The Filesharing Conspiracy

Originally posted by v3_exceed
The internet has not killed the music industry. Today we have artists producing and distributing their own music directly to the fans. We have a wider and more interested population base than ever before and people who would never be able to enjoy this media have been able to become fans and later purchase the media if/when it becomes available.

The sheer amount of money that has been generated by the movie studios clearly shows that people will still buy the media, still attend the theaters even though they can download and enjoy the media at home. Maybe it's time for the movie studios and the music distributors to wake up or to step aside and allow technology to really help introduce new industries or new business models that can be profitable and not at the expense of each person becoming a criminal.

honestly, i believe you hit the nail on the head right there. this, in my opinion, is not a conspiracy to make the entire country criminals. its just a massive failure on the part of the music and film industries to adapt to a changing paradigm. there are record labels like Asian Man Records, Quote Unquote Records, and Community Records (i am actually involved with the last one) that are using the internet and free mp3 downloads to their advantage. free downloads for people to listen to, and putting out vinyls so people feel like they are getting something more substantial than a cd for their money. really, the solution is just a more viable business model. sure, they wont get rich doing what they do, but they put out some quality music and are only really looking to pay thleir rent. nobody gets screwed, everybody just works really hard for the love of music and the belief that people will care more if you keep your integrity.

although the internet has made it possible to musicians to be heard by more people than they ever were before without the support of a major record label, developments in recording technology have made it possible for ANYONE, no matter how horrible they are, to record music, put it on the internet, and burn their own cd's. the sheer amount of bands out there is mind-boggling, making it very difficult for good musicians to stand out in the crowd. without big advertising budgets, DIY and independent music gets railroaded by the big guys.

the corporate music industry has completely alienated the listeners from the artists, and this has become the biggest problem out of all the filesharing hooplah. most people these days only want that one song they hear every hour on the radio, so bands write albums that are more a collection of songs, almost like writing a book without any real plot. gone are the days of anticipating a new release, purchasing it, and going home to sit down and LISTEN to the WHOLE thing with your friends. instead, we put in our ear buds and put our ipods on shuffle. people dont care about the artists and frankly, the artists dont care about the listeners.

put simply, everybody just needs to start caring more. listeners need to understand that if they want their favorite artists to continue making making music, they need a little support. artists need to understand that they need to produce a product worth buying. everyone knows a cd is NOT worth even 10 dollars, especially if the buyer is just going to throw away the packaging, rip the cd to their computer, and put it on their mp3 player.

whats the moral of the story?
DO YOUR PART. BUY A RECORD PLAYER. i promise it will be the best thing to happen to your listening experience. you will go out of your way to find music to buy. it becomes an addiction. you remember what listening to music is really about. and if you write music, it will remind you that music isnt about writing hits. its about writing 30 minutes worth of material that is enjoyable all the way through. its about going out of your way to influence people in a positive way. instead of wanting something from each other, we should be more willing to give to each other.

Originally posted by Power_Semi
I'd like to "open your eyes" to the reality of file sharing.
I wrote a book, it took me 12 months, it was my livlihood.
Them some scum sucking "file sharers" took it upon themsleves to deicde it should be free.
So my income is gone, and the upshot is that I won't be bothering to write anything else.
Therefore our "advancement" stops dead in it's trakcs, since no one will work for free.
The only people who think making other peoples efforts free to everyone else is a good idea are the kind of people who sit on their backsides and contribute nothing in the first place.

Bet you'd love that you self interested, blinkered moron.

Ok, this is obviously a shill. First off you have no ability to construct a sentence. Secondly you have no ability to spell.

I highly doubt you would have written a book, and if you did and it was so popular it was pirated, then any successive works would also be popular, and you would be signed by a publisher who would fund your next work.

Writing a book, is not your livelihood, selling the book would be, but only after you had written it, yet you choose to call others morons..

