Filesharing is NOT Stealing

[Actatoi]

I'm surprised how many people justify their behaviour with all kinds off excuses for what they are doing. It's to expensive, it's a shame to pay for a bad movie, piece of music, i ouldn't have bought it anyway, etc...

I just wonder what all these people would say or think if it happened to them. I guess they would be the first ones crying out loud that someone was stealing from them.

What do you think when your employer lowers your income ... do you think that would be fair ... I wouldn't.

Anyway ... this is an endless discussion and off course everybody's entitled to their own opinion so I guess we agree to disagree.

Cya.

You really are suprised?

[Disme]

I'm surprised how many people justify their behaviour with all kinds off excuses for what they are doing. It's to expensive, it's a shame to pay for a bad movie, piece of music, i ouldn't have bought it anyway, etc...

I just wonder what all these people would say or think if it happened to them. I guess they would be the first ones crying out loud that someone was stealing from them.

What do you think when your employer lowers your income ... do you think that would be fair ... I wouldn't.

Anyway ... this is an endless discussion and off course everybody's entitled to their own opinion so I guess we agree to disagree.

Cya.

You really are suprised?

Not really ... it's just human nature I guess. I see it all the time that people are just willing to believe what they want to believe.

I do filesharing myself but I am well aware of the nature of the 'game'.

[PACE]

The real reason people share files:

Spoiler: Show

Because they can!

No, it's not true that file sharers are poor. If they can afford their own pc,hdtv, ps3/xbox360/wii, high speed connection, uber1337 speaker setup, 500 core proccesors etc., why can't they afford a movie? and anyone who downloads Call of Duty 4 must be really rich since you need a really good pc for that.

[emperorIX]

I see that there are numerous people who still believe that filesharing is theft or is depriving the artists of any significant amount of income. I would just like to point out that the artist's share of music sales is quite low, with the average musician seeing less than a dollar per sale. Much of the artist's income is derived from touring and other merchandise sales. It is only the distributor or production company that takes the hit where album sales are concerned, not the actual artists. In the age of the Internet that we live in, why should we the consumer be forced to pay these exorbitant costs based on an outmoded business model? The record labels are desperately grasping onto a dying business model that ensures they profit at the expense of the artist. Numerous artists have already realized this and have bypassed the labels in releasing their material (see NiN and Radiohead) with much success. Also, filesharing gives the artist a means in which their music reaches the masses at no cost...think of it as the radio of the Internet age. By all intents and purposes this is true, both mediums are presented in an inferior lossy format. An mp3 is far from a substitute for the CD.

As for movies, how can filesharing be said to be impacting hollywood when each year means another sales record broken? Filesharing has proven to be an extremely effective marketing tool for Hollywood.

I think I should also mention the filesharing of software as well, as there will likely be those who will say that software developers lose out. All I can really say is were you really going to pay $1700 for Adobe CS3 Production Premium? Highly unlikely, unless you were going to use it for commerical purposes, in which case you would likely purchase or put your business at risk. And, most games are now played for their online component, which requires the purchase of the product. Game sales are also helped tremendously by demoing the game (ie playing a cracked full version). I would imagine though that those games that don't provide a heavy online component would be hurt by filesharing.

In conclusion, there is no way that filesharing is hurting the content creators. In contrast, filesharing can only help artists, be they musician, producer, or software developers, providing them with a free form of extremely effective advertising. Filesharing may be illegal, but it is not theft and it is certainly not doing any harm to the artist. Sorry for the long post, but I do not understand how many people can delude themselves and buy into the propaganda spread by the groups that only profit at the expense of the artist.

[Disme]

In conclusion, there is no way that filesharing is hurting the content creators. In contrast, filesharing can only help artists, be they musician, producer, or software developers, providing them with a free form of extremely effective advertising. Filesharing may be illegal, but it is not theft and it is certainly not doing any harm to the artist. Sorry for the long post, but I do not understand how many people can delude themselves and buy into the propaganda spread by the groups that only profit at the expense of the artist.

The only ones deluding theirselves is the group of people that reasons like you.
Since I started filesharing I never ever by anything. I used to by decent amounts of DVD's and CD's. That's all over now.
It doesn't matter who the once are that lose money by filesharing. But it is a fact that they are losing money over it. That is a fact and you can't just ignore that.

[InviteMe]

Not stealing, just "sharing" :p

[emperorIX]

The only ones deluding theirselves is the group of people that reasons like you.
Since I started filesharing I never ever by anything. I used to by decent amounts of DVD's and CD's. That's all over now.
It doesn't matter who the once are that lose money by filesharing. But it is a fact that they are losing money over it. That is a fact and you can't just ignore that.

I see your point and agree. There will always be those whose spending habits are drastically changed by filesharing, but this has been partially offset through levies. In many countries, there are levies, sometimes quite high, tacked onto recordable media such as cds and dvds, and even onto mp3 players and other recording devices. Like in Belgium, your paying € 0.12/disc extra for cds and, here in Canada, we pay an extra $0.21/disc, which is meant to go to content developers. So, the companies producing the material we pirate is recouping some of their losses.

However, I don't believe that the vast majority of pirates are changing their spending habits drastically. For example, I prefer DVDs and soon Blu-Rays over a copy and have built myself up a nice little collection of about 1500 retail movies. As for music, that is an entirely different situation. The reason for the CD's demise has little to do with filesharing and everything to do with consumer preference. With the proliferation of affordable mp3 players, consumers preference has shifted to the mp3. Recording companies had failed to capitalize on this shift early enough and continued to grasp onto a failing business model, losing them millions in sales. So, I guess you can say that it isn't necessarily filesharing that is killing the CD, but the mp3 player and a general lack of variety among legally available mp3s.

But, in the end you are correct, there will always be people like yourself whose spending habits have been drastically affected by filesharing. I, myself, have a home theatre that makes viewing anything less than an upconverted DVD9 painful and if I'm going to pay $2 for a blank DVD9, why not pay $10 for the retail DVD... As for music, I rarely purchase CDs anymore, as I have moved onto vinyl, often purchased in the secondary market where neither the artist nor the recording company makes a penny off of me. But, I obviously do not purchase everything I download...I can't afford to pay over $1000 for that ultrarare Mutiilation record I want, for instance.

[td212]

yea it's stealing... but you just gotta rationalize it. i usually use that big cd price gouging class action suit from a few years back