illegal downloads?

[Rayansaki]

It's technically theft by law. Doesn't mean I morally object to it. It has far less effect on the music and film industry than they'd have you think. They still make enough to line their pockets with baby seal fur if they fancied it. What is killing the music and film industry is greedy proucers taking a much larger cut than they deserve.

It does however have a big affect on pc gaming. Devs are now either refusing to release for it (gears 2) or has RETARDED drm (asscreed 2)
It is theft. I morally object to theft as my father owns a business based on software.

I call bullshit on devs refusing to release on PC due to piracy, since there's plenty of piracy on the x360 as well and there was even more on the PS2 and it never stopped developer's from adopting those consoles.

The reason devs stopped developing for the PC is that it is really hard to make a game work on 1000 unique machine combinations, and 10 different resolutions and aspect ratios in order to be available to everyone without unreasonable system requirements. Console developing allows for more powerful gaming with less powerful hardware by optimizing the code around the console hardware.

 

[Nazulu]

It is theft, yes, but it isn't destroying the music industry. The music industry was already dying before the downloading rage started. In fact, file-sharing has even given an impulse to CD sales. People who download a lot are often also the people who buy more CDs.

Yeah, that's roughly what I was going to say, even though there is no proof that most people who download will end up buying the CD.

Well, I wouldn't say the music industry is exactly dying but the creativity is.

 

[Weaver]

It is copyright infringement, not theft. They are clearly classified under law as such. If you were put to trial for sharing music you would be charged for copyright infringement, not theft.

 

[DigitalSushi]

The music industry has an archaic financial system, the reason cassettes and MiniDisc's were phased out was they thought it would force people to buy CD's only, they hadn't relied on the MP3 player with its low cost HDD's and Memory to become so prevalent coupled with P2P software that completely blind sided them even though they beat Napster they couldn't beat its clones.

Also the Youtube generation has completely destroyed the sense of copyright laws, RickRolling would mean that Youtube owed a record label 20 million dollars or whatever because of how many times its been viewed, the problem is if 7 million people listen to a radio show it doesn't mean that radio show has to pay out for 7 million CD's not to mention that most if not all of those listeners didn't want to hear that shit in the first place.

Personally, I love Rick Astley.

 

[NLS]

I'm against making money out of pirated and copyright protected content.

 

[Laughing Man]

Hello fellow Escapists. My friends and I have this conversation often. What are your views on file-sharing software? Do you class it as theft?

Personally, I think it is theft and it is slowly destroying the music industry. So, what do you think?

Woah, now this is an interesting one. Does the guy who always drives at 130Mph mean that all car owners are breaking the law? NO what you have done is take something that was designed for a legitimate purpose and stuck it firmly in to a single category. File sharing software IS NOT illegal, never has never will be. File sharing software is used by many people to freely distribute software and media that has no copyright attached to it. It is used because it is cheaper to have many people use their own computers to distribute your freeware than it is to set up a fixed website to host it for you.

The fact that file sharing software can also be used to distribute copyrighted material does not mean that file sharing software is illegal. It has had it's purpose corrupted.

I am amazed that no one else who has posted has mentioned this fact and have all automatically jumped on the file sharing software = pirated media bandwagon.

If however the question was meant to be, is file sharing copyrighted material illegal? The the simple answer is yes it is. You can argue about the exact illegality of it amongst yourselves.

 

[NoblePhilistineFox]

I believe that as long as there is no profit being made, it is protected under "fair use"
but I learned about "fair use" from a really lazy teacher, so my facts may be wrong :/

 

[Kapol]

Edit: Was ninja'd by above poster, but ^ is 100% right.


It is 100% not theft. Theft means you take something physical they spent money publishing and take it away from them. Piracy only results on one less "Potential" customer, and no money loss came from it, only potential income is lost.
And potential income isn't really income, because chances are, the person who pirated something didn't intend on buying it anyway, even if he had no means of acquiring it for free.

Spoiler: arrr

Yes, but with how easy it is to pirate things now, it does come out as a loss. Let's say maybe 1 out of every 100 people who pirate something would have bought it. That's still 1 person's sale that they're losing at least, likely hundreds or more. Say 100 people don't end up buying a 10 dollar CD since 10,000 people downloaded it. That's still $1,000 that the store, the record company, and the artist lost. Admittedly it would be split between them all, but that's still a decent chunk of change per CD.

