Are downloads really killing the music industry? Or is it something else?

[Gas One]

no ones getting fined or sued. im sure you can google and find four people in the entire world in the last 5 years that were caught downloading. that might be the lowest capture rate of any criminal act, ever. youre talking about people who were the only people to have advanced copies of moviees that werent released and steven speilberg himself went after them, or like the dude who stole the copy of chinese democracy and leaked it to the public. you aint about to go to jail for dling an album from an artist whos struggling to pay his bills. you may go to jail from breaking into pixar and stealing the reels and putting it online.. but fining or suing a downloader is a waste of time. the time and money youll spend in court on one person will further negate your profits while extra downloaders are passing through right under your nose. why would you bother?

 

[CHAPO GUZMAN]

^^and money.. theyre already losing money.. by sueing and all the court shit its more $$ coming outta pocket. They swear all these people theyre sueing have the money to pay back all the shit they downloaded.

 

[bay2mi]

no ones getting fined or sued. im sure you can google and find four people in the entire world in the last 5 years that were caught downloading. that might be the lowest capture rate of any criminal act, ever. youre talking about people who were the only people to have advanced copies of moviees that werent released and steven speilberg himself went after them, or like the dude who stole the copy of chinese democracy and leaked it to the public. you aint about to go to jail for dling an album from an artist whos struggling to pay his bills. you may go to jail from breaking into pixar and stealing the reels and putting it online.. but fining or suing a downloader is a waste of time. the time and money youll spend in court on one person will further negate your profits while extra downloaders are passing through right under your nose. why would you bother?

Thats incorrect. Theres been over 30k lawsuits from the riaa against people for sharing music. Most settle out of court for a few grand, those that dont end up going to trial and end up owing 100k+

 

[Gas One]

do you have paperwork of these alleged 30k lawsuits within 5 years or know where i can look them up?

what were the stipulations behind that?

you know as well as i, theyre only going to target certain people

and in 2010 the chances of winning that in court is pretty much out of the window

you can go on youtube right now and stream anyones album, for free, as many times as you want

you go after the person who made it downloadable, not the downloaders. go after the head of napster not the users. that could be 30k in people trying to make cash off of the cd industry.

 

[pbarb666]

Yea in school we discussed how major record companies are filing class actions against college students and web servers for illegal downloading, so they are trying to crack down, but are having a very hard time doin it...so i'm not to worried about it.

Can anyone clarify exactly what is legal and illegal when it comes to music sharing? i've downloaded a bunch of out-of-print albums online that were put up by other people? is that illegal? or is it just illegal to post up albums? or what? any copyright lawyers in this bitch?

 

[Gas One]

Can anyone clarify exactly what is legal and illegal when it comes to music sharing? i've downloaded a bunch of out-of-print albums online that were put up by other people? is that illegal? or is it just illegal to post up albums? or what? any copyright lawyers in this bitch?

thats exactly why no ones getting fined or sued, there is a huge grey area right now with downloading and it only gets bigger as time passes and technology grows.

then you have to realize that the music industry is in trouble and they have to direct their motivation to other things in order to save a sinking ship, spending time in court on a few people isnt going to help. they want to find new ways to make you spend such as the ringtone so the heads are in the marketing departments right now and not threatening legal action for something the entire world is doing

if you have like 50 million in music on your computer and you know someone can detect that, thats sorta your bad

 

[Gas One]

PS to answer that one question i believe a file becomes illegal when its been on your computer for 10 days, thats for cd's and movies and games and promotional copies of things are anywhere from 48 hours to 10 days

i used to get promotional copies when i worked at virgin and it was just 'not for resale' but they seemed not worried at about it getting put on the net, more worried that you would make physical money from something that is free

 

[AKAZIE]

Maybe the Music Industry should think about "How much is are product really worth?" Release the full length album for the DIE HARD FANS which runs from $10-16.
and then Bring back the Maxi-Singles. Throw the only 3 (if that) dope songs that people are "illegally" downloading on the album and sell it for half the price. $5.00. that way we still get a high quality product without all the filler garbage tacks.

 

[Gas One]

they need to just put music in the hands of people who are allowed to have it and in turn enforce restrictions and fines and threats of being sued on the person who releases it to the public. the music industry is entirely too sloppy with how they deal with the security of their investments. allowing too much partying and bullshit at the studio and fools is stealin cd's on the way out to come up.

the real problem is the music industry itself...theres so many loopholes in the game on purpose because the industry is full of snakes..they cant trust radio because theyre doing deals under the table...the playing field is a snake sucking on its own tail

youre only gonna play fair with people who play fair

 

[T-Rip]

the rap industry is completely suffering cuz of downloads and is also why theres so much wack mainstream music. The shit that is popular is directed towards the people that actually buying albums, beezys and teeny boppers. I agree about the loopholes though. It sure isnt hard to notice that all the top rappers on the West arent even releasing albums cuz theres not enough support. Yukmouth the only one that doesnt give a fuck it seems. Mitchy Slick is the only other artist is seems that is willing to drop solos and he has a whole area in San Diego behind him. You name it Glasses, Bishop, Ya Boy, Mistah Fab, Clyde Carson, and Crooked I all arent releasing solo albums cuz the shit will flop.

