those pay services just like iTunes.

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Yeah. Shut up, kid.

Oh, really? I had no idea. That's cool...

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it isn't illegal unless you get caught. so in that case i see no wrong in it

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This is true for Napster, but not for most other programs. I'm not sure where you got this idea.



I don't know about KaZaA Lite (as TNG said, KaZaA has been nigh on unusable for awhile now), but there are plenty of P2P apps without spyware. I recommend eMule.



True and true.



I really hope you're joking.

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Yes, but isn't Napster like renting music for a monthly fee?

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Yes, essentially. If you stop paying your Napster bill, you can no longer listen the the music you bought, er, rented.

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Isn't it kind of sad, actually, how the modern incarnation of Napster is almost the polar opposite of the original?

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Yeah. Shut up, kid.

So, if you don't get caught for murdering someone, there's nothing wrong with it?

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Yes its still stealing, if you're stealing music and you are not caught its still stealing.

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I usually download music if I want only one track, not the entire CD. And it's usually if I can't find it on Napster (somewhat like iTunes).

What I'm listening to...

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iTunes isn't bad, you still have to pay.

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Guten tag, Johann, du riechst ganz richtig. Danke schon, Heidi. Und du auch. - A Bit of Fry and Laurie

I am thinking about patenting very large strings of numbers. Specifically the numbers 0 and 1.

Every song/movie/program can eventually be broken down into a really really long string. And soon.... I will own them all. Mwa ha ha

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