Back on topic: I don't pirate things that are avalible for purchase, including games, movies, and music. This is mainly due to the fact I think that, while not killing most industries, it is hurting them. in situations described in this article: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/102486-Indie-Dev-Sometimes-Its-Okay-to-Steal-My-Games it's more of a gray area. But if you could buy the thing you're pirating, then you shouldn't pirate it.

 

[Red Albatross]

Clearly not theft nor copyright infringement. Nor is it destroying the music industry since the artists don't make jack off the actual CD sales anyway.
Plus if you actally think that it is that bad then you should not buy used games/cds nor borrow shit from a friend since borrowing is basically the same and the used market does more damage to the industry.

In short, this.

Since I'd rather not have a post with no content of my own, though, I've always hated people calling it "theft." I'm not arguing the legality for now, leave that alone for a second, but damn it, call it what it is, by law. It's not theft. Theft is stealing a CD from a music store. File sharing is copyright infringement. Semantics are important in law, so don't look like an idiot using the wrong words.

The music industry, as it is, is already dead. It's only delaying the inevitable decomposition. Its business model is completely archaic, and since the record company executives are too greedy and too daft to change, they will be swept away in the current of technology. Good riddance. Artists make very little from CDs, if you like them, go see them. It's that simple.

The games industry is obviously different, but piracy isn't the reason developers have shied away from the PC as a platform. It's an excuse to cover greed, laziness, or any combination of the two. They think it's cheaper to develop for consoles, and since executives are too shortsighted to see past their own nose, they think the solution is to stop developing for PC, instead of taking a more sensible route (sort of like the Valve route - digital distribution, long-lasting and diverse game engines, etc.).

 

[Wicky_42]

nope, it is NOT theft. it was ruled on by the sepreme court. they say theft is when you TAKE the original, but piracy is COPYING the original.

I'd like to see how that holds up in court. Call it whatever you like it's still technically illegal. But as I said. Doesn't mean I agree with that.

Heh, which part of "Ruled by Supreme Court" did you miss there? Lol...

That doesn't make it legal, but it does stop it from being theft. Copyright infringement is, I think, what you would be charged with.

 

[razer17]

Hello fellow Escapists. My friends and I have this conversation often. What are your views on file-sharing software? Do you class it as theft?

Personally, I think it is theft and it is slowly destroying the music industry. So, what do you think?

A: Studies show that pirates on average buy more music. Just sayin.

B: File Sharing software IS NOT ILLEGAL! Torrent technology isn't illegal, Usenet isn't illegal, even Limewire isn't illegal. Hell, the WoW updater uses file sharing technology to make downloading updates quicker.

Just to prove my point:

http://www.legittorrents.info/index.php
http://www.clearbits.net/

 

[Rayansaki]

Yes, but with how easy it is to pirate things now, it does come out as a loss. Let's say maybe 1 out of every 100 people who pirate something would have bought it. That's still 1 person's sale that they're losing at least, likely hundreds or more. Say 100 people don't end up buying a 10 dollar CD since 10,000 people downloaded it. That's still $1,000 that the store, the record company, and the artist lost. Admittedly it would be split between them all, but that's still a decent chunk of change per CD.

First off, out of those 1000$, the artist would have only got 100~400$. Second, 10$ saved by a costumer from buying A, will often be used to buy B, specially when B is better than A, making the artist who made B gain from piracy on A.

Going back to gaming, fact is, good products get sold. You might look at a 200k Half Life 2 piracy number, but when you divide the number of copies sold by that, you get a lower factor than say, Spore, a much crappier game. Developer's should stop worrying about piracy and DRM, and start worrying about delivering the best gaming experience possible, and they WON'T lose money.

Do you think Blizzard employee's worry about piracy in Starcraft 2, or Valve employee's about piracy in Portal 2?
No, they just swim in their pile of money on the morning, and go on making excellent masterpieces of gaming in the afternoon.

The same thing applies to artists and movie studios.

 

[dragonslayer32]

Hello fellow Escapists. My friends and I have this conversation often. What are your views on file-sharing software? Do you class it as theft?

Personally, I think it is theft and it is slowly destroying the music industry. So, what do you think?

A: Studies show that pirates on average buy more music. Just sayin.

B: File Sharing software IS NOT ILLEGAL! Torrent technology isn't illegal, Usenet isn't illegal, even Limewire isn't illegal. Hell, the WoW updater uses file sharing technology to make downloading updates quicker.

Just to prove my point:

http://www.legittorrents.info/index.php
http://www.clearbits.net/

I never said it was illegal, it was just my opinion which I still stand by. Although, you have given a very valid point which I never knew before.