$750.00 per song???

Hi AS,


I suppose in one way or another we have all broken the law, or at least stretched or scratched it...however...

let me ask you a question...can I, in your opinion, go to HMV and buy 1000 CDs copy them, open a store, a sell my copies to the public?

or...

how about...download 1000 videos or CDs from the net, make copies, and sell them?

or...

how about...download 1000 CDs, make copies, and without selling them, just stand out in front of HMV and give them to customers?

or...

theft is theft...this isn't just about the artists, or the record companies, it's also about the small franchise outlets, and other people who are adversely affected by this.

excuses run rampant every time a criminal cries foul.

Eg ;)

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how about...download 1000 videos or CDs from the net, make copies, and sell them?

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You can, but you had better move to another country which allows this... :cool:

China and most former Eastern Bloc countries do, as well as most of Southeast Asia, not saying it's right, but hey...this may be a bad analogy but they spend millions of dollars to bust the guy with 5grams of weed in his pocket but yet turn a blind eye to the major drug traffickers, they know who they are......wether it's the local gangs moving this sh*t or the cartels, or for that matter the tons of heroin moving through Afghanistan now that security is better? or the opium coming from our new friends China.

Far too much effort is wasted on the minnows and not enough is put out to catch the major users/abusers, you want Columbia to stop importing cocaine, then shut their country down, blockade everything, nothing gets in and nothing gets out, their Government will soon see the nescessity to remove the bad guys in a hurry.....

Same with the pirated CD's DVD's from these other countries, when the RIAA and customs get moving on these people, then you may have less cynisim among everyone else.

I am concerned over the concept that it is acceptable to steal by using technology. It is dillusionary at best to state that the downloading of music without payment is not theft. Anyone with a basic understanding of right and wrong knows the difference here. This case really boils down to individual morals and ethics, and what actions an individual can convince themselves is justifyable vs. a corporations right to demand payment for goods produced.

I seem to remember in the late 70's & 80's the screams of the UAW and other unions over job loss due to automation. Seems to me that stealing of jobs by technology was bad back then and probably would still be so today. So many people have this belief that it is ok to steal as long as "I" am not the one being stolen from. Hmmmmm.......... I guess we can compare this to identity theft; IF someone becomes the victim of identity theft, it is because they made the mistake of using a check or credit card as payment for goods or services. The individual who stole the identity, or is using the stolen the identity, is not at fault because they just grabbed an available resource off the internet. (Albeit they may have had to pay a small fee.) Either way it is a case of stolen property and your morals will either justify the theft or make you feel guilty enough to not commit the theft.

The funniest thing i see about all this copy right crap is it has been gone over, although not as intensly by the media, before. Anyone remember ROM's? It was decided that as long as you had originally bought the game cartridge that you posessing its rom and console emulator was ok for backup reasons. The same applied to you copying a video onto a blank cassette for backup. It only became illigal when you started using said copies for profit, like it says on all movies on that opening copywrite warning. Or if you didn't buy it in the first place and its not a backup. If you notice the biggest common factor between everyone that has gotten nailed with the music industry is the fact that they are sharing thier downloads. Now i realise that there are probably differences between copywrite laws for music vs video, but the way i understood video copywrites was this, once you buy it you can do what you want with it, copy it, show it to friends, lend it to people, blow it up, feed it to your dog, WHATEVER you want as long as you do not do anything with it for money, such as holding a private screening and chargin people at the door. Now if i buy a movie and bring bob over who has never seen it or bought it, then it is not illegal for him to watch it. But this is still taking away monies from the people the benefit from the movie if bob had bought it as well. So why is it illegal for music to be shared in this same way? is it only the letter of the law that makes this difference? and if so why, is it because of the time the laws were written?

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I am concerned over the concept that it is acceptable to steal by using technology

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If you have "Cable" coming in to your home, how many connections do you have and how many are you actually paying for...........? This has been going on since Cable came out, install the first connection and as soon as the tech leaves, out come the "splitters" and the extra cables and away you go, cable in every room, now are you "stealing" in a sense, yes you are, but!! shouldn't the argument against that be, well I am paying for the cable to come into my home via the first connection from the outside, so basically what I do with it afterwards should be my right?

Or is it the fact that it is the signal you are paying for, and any increase in the signal shows more then one connection and so should have a charge applied to it???

