Is it a Sin to Download music, books or movies from the Internett?
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Peace Nadia, Nazz, all,
Nadia, you summed up my thoughts perfectly. It is a gray area and really depends on how we venture through it - intention and all. Personally, if I know an artist is putting out a quality CD, I will buy it. I like the packaging and the artwork and the little info snippets in the jacket. More importantly, I want to contribute to the artist's finances - being an amateur myself.
But, if it's just a single I want to hear, or something rare that I can't find in stores, then by all means I DL. Plus, I've been burned so many times in buying a CD for one track that i like only to find out the rest of the tracks are garbage. A lot of the compilations I made over the years were single tracks from many different CD's. And if someone liked the compilation, I'd burn 'em a copy. I don't see anything wrong with that. If the labels want to charge me for that, then I should in return charge them for putting together a quality compilation. ;D
Nazz, you stated
So if you take the apple from the tree in my backyard which I worked to plant and grow, and don't sell it, its not theft!? I wanted to eat that apple! Actually, I wanted to sell that apple myself so I could save to buy something I wanted...
No, not at all. More appropriately correlated would be if I buy an apple from you, and then offer a friend a slice of that apple. Or, I buy an apple from you and give my friend the seeds and he grows his own apple tree. Nobody is going into anyone's yard and stealing. That's why they call it file sharing.
Actually, it was, and still is legally a crime. Its called theft. And there were problems, one of them being that such thieves are very hard to catch!
No, it wasn't. Copyrights before the internet were all about "public performance" and "commercial use". Grab any old VCR tape and read the FBI Warning. It says nothing about copying nor sharing. But now that the bigwigs see the potential $$$ in locking up this market, it's become 'illegal'.
Peace,
Tay -
If they could, the majors would be making us pay each time we listen to one music. But if they did it now, they simply will get the population's middle finger.
http//www.theseminal.com/2007/10/02/the-era-of-free-music-is-upon-us/ This is quite interesting
Next, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails urged fans to steal his albums, saying, ?If I could do what I want right now, I would put out my next album, you could download it from my site at as high a bit-rate as you want, pay $4 through PayPal.?
I personally wouldn't mind paying 4$ for an album, if apparently the group will earn more money than if they were with a major. Because willing to sell your product 4$ is quite nice.
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Good points Mehdi, Tay and SC. )
And Yosemite, you're right, if they could charge for everytime you listened to a song they would. And they'd still whine about how much money they're losing. Same with the movie industry. Have you seen episodes of Cribs on MTV? Do they look like they have money problems? In the movie industry every year movies make more money than they did the year before yet they'll whine about piracy.
The apple analogy doesn't work in this issue. Infact I doubt you could use any analogy that involved something tangible.
Peace
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I agree that we shouldn't download whole movies albums etc. But at the same i think that since the prices are so high, i can't actually be a big sin or something to download. But in my opinion if you don't have money to buy a cd or a movie, then you can download it and pay for it later when you got money. A thing that i do nowadays is to download for example an album from Nas or a movie by chris rock, and then since i already bought one expensive product from the actor or the artist, then i don't need to pay for the next 2 products i buy from that artist/company/actor etc. Or if the product is very fabulous, then i can pay them later, everything from one month to 1 year later. And these are rules that i have, and i use this rules when buying stuff, and i think it is a fair thing to do. But if an artist or an actor comes with a fantastic original movie or album that really is worth every cent, i think they deserve money for their work 100%, so in that case i would buy the cd or movie even dough i already have bought a cd or movie from that actor/artist a couple of weeks or months ago.
Your friend David
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David_K,
Basically speaking, your set of 'rules' equate to "I'll buy the things I want, if and when I can afford it and if I feel like it." confused
since i already bought one expensive product from the actor or the artist, then i don't need to pay for the next 2 products i buy from that artist
ROFL! So if you bought a really expensive wide-screen TV from Sony, would you expect to recieve at NO COST, the Sony Surround System and Sony DVD player on the basis that you bought Sony's expensive TV!? ROFL. rotfl
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Peace david, you must put yrself in the shoes of the artist. Music is a commodity. It's just like another product you're free to buy or not to buy. Sure you may lend cds or books at the library but these cds and books HAVE been bought. I myself borrowed jm jarre cds. I liked them and if i get the chance to buy them i'll buy. Downloaded free music often sounds cheap. An original cd has a much better sound.
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Peace Nazz,
You can't compare apples and oranges. You have to compare apples and apples, to be objective anyway.
Widescreen tvs aren't a fare comparison to music, books, or movies. And yes, in any case you can 'share' the wide-screen tv's. Doesn't everyone do that... when let's say your friends come to your house to watch it? Or you let them borrow yours? Are you saying that no-one should be going to other people's houses to watch tv? Because that's 'stealing' isn't it? As SC pointed out, why is not considered stealing when you 'borrow' the books from the library?RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) admit they have no idea how much money they lose from filesharing, and that suing filesharers costs more than they gain from it. Where did these guys go to business school?
http//arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071002-music-industry-exec-p2p-litigation-is-a-money-pit.html?duh
Also, file-sharing BOOSTS cd sales
http//www.news.com/2100-1023-898813.html
http//www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/2004/04.15/09-filesharing.html
I've been burned so many times in buying a CD for one track that i like only to find out the rest of the tracks are garbage.