..Ex

reply to post by juniperberry


It goes way beyond just music, musicians have the luxury of doing shows and getting paid that way, big bands like the Rolling Stones make much more money from concerts than they ever did through album sales. That of course doesn't really help the unknown musician who will inevitably fade into obscurity. But writers and artists have just their work to fall back on, and I've seen my own work on torrent sites even though I gave a free sample, so the excuse that they'll pay if given the opportunity is a lie.

This new generation of troglodytes are the same morons whose first thought after witnessing an accident is to pull out their camera phone instead of helping. They'll probably all breed children as useless as they are, but in the off chance that one gets through with some talent, they can piss away their dreams and thank their parents for making everything free! And of course hope that there's lumber mill jobs for everyone.

reply to post by Power_Semi


Did you seek legal action? How did they obtain your book? Did you put it online? Did your publisher? Was it sold in book stores? Knowing the medium is rife with "thieves", did you personally allow the entire novel to be published online without a disclaimer stating that anyone caught illegally downloading your book would prompt you to sue? You have to cover your own ass, cuz no one else will. Bottom line.
Technology is a double edged sword, and the Internet is no exception.

[edit on 27-6-2010 by DHSreallybugsme]

reply to post by Skyfloating


I don't believe this is a conspiracy in any way shape of form.

What it is simply, is the ability of the public or the people of the world have out grown the formats of the old industry's. As you can see the people of this world continuity evolve and grow, that is the natural state of thinks of this world if you don't, then your like an 8 track no where to be seen.

Like they say in business if you don't change they you stop to exist, but by who, by the people of this world.

The internet gave the people of this world a new tool to explore and use that is by no means the fault of the people. Just because the people have come up with ways to use it to there advantage goes to show how fast a society of people can change the way the world does things, and shows how slow the ones that want to provide us with stuff are slow to change.

Take a look at it this way, The fashion and clothes industry of the world have no ability to patent or copy right any piece of clothing that is made.

A new dress or shirt could come out tomorrow and you could copy it and sell it with no problem. This forces the industry to innovate and compete with each other, they survive and grow. If they took the other industry's approach, sowing machines, thread and cloth and button, zippers would all be e legal why to stop you from making cloths.

What would have happened if the fashion and clothes industry took the approach of the movie and music industry, just think if you were caught weiring e legal clothes you could go to prison. What would happen if the fashion and clothes industry just gave up making cloths because we copy them, can you live with out cloths what is more important, your cloths or a song or movie.

If fashion and clothes industry, can function in this manner so can the other industries they have no choice change or die.


JMO

Originally posted by el katz
To those that think everything should be free: Divest yourselves of all material goods by giving them away. Labor for free and give away your knowledge and talent for nothing. Then wait to see if society returns the favor by keeping you alive. Odds are, it won't. You'd be a bum.

I think that's the thing that bothers people the most. If we lived in a world with a machine that made food and water materialize from the air, free housing (provided I could go out into the woods and built it myself, which is only fair), infinitely-generated energy, and free Internet, I would be happy to contribute to society for free. The problem with this scenario is that we still rely on money, so the thinking goes, "Why should I work if I'm not making money?" This gives us a culture of uncreative robots who only work for the sole purpose of supporting themselves. How is this different from 100 years ago and before? When we used to work (on the farm, hunting animals, etc.), we could directly see the fruits of our labor. Now, we are given green pieces of paper. In terms of buying things we couldn't normally make, that's good, but it also leaves us dependent on the system to provide for us.

The Internet has evolved far too quickly, and as a result, normal living has been left behind and negatively affected. We know better technologies exist (cars running on water, nearly limitless energy generators, etc.), but the government doesn't want to release them or let them be released by others.

Originally posted by TylerKing
reply to post by juniperberry

 

It goes way But writers and artists have just their work to fall back on, and I've seen my own work on torrent sites even though I gave a free sample, so the excuse that they'll pay if given the opportunity is a lie.

this is why artists cant just rely on internet-based media. i give away half of both my albums for free download, and i sell plenty of albums.

