Why do people care about piracy?

[renegade7]

Just read a post about how the RIAA won an appeal to charge some kid $675,000 for sharing a few songs. I don't quite understand what the point is. How is that worth so much money? I doubt that the music industry actually LOST $675 grand. Also, I very much doubt a college student has $675,000 just sitting somewhere, so I very much doubt that the RIAA is ever going to see that money. Finally, if you were an artist, wouldn't you just be happy that people are enjoying your work? I mean, being compensated for your work is definitely nice, but isn't REAL art about the message and enjoyment of the viewers, not the money?

EDIT: Sorry about there not being a link, pages are taking FOREVER to load so I couldn't find it

 

[Rawne1980]

Ask yourself a question.

Do you honestly believe those "artists" do it for free?

Of course it's about the bloody money. Yeah some of them appreciate their fans more than others but if that money stopped rolling in then there would be no band/singer/screaming bloody banshee.

I'd love to see how people would survive if they did it all purely for arts sake. It's their job, they do it for employment, they enjoy it and they want paying for it.

As sad as it is, money makes the world go round and without it your pretty much homeless and starving.

 

[genericusername64]

1. Post a link
2. It's not the artist that makes the decision to sue, its the record company. They probably would be satisfied with people listening to their music.
3. It's a government branch, they have to find a way to justify their paychecks by making things seem

When really it's only worth less than 1% of the fine

 

[dickywebster]

Forget the artists, do you really think they care if one person downloads their stuff?
Its all the company itself trying to get as much money as it can, piracy is just an excuse to fine anyone they can with stupid amounts of money.
Heck if the big music labels didnt make such a fuss, it wouldnt be seen as much of an issue, most people i know dont really think there is an issue beyond greed as piracy isnt something that can easily be stopped.

Personally i think this piracy issue is just the labels reacting to news they might lose money a little over the top...

 

[Loop Stricken]

Big bankrupting numbers to dissuade your average part time pirate not to take all that hard-earned money out of their pockets, basically.

Never mind the multiple studies that show the hardcore pirates also buy the most shit.

 

[razer17]

If I were a musician, I'd release my music through normal channels, and would also put it up on Demonoid or the Pirate Bay, and maybe include a link to a paypal donation site or something, so downloaders could still pay a little, if they want.

Personally, the RIAA is pretty much raping the Tenenbaum guy. I'm not discussing whether it's right or wrong what he did, but I think taking a college kid for that kind of money is despicable. Let's be honest, if the RIAA had their way, we'd have to own multiple copies of CD's or MP3's if two or more people happened to live in the same house.

I have a fair few CD's that my mum owns on my laptop, which is pretty much the exact same thing as pirating. I'm sure if they could they'd sue me too. Or the BPI here in England, as would be more applicable.

 

[StriderShinryu]

The record company knows it will never get anywhere close to the amount of money it "won," and they don't really care. The fact is, knowing that one poor sucker has essentially had his life ruined financially by pirating will probably stop others from doing it too. It won't stop all pirates, and the odds of you being the one who gets caught are pretty miniscule, but if it stops even a handful of people from loading up a torrent engine it will have done it's job.

 

[MASTACHIEFPWN]

Ask yourself a question.

Do you honestly believe those "artists" do it for free?

Of course it's about the bloody money. Yeah some of them appreciate their fans more than others but if that money stopped rolling in then there would be no band/singer/screaming bloody banshee.

I'd love to see how people would survive if they did it all purely for arts sake. It's their job, they do it for employment, they enjoy it and they want paying for it.

As sad as it is, money makes the world go round and without it your pretty much homeless and starving.

Fun fact! The artist barley gets ANY money from recorded albums, (In most cases) they get less than 1% profit made from that song you just bought! Most artist use it as publicity to where they can make money (Touring) so yeah, I don't feel sorry for the artist when pirates do what they do. Nor do I feel sympathy for the fat cats behind the RIAA.

 

[Housebroken Lunatic]

I'd love to see how people would survive if they did it all purely for arts sake.

Which they actually would.

People created art in terms of music and pictures SEVERAL THOUSAND YEARS before they could even turn a modern sense of "profit" out of it. It didn't help their survival in the slightest (which was a big issue back then since survival was pretty much all there was to do for the man of the stone age), but STILL archeological finds have revealed, primitive man-made musical instruments and cave wall paintings.

