Policing the Internet

[nedflanders]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7329801.stm

What are your opinions on this, do you illegally download/share music? Is there really any difference between sharing music and swapping CD's and DVD's with your mates apart from the fact it easier using todays technology?

[Ethel]

I don't do it and I won't do it. It is cheap enough to buy legal downloads, and if I like something enough to want to own it I will pay for it.

I am a big music fan and believe all the people involved in the production of the track I buy should be paid and get the recognition.

It would be technically possible for one person to buy one copy of a track, put it on a P2P and the whole world and his mother download it. It is illegal and morally wrong.

I don't care how wealthy an artist or the studio is. Lord Sainsbury is a hugely wealthy man, but that doesn't mean I can help myself to a jar of Sainsbury coffee.


Support the music industry.

[Gromit]

To a certain extent, the music companies have only themselves to blame. They were very slow to see the digital revolution which let the pirates and the culture of getting music illegally for free get established.

It to a computer company, Apple and iTunes to make it happen and the record companies were literally dragged into the real world of downloads. Apple have now sold 4 billion songs for which the record campanies happily take the revenue without contributing very much at all.

I have always shared music. I used to make cassette tape compilations and gave them to friends. I do the same on CD. I consider I am doing the record companies (and more importantly the artists) a favour by making people aware of music they would normally not hear.

As long as it is not done for commercial gain, I consider it to be acceptable.

30 years ago, every ablum you bought had a sticker on warning that 'Home Taping is killing Music'. It didn't.

[Gromit]

I would just like to add, that I do not share music on the internet, and I always pay for my downloads.

[Booldawg]

The BPI and music industry are just pee'd off that they cant rip off the consumer as much as they did; especially in the UK where CD prices were much higher than elsewhere.

I doubt anyone in the industry from artists down to people 'behind the scenes' have had to downsize their lifestyles in lieu of this situation. TBH in the history of music the notion of making money from it is relatively new and it looks like the gravy train has come to a halt.

[Quinlad]

Many artists are now distributing albums almost as a loss leader.

They accept that people will share it illegally but that in turn will create enough of a following to support a stadium tour, which is where the real money is.

I'm happy to do my bit.

[jake-the-peg]

An expression involving horses and stable doors springs to mind!

Not as funny as today's other IT story (which I'm surprised not to have seen asked here) about preventing Paedaphiles from getting onto social networking sites by making them register their e-mail addresses.

Apparently they still need to "work out the details"

No kidding!