You and me both!
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You can't compare apples and oranges. You have to compare apples and apples, to be objective anyway.
Widescreen tvs aren't a fare comparison to music, books, or movies. And yes, in any case you can 'share' the wide-screen tv's. Doesn't everyone do that... when let's say your friends come to your house to watch it? Or you let them borrow yours? Are you saying that no-one should be going to other people's houses to watch tv? Because that's 'stealing' isn't it? As SC pointed out, why is not considered stealing when you 'borrow' the books from the library?Sharing your TV isn't wrong...but what if you could make free copies of your TV?
That changes things a bit, doesn't it? All the TV makers would go bankrupt.So there's a difference between just sharing and making copies. Sharing songs/games without making copies isn't wrong at all.
If I get a book from a library, it's the library's property and I have to return it. If I don't I have to pay them.
With file "sharing," I'm taking what someone has and making a copy of it which I don't have to return. I got it without paying for it. I own it now.
This may not be stealing, but is it right?
For one, it's a bit unfair isn't it? I mean, how come some people pay for a song and others don't? If the makers are asking for money for something they produced, shouldn't we pay them?
And there's another thing, Emmanuel Kant came up with this rule called (I think), the "rule of universality" which is basically that to determine if something is right or wrong, we ask ourselves whether we'd like the world in which EVERYONE did it. I think this is a useful rule.
So if everyone made free copies of movies and music and games and no one paid for them, wouldn't the producers of the music and the games and the movies suffer? Would we like that? -
If I get a book from a library, it's the library's property and I have to return it. If I don't I have to pay them.
Talking about free sampling of the full product without having to pay lobster. Context.
With file "sharing," I'm taking what someone has and making a copy of it which I don't have to return. I got it without paying for it. I own it now.
This may not be stealing, but is it right?If you like something you pay for it. Just like the library. Or you borrow it and return it ingesting the authors/devs/producers hard work and not pay for it. Perfectly legal.
For one, it's a bit unfair isn't it? I mean, how come some people pay for a song and others don't? If the makers are asking for money for something they produced, shouldn't we pay them?
If people are going to penalise me for letting my friends listen to a song or me gifting my spouse with a cd I burnt out of songs I own/bought/paid for, that's unfair. But they make the rules.And there's another thing, Emmanuel Kant came up with this rule called (I think), the "rule of universality" which is basically that to determine if something is right or wrong, we ask ourselves whether we'd like the world in which EVERYONE did it. I think this is a useful rule.
Everyone's opinions are different, you'd end up with people wanting to have everyone doing things which they liked/would want but other's don't.So if everyone made free copies of movies and music and games and no one paid for them, wouldn't the producers of the music and the games and the movies suffer? Would we like that?
That's why support a just cause, support Bioware!P.S. I'd send Radiohead $100 purely for principle alone D.
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Sharing your TV isn't wrong...but what if you could make free copies of your TV?
That changes things a bit, doesn't it? All the TV makers would go bankrupt.
I think the proper comparison would be the sharing the shows on TV, not the TV itself. And that's not "wrong". What you're saying, should be equated to sharing the computer which downloads the music... as in making copies of the computer. hmmEveryone's opinions are different, you'd end up with people wanting to have everyone doing things which they liked/would want but other's don't.
Exactly. I know people who only buy CDs. They have the option of buying the songs from iTunes, for example, but they feel like their being 'ripped off' if they cant have the actual original disc with the artwork etc.The library/book analogy works in the principal of it all, but more appropriately I would give the example as, you borrow the book from the library, which is very much legal, you make photocopies of all the pages, your own cost, and give the book back. Is that illegal/wrong/a sin? Think about it.
Peace
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Greetings,
I think the simple question to ask is It is wrong to take something you are not entitled to take?
The next question is then What are we entitled to take? And the simple answer Whatever we have express permission to take.
And the followup question What if we don't have express permission? The simple answer Then we should ask for permission.
If beforehand you know permission has been denied, then that's that. Respect the wishes of others. Simple.
However, it is important to distinguish between written law and moral conduct, because the two are not necessarily equal. People look for loop-holes in the law all the time, and while the may find one, what they are actually doing may be morally/ethically wrong.
I think we should all be careful whenever we try to avoid paying for something. Because, God's system is "No pain, no gain", "Reap what you sow" and "The wide and easy road leads to hell, but the narrow and difficult one to heaven".
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Peace Nazz,
I think the simple question to ask is It is wrong to take something you are not entitled to take?
The next question is then What are we entitled to take? And the simple answer Whatever we have express permission to take.
I guess you're not seeing how this is a gray area despite the explanations.
Let's try it this way
Do you ask permission from the artists to listen to their music on the radio? -
Peace, libraries follow specific rules, they aren't allowed to lend pirated stuff and radios too can only broadcast licensed materials;there are pirate radios though, obviously illegal. Imagine you were a musician and you see your music pirated and being available for free on the web, how would you feel?
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Peace Tarikh,
Imagine you were a musician and you see your music pirated and being available for free on the web, how would you feel?
I am, and it's happened, and it felt great to know that my art touched someone enough that they felt the need to download it and listen to it over and over. Please...let's not confuse music with the music "business".
peace