Originally posted by mooseinhisglory

Originally posted by TylerKing
reply to post by juniperberry

 

It goes way But writers and artists have just their work to fall back on, and I've seen my own work on torrent sites even though I gave a free sample, so the excuse that they'll pay if given the opportunity is a lie.

this is why artists cant just rely on internet-based media. i give away half of both my albums for free download, and i sell plenty of albums.

This is exactly what will make you successful. Not give away everything, but enough so that your fans can get to know you, all over the world and still provide them an avenue where they can financially support you.

For those people saying the fans wont, even sites like Pirate bay, and Demonoid accept donations, which they actually receive. So this just shows that people will help when they feel what they are getting is worth it.

..Ex

Originally posted by mooseinhisglory

Originally posted by TylerKing
reply to post by juniperberry

 

It goes way But writers and artists have just their work to fall back on, and I've seen my own work on torrent sites even though I gave a free sample, so the excuse that they'll pay if given the opportunity is a lie.

this is why artists cant just rely on internet-based media. i give away half of both my albums for free download, and i sell plenty of albums.

I don't and neither do writers, but if the future is going paperless then internet based or digital is the only option. Amazon is selling the Kindle, Apple is selling the iPad, we as artists are at the mercy of these huge corporations and people on the internets. So in this bright shiny future all the artists of every form have to rely on the honesty of people when it comes to their livelihood. Yeah, have you been on the internet?

As always, you have provided a wonderful post.
To illustrate your point further with A perfectly timed read;
2 minutes before I clicked on your post I was reading the "New video stuns UFO researchers with it's clarity" -- On the VERY FIRST PAGE of answers I find this post:
-------------

Originally posted by LittleSecret

 

Its freaken 3D, even I could make that character in 3D max, you guys can download the pirated version from Shareminer.
ZZZ This is exactly why I never come to UFO threads, because I'm always disappointed.

-------------

I wanted to reach through and smack him for being so openly pro-piracy by even going so far as to give the location to where he's obviously downloaded the program before. No mention of how many people, programmers and companies have toiled to make such a wonderful program.

So thank you again Skyfloating for eloquently summarizing an issue and possible future demise from such a culture being allowed to thrive.

b

Originally posted by v3_exceed
This is exactly what will make you successful. Not give away everything, but enough so that your fans can get to know you, all over the world and still provide them an avenue where they can financially support you.

For those people saying the fans wont, even sites like Pirate bay, and Demonoid accept donations, which they actually receive. So this just shows that people will help when they feel what they are getting is worth it.

..Ex

Is this a joke? Where exactly do these donations go, to the people they enable users to steal from? Because I haven't gotten a single check from either one of those sites.

I'll admit I'm a pirate, and I never try to mix morals or whatever in with it. I pirate, simple as that.

It is funny though how kids grow up getting told by hollywood and nickalodeon that pirates are glamorous, sexy, good, from Lazytown tv show to Pirates of the Caribbean. Then when they get older and do pirate they get condemned. good catch-22 system.

but me I don't like spam tv so I pirate. I can't stand trying to watch a 20 minute tv episodes with 30 mins of commercials in it. That is why I have no tv service anymore I pirate and have my vid card hdmi out to my tv. And use media center like a tivo.

Course today's spam and being on disability drives my piracy more for me personally but I make no excuse for it.

I'm a pirate and proud of it.

This topic is very near and dear to my heart for several reasons. Ok technically downloading copyrighted content is "illegal" I get this. But let me give you a scenario.

I have an xbox 360 system. I bought it new when it first came out for $400 bucks. Thats $400 bucks going to Microsoft. Now the only reason I bought it was because I knew I could download the games for it. I am not rich, paying $60+ per game is ridiculous especially when most are crap anyway. So the only reason I bought it was because I could download the games. I would have never bought it otherwise. So if I couldnt download the games I would have never given microsoft the $400. You see? The company didnt "lose" money, they would have never got it in the first place.

