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Is it wrong to download illegaly?

Jon
over 11 years ago

Hi,

I just thought I would start this discussion to see what people think about illegal downloads....

I can honestly say I have never done it. Mainly for the fear of downloading a virus. From a moral perspective I am undecided.

I love music and love to collect CD's and records. If someone was never ever going to hear a beautiful peice of music in their life because they could not afford it would it be OK for them to download it illegaly? If they could never create something because they did not have some expensive software and therefore never fulfill there full potential would it be OK to illegall download the software? However where do you draw the line? Do you then just help yourself to someones possesions? Also what if the owner (software designer or artist) is really struggling to make a living? Should that influence your decision to download?

I am not a big fan of the consumer economy and culture but thats maybe another topic.

Cool

  • over 11 years ago

    Hi timetrumpetuk,

    NAS21954 said:

    On a lighter note have a watch of this lovely anti-piracy video from the early 90s www.youtube.com/watch

    ...haha...I am not sure the makers succeeded in relating to the kids Smile. There are also quite a few older public information films on youtube showing the authorities struggling to relate and communicate with the youth and general public. They seem so naive.

    What do you think about how a music artist should make a living nowadays? I am thinking that cutting out the big labels is a must. Maybe offering a really nice product (vinyl or cassette package). Live shows are an option for those who actually like playing live but for those who don't then sales of recorded material muist be important. Making your music freely available is interesting with the option to donate via paypal is an idea I find intersting.

    NAS21954 said:

    I have never once had a virus that did anything on my PC. Its a;; about downloading from the right places. If someone came up to you in a car park and offered to sell you a Rolex, would you buy it? Probably not, its the people that do buy the watch that end up getting the virus.

    How would you know if you could trust one site over another? I would imagine all filesharing sites would seem unfamiliar to me.

  • over 11 years ago
    stranger said:

    As far as music goes, how do you know you are missing the most amazing piece of music in the world if you never heard it? Why would you want to download it if you don't know what it is?

    There's Youtube and Spotify. You can listen to the music on Spotify without buying it first.

    [/quote] That's true but they both rely on you having an internet connection at the time you want to listen to it. Also you are restricted as to what they have in their catalogue, which personally I find restrictive. They also charge you to use it on a mobile device. I'm not a massive fan of YouTube, the quality of peoples uploads varies and it's not as convenient as just having the album.
  • over 11 years ago

    Isha said:

    As far as music goes, how do you know you are missing the most amazing piece of music in the world if you never heard it? Why would you want to download it if you don't know what it is?

    There's Youtube and Spotify. You can listen to the music on Spotify without buying it first.

