Quote:
Originally posted by harleyquinn:
Sorry, but while I agree with you that CDs need to come down in price, the fact that they cost too much does not justify theft.
I think cars cost too much, you need $10,000 just to get a cheap one. So does that mean I can just go steal one off the lot, because hey, it's the car companies fault for charging so much? Nope! Same goes for music.
You're stealing if you download music you didn't pay for. If it's music that an artist posts for you to get for free (which some do) than that's one thing, but otherwise, it's stealing. The artist did not tell you that you could have that music, so you are not "helping their art". While there are some artist that do make lots of cash, there are others that break even if they make anything. For example, did you know that because of signing a bad contract, the GooGoo Dolls were losing money until recently? That's because many new artists are required to pay for their own touring and promotional expenses, so that's why, even though they were selling records like crazy, they themselves were seeing almost no money. So anyone that was downloading their songs were actually hurting them by denying them even more money that is rightfully theres.
Sorry people, life's not fair, things cost more than sometimes they should (gas comes to mind). Want to stick it to the music industry? The answer's not in downloading music, that's stealing, and the law's on their side. The answer is to stop buying cds, and write a letter to the companies telling them that you will not be buying any more music until the prices come down. Then get your friends and family to do the same. If they can't sell CDs, the prices will fall to entice people to buy more, simple economics.
|
I Like your idea about writing companies and all. I really do [img]smile.gif[/img]
As far as comparing music to cars tho... the difference here is that a lot of the artists that have songs being traded online SUPPORT them being downloaded. Do I need to remind everyone about how Napster had free concerts set up in their benefit that featured bands that were HUGE at the time? Bands and music fans alike support file sharing. But, cars are a bad parallel to draw to sharing music, because cars aren't art. Let's use a more accurate comparison: books and artwork.
How many authors do you think are pissed off that their books are being transcripted and shared on kazaa for free, or all the pictures that are available to download? And how many stories and poems and quotes are being passed around without even giving the author proper credit, not just online but all over the world? Plagerism(sp?) and blatent stealing of ideas and stories, how often does this happen? How many art pieces are scanned and used all over the world every day for free? Pictures taken and edited in Photoshop and used to create 'new' art. Do we hear any of these book editors whining or artists complaining that they're not being treated fairly? I seriously doubt that you've paid for every single piece of art that you have on your computer, and I doubt even more that you can name or give proper credit to the artist who created it.
Music isn't that different except that the people who run the industry are more greedy than other industries. I'm not sure why... but it seems to be true. Regardless of what the artists say, the music industry is out to shut these file sharing programs down, even if the musicians themselves support it.
On a side note; Does anyone know the name of the person who wrote 'Itsy Bitsy Spider?' Seriously, anyone? Can anyone at all tell me who wrote some of the greatest nursery rhymes that have been sung for hundreds of years, and will continue to be sung for hundreds more? The stories that have been passed down for generation after generation; The Three Little Pigs and Humpty Dumpty and Old King Cole and The Princess and the Pea and Goldilocks... who wrote these? No one remembers anymore. But someone did write them, and shared them so that other people could appreciate them and remember them too. They wrote them and shared them not for money, but because they loved doing it and loved retelling the stories over and over. That's what should be important to the artists, having their music heard and appreciated and remembered... anyone complaining about not getting paid or whining that file sharing is so horrible is in the industry for the wrong reasons. These artists now have a way to have their music heard by people around the world in a matter of days, where it used to take years to get books printed and distributed and have the same availability, and they complain about it?
However; I don't see book companies picketing libraries to be shut down for sharing their stuff for free. I've never once seen an art gallery that went out of business because the starving artists weren't selling their paintings. (remember that phrase? 'starving artist?' ever wonder WHY they were called that? [img]tongue.gif[/img] )The general impression I've gotten has been that these other artists are more pleased with seeing their message or art or story or poem spread to more people, rather than they are with selling it to everyone who likes it. And their managers or editors or whatever seem to understand that. Musicians seem to be content to be out playing concerts and making music and reaching the fans and doing what they love for a living, and even without the record industry, I'm sure they'd still tour and continue to do it.
It's just that the record execs. have gotten so used to there being no competition that they got comfortable and cocky and raised cd prices to insane heights so they could live a little MORE comfortably, buy a few MORE cars. The record stores had no choice but to jack up THEIR prices in turn just to keep making the same profit as they were before, so they could afford to live. Music fans got pissed and decided they'd had enough and were going to take it into their own hands. They had the technology, they'd been dubbing records to tapes and tapes to tapes and most recently burning cds. All these means to record music they had access to had already existed, they didn't CREATE the cd burners or the dual cassette decks to dub tapes. But what else did the people who created these things think they'd be used for? (duh) So fans wanted more than the selection of music their close friends had, they wanted more to copy than their older brother's AC/DC tapes, and someone had the idea to send files a few song files to a friend in an email. That friend did the same to someone else. Sooner or later, this idea caught on and Napster came into being to save everyone the trouble AND expand their options. We all know what happened after this, right?
It's been going on for years already, and who reading this DOESN'T own a few dubbed movies or tapes or burned cds?
The record industry didn't care until it became a threat, and ever since they've been trying to fight a battle against something they knew was happening all along, and knew was only getting worse. It's their own faults for letting it get this far, and now that they see their fancy lifestyles slipping away and they know they messed up, they're clinging desperately to everything they know and hoping this somehow fixes it all.
I can't blame the stores that sell the music, and I do feel bad that so many people lost their jobs over this. But, in all honestly that's the way it's going to be. Even if all the free file sharing programs get shut down, they're already popping up new ones, and file sharing programs that require small payments to download songs. Record stores would have closed anyway sooner or later, so don't blame it all on the people sharing files. Because like I said, we've been doing it since the first tape deck with a 'record' button hit the stores, and we'll keep doing it as long as technology allows.
And that is the LONGEST post I ever typed anywhere, so I'm shutting up for now. Thanks for reading.
[ 09-13-2003, 04:18 PM: Message edited by: 605 ]