Let me give you another one.

Adobe Master Collection CS5 $2,599

There is no way in hell I would ever be able to afford this product EVER! That price is so ridiculous its insane. So basically if I couldnt download it I simply would not have it at all. Again Adobe is not "losing" the money. They simply never would have had it.

And the last scenario.

Lets say someone creates a device that can take a group of billions of generic atoms and create whatever you want.(This is becoming a reality by the way...) With this devise you can make a ferrari and computer, whatever you want assuming you have the blueprint and the correct amount of atoms.

So you start up the machine and you load the atoms in. You load the blue print for the new Ferrari Italia 2010(gorgeous car by the way). It hums for about a day and out pops a brand new ferrari exact to specifications.

Is this illegal? This is exactly what you are doing on your computer when you download a file or software. See society has just freaked out because we can do this now. My suggestion to all software companies, musicians, artists, programmers etc. Dont offer a digital version of your product and it wont be freely distributed. Or you could offer it free to the public and offer a donation so that people that are rich can give the money they have the entire world can enjoy your software.

Most downloaded software: That Norton is a shocker considering how bad it is.

1. Symantec Norton Anti-Virus 2. Adobe Acrobat 3. Symantec PC Anywhere 4. Adobe PhotoShop 5. Autodesk AutoCAD 6. Adobe DreamWeaver 7. Roxio Easy CD/DVD Creator 8. Roxio Toast Titanium 9. Ipswitch WS_FTP 10. Nero Ultra Edition

-tech.blorge.com...:%20/2008/02/24/top-10-pirated-software-list-announced/

reply to post by Cito


"smack"

second line gives you another "SMACK"

b

reply to post by illusion987


Well then by all means lets give you a house as well since you probably can't afford that either.

I own Adobe CS3 and it's NOT the master collection with every single program available like you mentioned. Buy just photoshop.. anything but don't try and excuse yourself for taking something for free.

b

i don't believe that it is wrong to download media "illegally". you don't deprive the company/writer/musician of anything. neither profits, nor merchandise. you see, nowadays people would rather go without instead of paying for something. so the only way they would have gotten it, is if it were free. they would never have paid money for the media in the first place, so the company isn't losing money from that person.

i think what is wrong, is for people to think they can own something they merely discovered. old copyright laws need to be scrapped, and new ones need to be put in place. how would the new system work? i have no clue, but the present system is very flawed.




edit for spelling errors

[edit on 27-6-2010 by Bob Sholtz]

Sure you can argue that piracry is theft ..but its more like walmart leaving big screen tvs in their parking lot overnight then complaining because nobody walked in the store to purchase one.

reply to post by Bspiracy


the scenarios mentioned by illusion987 are very real, and are true. i would like to hear your rebuttle to his proposed situations, instead of a copout.

A friend of mine laughed at me the other day because I still buy CD's. I wasn't even aware that nobody buys CD's anymore. I still buy books. E- books just don't do it for me. I get a crick in my neck from staring at the screen too long. I don't mind spending the cash. I do download free software, mainly just open source stuff, I don't like shareware, nagware or demos

reply to post by TylerKing


im sorry, but i can only speak from my life experience, and the fact that it IS working for me. my job title, if anyone ever asked, would be MUSICIAN. i dont have another job. your skepticism and negativity on the subject wont change the fact that i work extremely hard in this format and have been fairly successful in the DIY/underground scene. and guess what? you are only a slave to the corporate interests if you allow yourself to be. how much time do you spend writing and promoting what you wrote? have you even tried to get creative and try a different format to see if it works? make a website, put a donation button, and invest some money to get some books printed to sell as well. there are independent printing companies that do short-run jobs for independent novelists. sounds like youre just pissed at the industry and the people youre trying to reach without putting the amount of work it actually takes to make a living as an artist.
i tour 7 months out of the year and write a full-length every year. i earned it, and honestly dont particularly appreciate you trying to make me look like i dont know what im talking about.