And the same thing would happen today. Even if piracy was to make the music industry crash and burn and make it financially impossible to actually turn a profit as an artist from making music, you'd still have these "morons" (quotationmarks intended to display sarcasm) making, recording and distributing music anyway.

"But why?" says the gullible liberal/capitalist robot of modern society. "Why would anyone do something that doesn't earn them some of that allmight dollar!? Does not compute! Syntax Error!"

Well because IT'S HUMAN NATURE! This capitalist, trade-based, globalist society of today has only been a norm for a fraction of mankinds total existence. This concept of "I should try to make MONEY off of my daily activities" is just that: a concept. It's not a defining trait of our nature. Our nature is more in line of being social creatures, but who tend to get bored with just meaningless existence. So we find/invent excuses for keeping ourselves busy in ways we think are aesthetically pleasing in some way (making music and listening to other people making it being one of them). This behaviour existed before freemarket capitalism did.

WHich is why I find it so incredibly stupid when some people on the escapist messageboards (the same messageboards who pretty much declared themselves the last "sane" and "intelligent" place on the internet), rant about how piracy will bring down the videogame industry, along with pretty much every other artistic industry that exists because "those poor, poor artist won't want to make art if they don't get paid for it! boohoo!" while they all happily jump on the corporate bandwagon, defending DRM's and make snide remarks towards innocent people being charged with ridiculous and uncalled for fines by satanic megacorporations who get their kicks out of destroying people's lives.

Fact: neither videogames, music, movies, books or whatever will just "vanish" because piracy is active and flourishing. Someone, somewhere, somehow will ALWAYS spend some of their freetime creating these pieces of art for the sheer sense of self-satisfaction that it brings. The only people who are really threatened by piracy are pretty much money-grubbing middlemen with no real artistic talent at all (record lable companies, publishers etc.) but who REALLY DO spoonge and cling to people with artistic talent with parasitic intentions.

Why the hell would people who claim to LIKE games/movies/music actually defend these parasites who do NOTHING to further the industry or it's creative people what so ever? It's completely beyond my comperhension.

Yet it happens on these messageboards for some reason. Ain't it wierd?

 

[lacktheknack]

Finally, if you were an artist, wouldn't you just be happy that people are enjoying your work? I mean, being compensated for your work is definitely nice, but isn't REAL art about the message and enjoyment of the viewers, not the money?

No.

Art takes a LONG time to do, usually, and takes big chunks out of any second career you go for. So unless they have a thing for starving in seedy alleys, EVERY artist is doing it partially for the money.

Idealism is nice, but it's ridiculously unrealistic.

 

[Hitokiri_Gensai]

didnt you learn in school stealing is wrong?

 

[Housebroken Lunatic]

Finally, if you were an artist, wouldn't you just be happy that people are enjoying your work? I mean, being compensated for your work is definitely nice, but isn't REAL art about the message and enjoyment of the viewers, not the money?

No.

Art takes a LONG time to do, usually, and takes big chunks out of any second career you go for. So unless they have a thing for starving in seedy alleys, EVERY artist is doing it partially for the money.

Idealism is nice, but it's ridiculously unrealistic.

I guess you're one of those mindless automatons who pretty much disregard everyone who engage in artistic pursuits without any sort of profit-based motivation. Cracking intelligence liberated statements like: "Duh! You haven't sold a painting, then you're not an artist!"

No?

 

[lacktheknack]

Finally, if you were an artist, wouldn't you just be happy that people are enjoying your work? I mean, being compensated for your work is definitely nice, but isn't REAL art about the message and enjoyment of the viewers, not the money?

No.

Art takes a LONG time to do, usually, and takes big chunks out of any second career you go for. So unless they have a thing for starving in seedy alleys, EVERY artist is doing it partially for the money.

Idealism is nice, but it's ridiculously unrealistic.

I guess you're one of those mindless automatons who pretty much disregard everyone who engage in artistic pursuits without any sort of profit-based motivation. Cracking intelligence liberated statements like: "Duh! You haven't sold a painting, then you're not an artist!"

No?

No, I was being cynical and saying that the vast majority of them do it for the profit. If someone truly doesn't, then more power to them.

How did you you get anti-charity out of anything I said?

 

[robert01]

What is wrong with piracy?

Technically it's stealing, which is illegal in all civilized countries.

The artist makes zero dollars, and zero cents off the download, which means they make less money, and lets be honest, people aren't just download super pop star music, they are downloading music of all kinds from all different genres.

