RPGWW

The more you try to cover your balls, the easier it is to kick you in the ass. <p>

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Things like this go to show that the whole "burning music" concept is too big to fight anymore. There are consequences.

For example, I see people breaking the law in little ways every day, but so many people cross lanes while turning and perform hollywood stops in my town, that the cops have stopped chasing them.

Why can't the music nazis just give up?! <p><div style="text-align:center">

www.livejournal.com/users/jankenpo/
Jan-Ken-Po, an Online Webcomic. Updated spontaneously, and without notice!
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Wait, cops in Portland have decided not to enforce all traffic laws? Perish the thought! :O

Also: Are you really saying that musicians don't deserve to be reimbursed for their work? I'll be the first to say that the current American IP law is _far_ from perfect, but that doesn't mean that outright theft is fair either. And all arguments about how it somehow doesn't actually hurt the artist aside, that's what it boils down to: You want their music, so you take it without paying them.

And there's a big difference between not completely stopping at a stop sign and taking someone's creative endeavours with neither permission nor reimbursement. I would think of anyone, someone who does work in a creative field such as yourself would be sensitive to these concerns, Nick, honestly. I mean, you can't honestly tell me you'd be happy if you started selling your art and people began trading copies of it without your approval. <p>

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"Never let your morals get in the way of doing what is right" - Salvor Hardin
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Hey. No getting serious in here, you. This is to make fun of those wonderful software programmers down at Sony, NOT to get all Discussion Forum on me, got it?

*gets kicked in the balls* <p>

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thats why i only download music, i might be a cheating bastard, but my PC is safer! hah! take that sony!
irony is great! <p><div style="text-align:center"> <span style="color:fuchsia;font-family:comic sans ms;font-size:large;">LAMBO SWIMS LIKE A BRICK!!</span>

my deviant art thingy!
quote:
"I've been to heaven and hell and i still don't know if there is a god or a devil"
-Nny</div>
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Downloading music is only a half step away from allowing someone else to play their music for you. If a person hears a song enough that they effectively memorize it, does it constitute theft since they can enjoy the same experience by 'playing through it' in their head?

Selling someone else's work is one thing. Sharing an experience is where the line gets ridiculously foggy. <p><span style="font-size:xx-small;">"It's in the air, in the headlines in the newspapers, in the blurry images on television. It is a secret you have yet to grasp, although the first syllable has been spoken in a dream you cannot quite recall." --Unknown Armies</span></p>

That may be true, but it's one thing to play a song for on person until they memorize it (which can be considered a terminating distribution path, since it's unlikely to be reproduced in its original form from that point any further). It's another completely different thing to bring it into a system of widespread distribution in a form that can be further distributed by each participating member to no foreseeable end. And while "sharing an experience" with a single person might be all right, I don't see any way one could claim that this means sharing it with such a wide audience in a way completely unintended by the original artist would be. <p>

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"Never let your morals get in the way of doing what is right" - Salvor Hardin
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Yes, look at how much Sony respects copyright. <p>-----
Do not taunt Happy Fun Zemyla.

<span style="font-size:xx-small;">I think boobs are the lesser of two evils. - Inverse (Pervy)
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That. Is fucking hilarous. <p><span style="font-size:xx-small;">"It's in the air, in the headlines in the newspapers, in the blurry images on television. It is a secret you have yet to grasp, although the first syllable has been spoken in a dream you cannot quite recall." --Unknown Armies</span></p>

... Wow. <p>

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Licensing agreements. Not copyright. :O <p>

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"Never let your morals get in the way of doing what is right" - Salvor Hardin
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Wow! I want to get me some communism! <p>[---------------------------]
"There is great disorder under Heaven, and the situation is excellent."
-Mao Tse-Tung

"I eat the talking bees because I am George Washington Christ"
-From "Bob the Ball"</p>

I don't get it. Too much nerd talk.

I thought the artists made next to nothing on album sales anyway? You want to support a band? Go to their concerts, buy their stuff. That money goes pretty much straight to them. Well, more than album sales, anyway.