So this being the case I would have to say that with over 250 Million in the US and 31 Million in Canada and say overall... that 100 Million have more then one cable connection that they are paying for, then boy the prisons are going to get full in a hurry...(just approximations) ;)

Edit: how many of you actually have more then one connection for cable and you are only paying for the one.....fess up, I do and I always have, as for those in the UK, I remember my Dad putting slugs into the power meter to keep the juice going. Everybody does it, or am I truly alone in this....how many of you members live in "Glass Houses".

Sure telling little susie and joey it's against the law to download music whithout paying for it is the right thing to do, it's the moral and ethical thing to do...but how many of you who state this, have extra cable outlets and are only paying for the one eh!!! 'Don't do as I do but do as I say" :rolleyes:

The RIAA is just suing people to keep their dead business model alive,,

Times have changed.. the RIAA has not..

The distribution part of their work has been obsoleted.. they should instead be thinking of other licensing methods..

But no .. they want to keep their little Monopoly going..

I remember a time when the only thing that would come up in my mind when hearing RIAA was the 'correction filter' for 45 and 33 RPM records..

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how many of you actually have more then one connection for cable and you are only paying for the one

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I will admit to this. When my mother got cable in her house back when i still lived there as soon as the cable guy left the first thing she did was have me go up into the atic and start splitting the signal so we could have it in all of the tv rooms.

I guess it all boils down to what exactly are you paying for. With video games, at least all the ones i have bothered looking at, you don't actually own the game or any of the contents of the box it came in. All you have bought is the right to install it on your machine and use it. The company in theory could come to your house for ne reason and with no prior warning and take that game back from you.

Now with the cable if you are paying for the right to watch it, then i would have to say yes the splitting is illegal. But, if you are paying for the signal, then i would have to say split that **** all you want.

I still don't see the some of the reasons behind all the music industries copywrite laws. Like i had posted earlier, why is it not illegal for me to let george come over and listen to my cd that he hasn't bought, yet as soon as i allow him to do the same via the internet it becomes illegal.

Steal cable that way? Heavens no!

In all honesty I'd never steal cable TV, although at the prices they're charging these days it's becoming more and more tempting...

BUT if I were going to do it, being a renter such as I am, living in a privately owned duplex managed by a 'management company' (meaning I never see my real landlord, and rarely see their (idiotic) maintenance man), and having the coaxial cables running outside the walls all down the front of both sides of the building (my connections and his both), it'd be truly easy to 'splice' into his cable (at one of the mfm connections) with said splitter, thereby adding my household's cable to his own. In order to appear 'more invisible' on their tracing circuits I'd pick up a 'signal booster' amplifier at radio shack for about 10 bucks, and *voila*. If he had broadband, all's the better, I already own that wonderful 'cable modem' to get access, or I'd offer to 'set up' his wifi inside for him so I'd have his key.

In reality - he's paying for his own cable. I've got digital cable which permits no theft (you gotta have the box) beyond the basic channels (which is what you see without the box even if digital's turned on) and broadband both. I pay out the nose for these services for two teevees in my household.

I do find it *very* odd that they charge per television for their tv signal, but don't charge per computer for their broadband (thank heavens for that) - cable > modem > hardware firewall > wired/wireless router > 2desktop and 2laptop systems all sharing the one 3meg broadband I'm paying for. BTW to you wardrivers out there, good luck phishing my key, most especially without me detecting and slamming you.

There are times when stealing is acceptable in my opinion...it is acceptable to steal food for instance if you have no other means available to you at the time...it is acceptable to steal clothes if that's the only means you have available to you at the time to clothe yourself or your family...it is acceptable to break into an empty house ( vacant ) if you have no other place to go to get out of "severe weather" as long as you intend no harm...it is acceptable to steal a gun from a friend who intends to use it to cause mischeif or harm to himself or others...

there are times it's acceptable to steal...and in my opinion they should not be considered criminals...and it's ridiculous that we prosecute them...

and then there are times that it's unacceptable...

eg. you want to increase your record collection.

Eg ;)

IMO the only thing you own as an artist is the live performance.
A recording belongs to whoever wants to make one. The entire
"recording business" is hopelessly obsolete, and doomed.
:cool: