sharing files and getting sued

[chewable tablet]

i was just reading a new york times article about those 4 college kids who are being sued for sharing copyrighted material. theyre being sued for 150,000 bucks a song because the record people claim thats about how much they woulda made had people actually bought the albums.
im just wondering what everyone thinks about this.
honestly, its pretty hard to not be bias here because i sure as hell aint gonna give up my ability to get free music. i want to know just how much money the music industry is honestly losing though, not their inflated approximations. and anyway, times change and technology will only get better and more advanced. theyre fighting a losing battle. how in the hell could they possible monitor billions of computers worldwide? no matter what they do, there will still be computer geeks nerding away at their computers and creating new file sharing programs as soon as one is shut down.
the end.

[matt182]

the record companies have no rights any more.. the music scene is now how it always should have been. i want to be able to pay for music if i want to, not shell out £12 for a CD when i only want a couple of songs. record companies (and metallica) can suck my cock.

[itookadumponu]

they can never stop us. neverrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr dumb fucks.

[evil zach]

When I can be garunteed a record with more then one good song on it for less then $30, II'll stop downloading music. Untill then, I wanna here it before I spend my money on it, so I know what I'm getting into.

[the_champ_is_here]

What's funny is on the case for The Decline it says, don't buy for more then 11.99 i think. The store we went to was selling it for 14, we told the manager and we got kicked out of the store.

[amishman]

As much as they try, it will never stop. Sure, they will shut down one and ten others will begin (file sharing programs that is). The way I look at it is this, they had this coming, charging way too much for CDs. And another thing, I think it stops the "one-hit wonder", why by a CD when it only has one song?

Did you here about Madonna's site? She had songs listed for downloading them, and you downloaded them, it was Madonna saying, "What the fuck do you think you are doing?" And I read an article today saying her site was hacked with the real songs listed. It could have been set-up by Madonna though...

[nofxer]

Originally posted by OffBasil
What's funny is on the case for The Decline it says, don't buy for more then 11.99 i think. The store we went to was selling it for 14, we told the manager and we got kicked out of the store.

hah yea i noticed that at some walmart i was at...i showed the checkout lady and shes just like" ok whatever" and brought it down from 17 bucks to 11....and its the coolest looking cd ever in the world

[MaybeOneDay]

your right. they will never stop us from downloading cd's. thats what i do, and ive burnt hundreds of cds. and i dont plan to stop. metallica are fucking assholes and so are record companies.

[cscpunkass]

file sharing is a blessing from god to bring down the greed of those bastard record executives. They take like 90 percent of the profits when they are no talent assholes who do nothing more than press the record button and make a little booklet. And something that costs less than a buck to produce is sold for 20 bucks. and they have the nerve to call US thieves. I like to support bands, and I know that they dont get shit from CD's. Instead, I go to their concerts and buy T-shirts. it helps em out a lot more.

[steve-0]

actually, it helps a band alot if you buy their CD from them at shows. all merch is good to buy straight from the band. i do it whenever i can.

[cscpunkass]

My bad. You're right about that. I was referring to buying cd's from stores and such.

[Slick Shoes]

i read in the paper about 2 guys who had a website and were exchanging mp3's with it ..... They got a choice between 5 years jail or 60,500 Aussie dollars (150,000 US)

[unsung_zero02]

they only spend like 65 cents on each copy and sell it for over 10 bucks. they're ripping us off..im gonna protest...or..go on strike..either or.

[Slick Shoes]

In aust .. they sell CD's for like 30 - 40 dollars

[unsung_zero02]

Originally posted by Slick Shoes
In aust .. they sell CD's for like 30 - 40 dollars

dude that sucks.

[Slick Shoes]

Originally posted by unsung_zero02
dude that sucks.

Thats why i'd rather downoad MP3's and rip them into CD's because If i bought every CD I liked ... I'd be broke as.

[unsung_zero02]

Originally posted by Slick Shoes
Thats why i'd rather downoad MP3's and rip them into CD's because If i bought every CD I liked ... I'd be broke as.

yeah that makes sense..i live on whats called a "military base" cuz my dads in the navy and such. and the cds here are cheap. i bought the taking back sunday cd today and it was 11 bucks.

[Stompemplay]

fuck them.

they can never kill all the programs, it costs THEM money every time they try.

Im surpised they havent gone after Kazaa yet. If they do I'll get bareshare, or try again for that Mirc shit.

[nubi nere]

its lars not metallica.

i dont understand how cassettes were so cheap a couple of years ago and now we have cds (which are cheaper to produce) cost even more?? hmmm

also, think people that just download a whole cd and then burn it are lame. i mean obviously you like the band and cd if you download the whole thing, so buy it. support the band. but i do understand, a lot of cds just have 1 or 2 good songs. but some people dont even plan on buying a record, even if they love it and it was 10 bucks.

[Shatter590]

i but any cd i want if it's less than 10, but if it's like 17 99 or more, i don't think its worth the money, and i can't afford it either.

[Frodo]

Originally posted by steve-0
actually, it helps a band alot if you buy their CD from them at shows. all merch is good to buy straight from the band. i do it whenever i can.

yeah thats how all cds should be sold, big stores should just quit selling them

[towhatend]

without downloading songs I wouldn't know half the bands i know now or have ever heard of them. Its great exposure for bands but people do abuse it by not buying the cd's and just burning them.

[Billy]

Originally posted by towhatend
without downloading songs I wouldn't know half the bands i know now or have ever heard of them. Its great exposure for bands but people do abuse it by not buying the cd's and just burning them.

That dude that just got his cd's stolen should have just burnt them then it wouldn't have been a big deal. But that is true I wouldn't know a lot of the bands I do without downloading it first.

[lookitsmarc]

Originally posted by Slick Shoes
i read in the paper about 2 guys who had a website and were exchanging mp3's with it ..... They got a choice between 5 years jail or 60,500 Aussie dollars (150,000 US)

Aren't American dollars worth more than Australian dollars?

[dandesmet]

None of you have anything to worry about. With the recent RIAA courtroom loss to Kazaa/Grokster, they are reeling a bit. This comes just a few months after the Naval Academy gave rather lenient punishments to the students whose computers they siezed months ago for trading music.

The case metioned in the first post on this thread was settled outside the courtroom for between 15,000 and 17,000 dollars, or pocket change compared to what the RIAA originally claimed as a realistic reward. If you look at the case information, specifically the number of songs being traded, and do the math, it comes out to a few pennies for each song. In the case, the RIAA didn't even win enough of a settlement to pay the lawyers that worked on it.

Eventually, there may come a time when people have to pay for downloads; but the price will be reasonable; no more than 50 cents per song, which is far more reasonable than the current cost of cds. In fact, if you remember back to when cds were a new technology, the RIAA promised the cost would go down to $6 for an album once cds became ubiquitous and costs came down. That occurred, but the RIAA just pockets the extra money they make. Eventually, consumers will realize this fact, and stop paying such outrageous prices for cds.

[Slick Shoes]

Originally posted by lookitsmarc
Aren't American dollars worth more than Australian dollars?

Oh yeah .. shit my bad.
I meant it the other way round.