Yeah, I heard album sales go mostly to the recording label. But yeah, way to go Sony! See who buys your CDs now! <p>--------------------

"If I have to grab a man's ass, you can smile." -Tolaris</p>

World of Warcraft hackers? :D <p>

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"Never let your morals get in the way of doing what is right" - Salvor Hardin
</p>Edited by: Idran1701 at: 11/18/05 9:34

How exactly do musicians make the majority of their income, anyway? It'd be interesting to see some sort of analysis on the topic to see exactly what sources contribute in what proportion to a musician's ability to not be broke. <p><div style="text-align:center"></div></p>

Wow. You know, I download music from video games and Japanese music, which is insanely hard to track down a CD of. Do they even sell soundtracks to video games? I vaguely desire to be somewhat legal.

Of course, I've discovered that Amazon.com's music section lets you preview a song from a CD, and it's often a really great song, so by downloading that perfectly legally, I make cool mix CDs. I'm such a geek. <p><div style="text-align:center"></div></p>

Catering: -$582 <p><span style="font-size:xx-small;">"It's in the air, in the headlines in the newspapers, in the blurry images on television. It is a secret you have yet to grasp, although the first syllable has been spoken in a dream you cannot quite recall." --Unknown Armies</span></p>

Bribes: $350 <p>[---------------------------]
"There is great disorder under Heaven, and the situation is excellent."
-Mao Tse-Tung

"I eat the talking bees because I am George Washington Christ"
-From "Bob the Ball"</p>

A full MP3 player: Priceless <p>

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I don't have numbers anywhere, but unless it's a CD that a band made themselves, and the only place you can buy it is from the back of their car, bands make pretty much fuck all from CD sales, all that money goes to the record labels. It's all concerts and merchandise. And when you consider that, especially for bigger (read: more famous) bands, the cheapest tickets you'll find are around $20, which is already the price of a CD, and more of that money goes into their pockets, I don't feel so bad about downloading most of my music.

edit: Not to mention that stuff like this Sony crap makes me want to download more out of spite.

Edited by: [url=http://p068.ezboard.com/brpgww60462.showUserPublicProfile?gid=ekds5k>EKDS5k</A]&nbsp; at: 11/19/05 4:08

See... It's reasons like this that make me proud to have made my own Internet Pirate outfit, including dollar store pirate eye patch, homemade t-shirt (ie. white undershirt with "Internet Pirate" written on it),random bandana, fake sword, and a broken keyboard that is now a huge belt buckle.

I'm sailing the seas of cyber space, and stealing fuck all.

Interestingly enough, Doc, one of the few exceptions to that is Metallica, who do actually get an appreciable amount of money due to smart contracting agreements with their labels. Paints that whole Napster thing in a slightly different light.

Also: Update. <p>

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"Never let your morals get in the way of doing what is right" - Salvor Hardin
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Fuck Metallica. There's plenty of reasons to hate them. Making shitty music, trying to sue every other company that has "metal" in their name...actually, that's all you need, right there.

Let's be honest here; the music industry is accustomed to selling physical objects. They may insist that music is a product, and not simply information... but in reality, it's both. Their music was safe and secure as long as it remained in a physical medium. Vinyl records, Casette tapes, and compact discs (before burners existed) were "safe," because the method to make copies of them was simply not feasable for the public at large. What disgusts me about all this is that sony seems to be grasping for another concrete, non-negotiable solution; they want a measure that consumers are simply incapable of circumventing, just like the good old days... except now, the platform is the consumer's own property rather than a disk or tape. This isn't about morals, and Sony isn't a justifiably indignant industry. It's more about a toddler throwing a tantrum on his first day of playschool. I think that's kinda obvious by now.

What would truly scare me is if Sony suceeded in securing their labels, and then started trying to limit acess to independant musicians who offer their music free of charge. Thin the competition a bit, maybe? I dobut it'd ever happen, but... <p>---
My head moves around inside the bag, it's not like I'm drinking through my actual eye socket.</p>