Limewire, Mediafire, Filestube....you know
No one seems to want to pay 99cents a song.
Yeah were all guilty of it--I'm guilty of it too. Downloading songs for free is very illegal, very tempting, but seems like the only way to do it nowadays. We never think about what happens when we get caught, 'cause really, no one really has ever been caught yet, right?
Well, Minnesota resident Jamie Thomas-Rasset was fined $1.5 Million for illegally downloading and sharing 24 songs on an online file sharing service. That translates to $62,500 a song. This case has become a poster child for the record company industry's attempt to crack down on illegal downloading.
I have to come to favor downloading my music for free. Fast, free, easy, and most importantly, FREE. I understand why the music industry is cracking down. Somebody's got to pay the artists and concerts don't exactly pay for all of it.
Going back to an example in the 'UnSpun' book we read long ago, downloading songs illegally can kill an artist's career simply because the fact that music downloaders liked his/her songs better than music buyers. For others it provides free promotion by giving it away for free and letting people sample the music, especially for unsigned talent. Blessing and a curse?
6 comments:
Why should some people have to pay for music while others just steal it? I'm not sure how I feel about whether or not people should have to pay for music, but I do believe that everyone should either have to pay or get it for free.
This is why people shouldn't illegally download music. Even though "everybody" seems to do it because nobody wants to pay a dollar (or even more now) per song, illegal downloading can definitely lead to horrible consequences. This isn't the first story that I've read about someone getting sued/fined for illegally downloading music. Even though the chances of it happening to you are slim, what if you happen to be the one person that gets caught? That's why people should be safe and just support their artists and buy songs instead of taking the risk of illegally downloading them.
Downloading songs for free is illegal. even though many people do it, if everyone begins to download the song they want for free, then the music industry would be in ruins. i feel that this punishment was fair because it serves as a prime example to people everywhere that they should pay for their music and the fact is, STEALING IS WRONG!
Although we always hear stories about the couple of outliers who get fined for illegally downloading music. The number of stories that we hear actually pales in comparison to the real number of people who are illegally downloading music.
I don't feel the punishment was fair because there are millions of people downloading music illegally, so why should this one person be singled out to pay when everyone else is doing the same exact thing? I understand and support the music industry cracking down on this issue, but while doing so, they should fine everyone who has ever downloaded music illegally, not just this one woman.
This fine is very puzzling to me, I can understand why she got the fine but the ammount is puzzling. I think downloading music illegally has grown in the rest months because the prices of songs had gone up so much. I know that when I first started using itunes it was 99 cents per song, no matter what song, but now song songs(usually the most popular and the ones that everyone wants) are now 1.29. That might not look like a big incease but it can get costly when buying alot of songs at once.
That seems a little excessive to me.. 1.5 million dollar fine for only 24 songs?
Is he being punished for the downloading or the sharing of the files? Because if I recall correctly, there was another similar case to this. The lady had shared her files which led to her being caught.
But what about the music that can't be purchased through iTunes? like those underground artists who promote their music through letting their listeners download through torrent sites?
Also, I thought that by downloading music for free you are sacrificing the quality of the music? I've listened to CD quality music vs YouTube or other mp3 quality. There's actually a big difference. It's quite obvious what is CD quality and what isn't. (when you compare them)
Think about it an 8gb iPod would take around $1,600 dollars to fill with songs. And you might end up deleting these songs later on, as you are bound to get sick of some of them.
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