Compact Discs and Piracy

riverhippo · May 01, 2011 12:30 PM

The thing is, as long as no one is making profit off a song that isn't there's, it's considered ok by a lot of people. And if you believe that is the case, then you must believe sharing is ok.

You may say the difference is that it's a cover and not the original recording. But what are we arguing is the product to be sold? The song? or the recording? Both? Are the lyrics of the song included in that?

I was watching a music piracy documentary that had a guy say, "If piracy keeps up, it will be impossible to make a living off of making music." What a bunch of bologna. Not only will they, 'should they', have several opportunities to make money with live performances, but to question the legitimacy of music being an occupation is limiting. Sure, I know people personally that are into music so much, that it's their occupation. Whether it's recording or playing an instrument. But this quote speaks as if people have relied on music to put food on the table for them and their family forever. Only for the past century have musicians made a large sum of money for the songs they write and the music they perform. And even with piracy, they are still making more money than the faithful bluegrass roots bands made in the late 1800's.

I also heard another argument that says musicians are not getting the accolades they deserve because for every 500,000 downloads of a song, they lose a platinum record. Boo Hoo. And anyways, music media has already started giving recognition to the amount of downloads artists get in addition to all of the crappy CD's they release.

IMO, it was exploitation in the beginning when the first musician bozo decided [i]"I'm gonna charge $5 for people to buy my recordings"[.i]. And piracy, though illegal, is buying back that power from the people that should have never had it in the first place. Music will still be there in the morning, I promise.

Aceedwin · May 01, 2011 1:05 PM

Okay, RH, listen. It is the right of anyone to trade their skills, possessions or knowledge for anything they wish, provided this does not have a very negative impact on others (i.e. selling expensive bottled water in a disaster area is pretty immoral). It is also the right of anyone to choose to trade with them, and experience the benefits of this trade. I think we can agree that not hearing music will not have a hugely negative impact on your life. And music falls under an application of their skills. If you wish to benefit from this skill, you have to decide whether it is worth the trade demanded by the musician.

If, however, you choose to cimcumvert the trade, and benefit from the trade regardless, then you are stealing. If you steal someone's ladder that they are selling, then you are stealing a possession. If you get someone to build you a conservatory for pay, and don't pay them, then you are stealing labour. If you get someone to teach you mathematics for money, but don't pay them, you are stealing labour and knowledge.

So what I'm trying to say, is you are taking a benefit you are not entitled to, and this benefit comes at the cost of another. It has not been given to you. You have taken it. This is theft.

This is the essence of fair trade. Learn it.

Swaffles, stealing something because you haven't got the money to buy it is immoral. Justifying it like that is both immoral and stupid. And then raging that everyone who thinks you are doing something wrong must be an atheist is stupid. So yeah, your ignorance and immorality kind of balance out on this issue. Interesting, right?

tl;dr Digital pirates are hateful thieves, and are nowhere near as ballsy as real pirates.

Neotyguy40 · May 01, 2011 9:33 PM

riverhippo wrote:

IMO, it was exploitation in the beginning when the first musician bozo decided "I'm gonna charge $5 for people to buy my recordings". And piracy, though illegal, is buying back that power from the people that should have never had it in the first place. Music will still be there in the morning, I promise.

Buying back power? What power?

Are you saying music should be completely free? Those who want music should be able to succumb into greed by gaining it freely? What happens to the musicians? From what I see, it seems that people become jealous that musicians can get paid to do what they love because they have a special skill.

Let's say everyone had a device that can duplicate anything they wished (computer). One person buys a car (music) and lets everyone copy it. Now everyone can enjoy that car everyone is happy in the world, right? Well, now that everyone can get the car for free, the dealership (publisher) doesn't make any money. So now everyone who worked there is out of a job, including the engineers (artists).

But hey, just like our founding fathers said:

Majority Rules, Minority Rights... Except that second part, I guess no one should care about that.

riverhippo wrote:

*snip*

If that's your comparison to piracy you obviously have no idea what piracy is and what harm it does. First of all, that is YOUR BAND playing it. They call that "Artistic Freedom". It can be the form of a Cover (music), mod (game), or parody (anything). The point is, because it's not the Eagles playing it, it won't effect them because people will still want the Eagles to play it. It's like someone making a remix of it and posting it online.

Secondly, there are two parts of a song that is considered property. The first one is intellectual property. The Eagles own the song. You don't. The second part of the song that's considered property is that copy of the song. You own that copy of the song, they do not.

Seriously, if it's that difficult to know the difference between piracy and artistic freedom, then you really shouldn't be arguing about it.

Aceedwin wrote:

Okay, RH, listen. It is the right of anyone to trade their skills, possessions or knowledge for anything they wish, provided this does not have a very negative impact on others (i.e. selling expensive bottled water in a disaster area is pretty immoral). It is also the right of anyone to choose to trade with them, and experience the benefits of this trade. I think we can agree that not hearing music will not have a hugely negative impact on your life. And music falls under an application of their skills. If you wish to benefit from this skill, you have to decide whether it is worth the trade demanded by the musician.
If, however, you choose to cimcumvert the trade, and benefit from the trade regardless, then you are stealing. If you steal someone's ladder that they are selling, then you are stealing a possession. If you get someone to build you a conservatory for pay, and don't pay them, then you are stealing labour. If you get someone to teach you mathematics for money, but don't pay them, you are stealing labour and knowledge.
So what I'm trying to say, is you are taking a benefit you are not entitled to, and this benefit comes at the cost of another. It has not been given to you. You have taken it. This is theft.
This is the essence of fair trade. Learn it.
Swaffles, stealing something because you haven't got the money to buy it is immoral. Justifying it like that is both immoral and stupid. And then raging that everyone who thinks you are doing something wrong must be an atheist is stupid. So yeah, your ignorance and immorality kind of balance out on this issue. Interesting, right?
tl;dr Digital pirates are hateful thieves, and are nowhere near as ballsy as real pirates.

Let me sum it all up for them:

Definition of Theft - the wrongful taking of another's property
Wikipedia article on Property.
Intellectual Property is a type of Property.

SpyroDarkdude01 · May 11, 2011 10:45 PM

I don't like to pirate.
But I do it anyway.

I only pirate when there is no other way to get the music/game/film. I'm not like you Americans (or Europeans).
We have *bleep* all access to internet shopping sites and what ones we do have (Mightyape.co.nz) are very limited.
Going into a store to buy something is even harder - your more likely to get struck by lightning then to find what your looking for. tongue

So, I pirate.

ontels · May 12, 2011 6:49 PM

What country are you from?

JazzJackrabbit · May 12, 2011 6:59 PM

I emulate PSX games. I have the original discs, so I just use that.
I play Spyro the Dragon...
On a Mac...
With an Xbox 360 controller...

I'm a rebel.

#26 May 01, 2011 12:30 PM

Re: Compact Discs and Piracy

#27 May 01, 2011 1:05 PM

Re: Compact Discs and Piracy

#28 May 01, 2011 9:33 PM

Re: Compact Discs and Piracy

#29 May 11, 2011 10:45 PM

Re: Compact Discs and Piracy

#30 May 12, 2011 6:49 PM

Re: Compact Discs and Piracy

#31 May 12, 2011 6:59 PM

Re: Compact Discs and Piracy

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