 

[bay2mi]

do you have paperwork of these alleged 30k lawsuits within 5 years or know where i can look them up?

what were the stipulations behind that?

you know as well as i, theyre only going to target certain people

and in 2010 the chances of winning that in court is pretty much out of the window

you can go on youtube right now and stream anyones album, for free, as many times as you want

you go after the person who made it downloadable, not the downloaders. go after the head of napster not the users. that could be 30k in people trying to make cash off of the cd industry.

They go after whoever is sharing the file, whether they introduced it or not. You can see some of the old ones here: http://sharenomore.blogspot.com/
you have to use www.archive.org to see the links on riaa.org since they are dead now. Just recently they said they werent going to sue people anymore and just get them kicked off there ISP.

For something newer you can check http://www.eff.org/wp/riaa-v-people-years-later

 

[Mac Jesus]

The record industry does sue people. But I ain't scared because they only sue children, and grandparents, and single moms, and dead people, and I ain't any of those. (check the links).

A great article on the subject is: http://www.demonbaby.com/blog/2007/10/when-pigs-fly-death-of-oink-birth-of.html

in which the author discusses file-sharing and why people should not buy music from major labels.

Don't buy CDs, don't buy iTunes downloads, don't buy from Amazon, etc. Steal the music you want that's on the major labels. It's easy, and despite the RIAA's scare tactics, it can be done safely - especially if more and more people are doing it. Send letters to those labels, and to the RIAA, explaining very calmly and professionally that you will no longer be supporting their business, because of their bullish scare tactics towards music fans, and their inability to present a forward-thinking digital distribution solution. Tell them you believe their business model is outdated and the days of companies owning artists' music are over. Make it very clear that you will continue to support the artists directly in other ways, and make it VERY clear that your decision has come about as a direct result of the record company's actions and inactions regarding digital music.

 

[Gas One]

yeah that shits hella old like 2003

and people dont really use the same mediums of file sharing now

if the main objector isnt getting sued it makes little sense to go down the tree and swipe at the little folks...besides it being media terrorism..if you wanna cut a tree you start at the bottom of the trunk and you dont cut the leaves

 

[bay2mi]

yeah that shits hella old like 2003

and people dont really use the same mediums of file sharing now

2003-2006 for the blogspot, and eff goes up to sept 2008.

if the main objector isnt getting sued it makes little sense to go down the tree and swipe at the little folks...besides it being media terrorism..if you wanna cut a tree you start at the bottom of the trunk and you dont cut the leaves

There was alot of talk about there tactics, like the RIAA was sending pre-lawsuit papers that basically forced people to settle out of court because it would of cost more to hire a lawyer then it was to pay them the few grand.

But, thats why they are going to stop suing file sharers and instead put the pressure on the ISP's, because they finally realized it doesnt work.

 

[trademarktaz]

After everyone found out you can get the shit for free easily, people didn't want to go have to pay money for it.

 

[Gas One]

instead put the pressure on the ISP's

itll be years before thats even figured out..

plus going against the ISP's is a completely different money ballgame but i wish them luck

the ISP's will more than likely just play innocent and i wouldnt doubt if somewhere within the agreement theyve covered their asses at some point for that and placed the blame solely on the user

 

[bay2mi]

itll be years before thats even figured out..

plus going against the ISP's is a completely different money ballgame but i wish them luck

edit: yeah, they dont plan on suing ISP's, just getting users kicked off. and when it comes to cable/dsl, you dont have that many choices.

 

[Gas One]

yeah, torrents....i honestly stopped using torrents to download 4 years ago though..i mean youre leaving a paper trail for your dling..youre basically throwing it in their faces

unless they remove megaupload or rapidshare or change up the rules....and shit liek aim file transfers..i mean sorry if torrent cats are getting fucked but were still straight over here...and if that dont work theyll just change filenames...theres way too many layers to peel in downloading on the net

 

[Fucky McFuckerson]

Thats incorrect. Theres been over 30k lawsuits from the riaa against people for sharing music. Most settle out of court for a few grand, those that dont end up going to trial and end up owing 100k+

Most of these sharers they are after, are UPLOADERS, not people like us who DL. Its the same concept as the dealer/junky. You don't arrest the junky, thats pointless.

 

[bay2mi]

hah, double edits

but yeah, torrents are the wrong way to go for media. Usenet, website downloads or nothing basically.