  • over 11 years ago
    i always enjoy this subject. It raises a lot of interesting questions. I myself have obtained copyrighted media and software since I was a boy. I have copied cassettes from friends, I have recorded TV programs with my VHS and now PVR. We used to copy Spectrum cassettes and then Atari floppy's. The idea of sharing media isn't new and is not going away, It's up to the people who supply the material to change with the times and adapt. I don't watch TV at all, I prefer to cherry pick the programs that I want to watch and watch them at a time that suits me. There is the IPlayer and 4od but they are either poor quality, are full of adverts, or are in a format that won't work on the device I want to watch it on. (4od makes you watch 7 adverts now before a program). I much prefer to download it "Illegally" in full HD with all the adverts removed and watch it at my leisure. In some ways the same as people did with VHS recordings, don't tell me you didn't fast forward past the adverts. If the service providers could offer me that, I would not have to download it, but currently they don't. I don't feel I am doing anything wrong or should stop. It's up to them to catch up with the way people want access to media. I download hundreds of albums a year. Some of it from people I know, most of it from people I have never heard of. I can, at my leisure go through them all and see what I think. If I don't like it, I delete it, If its good I will look at buying it if its a fair price, £12 albums are a thing of the past. I hate "things" so I don't own any CDs. with software, I like to use freeware as there is a lot of good stuff about. With paid software I like to try it out, in it's entirety, none of this 30 minute demo or limited features. A good fully featured 30 day trial. If this is not the case I will download the full version for free and try it, If I like it and it does what I want I will buy it. The best way I have seen in recent years, that really seems to work is to offer software for free, with "addons" that can be purchased which are held on remote servers. This way people get the full software from the start and are more likely to buy the addons to add functionality. It's a good scheme that works well, I have used a few myself. Another good method is to store users data on remote servers. That way you can pass the software around as much as you like but its useless without the subscription to your website to get access to your data. Even if the subscription is a one off charge of what your software costs. People having faster and mobile access to data makes this much more feasible
    I can honestly say I have never done it. Mainly for the fear of downloading a virus.
    If you update your anti-virus software regularly you won't get a virus. If you are downloading music the chances of getting a virus anyway is almost nil. Downloading software has a higher risk but with an up to date anti-virus program it will alert you straight away. I have never once had a virus that did anything on my PC. Its a;; about downloading from the right places. If someone came up to you in a car park and offered to sell you a Rolex, would you buy it? Probably not, its the people that do buy the watch that end up getting the virus.
    As far as music goes, how do you know you are missing the most amazing piece of music in the world if you never heard it? Why would you want to download it if you don't know what it is?
    Image if the world lived by this theory, what a boring place it would be. Exploring new music is one of my biggest joys, I found out I really like traditional Japanese music a few months ago. I have never been to Japan, and know almost nothing about their music but just by randomly downloading something I now know I do and because of that these bands are getting money from me. The whole "pirate" vibe that's about now is all conjured up by the media. Its been around forever and it will always be around. You might remember the fuss about "The Pirate Bay" website being block earlier this year. That was all hype, the "block" was bypassed weeks before it happened and the website its easily accessed ever for a complete novice. Its impossible to stop. On a lighter note have a watch of this lovely anti-piracy video from the early 90s www.youtube.com/watch Here is a video talking about why Piracy is good in the TV environment. It is very well presented and explains the situation very well. It is an hour long but it is interesting. Even if you just watch the first part your will get an understanding of they way things are. With certain areas the presentation is a bit dated as it is 6 years old. "I want it now" is my favourite quote www.youtube.com/watch
  • over 11 years ago

    Hi Isha,

    I agree, it is theft.

    Isha said:

    As far as music goes, how do you know you are missing the most amazing piece of music in the world if you never heard it?

    I agree. What if you had access to no music?

    Isha said:

    Why would you want to download it if you don't know what it is?

    It was more the idea of someone not experiencing something because of their limited finnancial capabilities that I was thinking about. For example if the person was unable to ever reach a financial threshold that enabled them to hear some specific music. With spotify and mixcloud this situation doesn't really exist, if you have a computer. If you don't have a computer then you can't download anyhow.

    I think people would want to listen to new unheard music just because that is what humans seek. They are curious. I guess they would not have to download it until they had heard it if they caould preview it elsewhere. They could however download it and then listen to it. If they decided they didn't want to keep it they could delete it.

    It must be very frustrating and disheartening to experience having your software hacked and stolen. There is something very wrong with this world. Maybe its got something to do with society as a whole.

  • over 11 years ago

    Hi Jon,

    My husband and I run a small software house. We barely break even, certainly don't make the millions that people assume is to be made out of writing software. Within hours of putting something out into the public domain it is hacked and available free to all no matter what security is applied. I consider it theft. We charge less than 1 American dollar for most of our products in the hope that people will at least buy it. We are now thinking of packing it in and concentrating on IT Support instead as at least then we would not need to claim Tax Cradit to survive.

    Large games of course are relatively expensive, but imagine the overheads involved for their large staffing levels, state of the art equipment, offices, advertising etc. Software programmers and artists Are highly skilled individuals who work for the love of it and are rarely paid the rates advertised in magazines.

    As far as music goes, how do you know you are missing the most amazing piece of music in the world if you never heard it? Why would you want to download it if you don't know what it is?