And the argument that they make almost nothing from the labels, really doesn't apply to indie bands, those suave mother fuckers recording music in their garage/basements etc. selling their music on iTunes, they need you to buy their music to fucking eat, have a dry place to shit, and a bed to procreate in.

And that really is the biggest driving force behind the anti-piracy movement, money. If artists didn't get paid, and lived on a by donation basis because of their fame like in the old days, the art industry would crumble, and there would be less creative works for us to enjoy. Capitalism brought a new way for artists to survive, why should we deny them that right? Does your mechanic expect to be paid? Your accountant? Lawyer? Hairdresser? They sure fucking do, musicians provide you with the service of entertainment, pay them.

The RIAA in reality is just a collection of money hungry cock suckers though. Most of the reason piracy is a rampant as it is is because of them, and the other record labels that they represent. The music industry makes a considerable amount of money, and they just want it all. They overcharge for CDs, downloads, and anything else they are involved in. I feel if they would relax on pricing a bit, and worry less about lining their pockets with gold, and lower the prices a little on content, some of the people that do pirate, would purchase music. Pretty much the same as any other digital entertainment industry.

 

[Housebroken Lunatic]

No, I was being cynical and saying that the vast majority of them do it for the profit. If someone truly doesn't, then more power to them.

How did you you get anti-charity out of anything I said?

"The vast majority"?

Look, the vast majority of artist's have "real" jobs to finance their lives and artistic pursuits. I.e the way it should be.

Being a "full time" artist is not being "more artistic" than being a part-time artist or hobby-artist. Art is art regardless of how much time the artist spent on it.

And if you think about it, which do you really think is in the majority between the "full time" artists and the part time artist (meaning: people who have normal jobs and spend their freetime making art)? I don't think it's necessary to actually pull up statistics on that one.

 

[Keltrick]

It wasn't about how much money they lost, it's about the crime in question. Its the same as the $500 fines for littering, here and there. It wasn't $500 worth of destruction, but its to dissuade people.

To everyone saying "if you're a REAL artist" or "if I was an artist" and essentially saying they would give away music for free, as an added option 'for the enjoyment of fans.' No. That is hilarious, but no. If you were an artist who took pride in their work what you REALLY would be thinking is "after putting so much blood, sweat, and tears into my medium, weeks without sleep, fighting to get published and recognized, while perfecting my style, wouldn't it be nice if I got something out of it. You know, like doing it for a living."

Music costs money to be made, especially in our music industry. It does not make an artist somehow less of one, because they want to be reimbursed in some way for the vast amount of time, effort and creativity they poured into their work. Musicians deserve payment for their talent, if they would like it, just as home decorators, dental technicians, and carpenters do for theirs. If you tell a dental technician you're paying for your replaced teeth by 'enjoying their art work', they will laugh at you.

 

[Erana]

WHich is why I find it so incredibly stupid when some people on the escapist messageboards (the same messageboards who pretty much declared themselves the last "sane" and "intelligent" place on the internet), rant about how piracy will bring down the videogame industry, along with pretty much every other artistic industry that exists because "those poor, poor artist won't want to make art if they don't get paid for it! boohoo!"

Enh, the "The Escapist is the last bastion of sanity on the internet!" thing is just a phase people go through when they first get on the Escapist and are dazzled by the notion that the Escapist doesn't put up with leetspeak.
The Escapist is plenty flawed and filled with contradicting opinions on things.

Really, though, I think the biggest issue most of the people here have with piracy (Other than what their personal moral compass makes of it) is big businesses' reactions to it. I mean, it does annoy me that I have to deal with DRM because of other peoples' actions.
Of course, I'm also bothered by things like rootkit-based anti-cheat systems in many MMOs today, which makes me have to deal with sketchy third-party programs if I can even get them to work in Wine, even though I've never cheated on a multiplayer video game, and never intend to.

I mean, Piracy bothers me a bit, but the only time I really get peeved on principal is when people steal from good indie devs and artists whom being a patron of would actually make a difference to. I mean, the fact that Tale of Tales didn't go belly up in making The Path sets a wonderful precedent for video games as art.

 

[The Night Shade]

Let's be fair here most people that download pirate stuff lives in places where he/she can't get what he/she wants or because the price of the product is overblown in his/her country while in others is fairly cheap

Also concerning this issue most of the money goes to the record company not the artist and i think is stupid to charge more money he/she should pay the original cost of the product