Music Piracy

[run]

Well Sentence IM'd me yesterday and started relentlessly preaching to me about how terrible music piracy is. I think he assumed because i put up links to albums, and posted a video burning Halo 3 that i am now some kind of ultra pirate that will burn anything and everything because its free. I didnt have the heart to tell him i probably own more CDs and vinyls than he ever will, but rather played along with his theory. Now in his eyes, i am a bad person, a chronic theif, have bad parenting, no morals, and have no right to have an opinion on any music what-so-ever.

In reality, i buy any CD i consider "worth it". But i do have alot of albums that i havnt paid for sitting on my computer. I have an intense amount of OSTs, Electronic & Metal CDs, but when it comes to hiphop im usually more reluctant to buy because of my pre-conceived notion that there are very few solid hiphop albums. I probably have around 70-80 actual hiphop albums, compared to around 500 hip hop albums (mp3) on my computer.

My question here is this, where is the line in the sand for piracy. When should and shouldnt we take advantage of the ease of downloading music for free. Personally i have no problem downloading a 50 Cent CD and never actually buying it. But if it was say Mr Lif or Little Brother, i feel the need to actually own the CD. I think its mostly knowing that 50 doesnt need royalties, therefore i dont see why i need to give money to his label/marketing groups because im not engineered to buy it because of advertising etc. Plenty of my friends swear never to buy CDs or games, and have the mentality that "why would i pay, when i can get it for free" and "i wouldnt buy the album anyway, so either way the artist isnt seeing my money" which is fine and i can absolutely see where they are coming from. I spose for me its not a moral choice, but just a conscious decision to actually want the CD in CD form with booklet etc.

So is it okay to have 1 pirated CD? what about 1000? Is there a moral difference?

Im certainly not here to judge your opinions like Sentence would, im just interested to see your responses.

[Inn Deppth]

I pretty much buy every game, because it's less of a hassle.. on the other hand, I download a lot of CD's because it's less of a hassle too. I do agree with you though, I buy the ones that I think deserve it (when I do have the money).

I like what Radiohead did for there new CD, they have it up on there website and they make you choose how much to give them for it. 100 bucks? for free? it's whatever you want.

[Jay-Rede]

my personal choice is to buy a CD, in which i dont buy as many as i used to, i have downloaded albums such as a couple of old T.I's and a few mixtapes, however i dont consider pirating to be a bad thing, and i certainly wouldnt judge anybody who would wish to do so, as it is a personal decision, and i strongly disagree with what has been said to you by the said individual.. so keep doing what you do

[Ruck]

music is the only thing i download.

i used to buy cds a lot and lets face it, music is a very expensive hobby.

the one thing that made me want to flip the fuck out was when i bought a new cd because i heard the first single on the radio and then i get the thing home (when i had no car) start listenin to some tracks...and theyre all SHIT, except for that one single. i wanted to murder the artist and if you tried to return it they were like "nope sorry, you probably went home and burnt the cd".

i know its wrong to dl music, but i really couldnt careless, if i can take advantage of a situation im going to do it. period.

edit: another point for run, do they have half the shit you listen to in stores in australia?

[Sentence]

Judging, it's what I do. I'm a Christian.

[Ruck]

and why are you still moderator? or do you just act without words?

[tryboro121]

Music piracy is committed by everyone involved in music today. Artists steal others artists styles. Sampling is stealing from other artists. Industry people steal from artists and from fans. Ticketmaster steals from fans. It's either steal or be stolen.

[Prospect]

I dunno, I have no problem with it at all, not to mention 90% of all the artists i download cds from currently have more money than I'll ever see in my lifetime

I just think in a world where you basically gotta worry about yourself only to get by, I shouldn't be concerned about actually buying their cd to help support them

also....for how into music i am, theres no way i could buy even close to a percent of it for how cheap of a person i am, if i went the 'moral' route I'd probably only buy 4-5 cds a year if that

and thats not gunna happen

[Sentence]

and why are you still moderator? or do you just act without words?

Excuse me? but my comment was complete sarcasm.


Anyway, I do owe run an apology because I was out of line but I don't talk to everyone online the way I did to you because I don't talk to very many people here from RF, I simply said that to you because instead of downloading stuff for yourself, which you do, a lot of times you post links for albums or other stuff. I just wanted to let you know that I thought it was wack. My belief about pirating still stands, it's stealing period. I don't care what excuse anyone has. And then for someone to keep fueling it by hooking up more people is 10x worse. My belief.

[Mister Official]

Sentence.. you're a poopdick.

[Sentence]

Sentence.. you're a poopdick.

I would post a clever GIF but anything associated with that is pretty homoerotic :(

[Prospect]

hey, at least we're not at bad as the government

nobody beats their stealing and other sins

[Vick Slate]

iDownload like none other....alot of shit but cd's i do buy

common, little brother, kanye west, lupe fiasco, john legend, alica keys...for some odd reason i bought a couple other wacked out cd's that weren't worth the money but i couldn't find the disc online :)

[impolite]

ive not fownloaded games or movies or anything before. takes so long, lags my computer, consumes space and half the time you only ever entertain them for a certain time and then forget about them entirely. its better to rent.


i download music tho yea. ive a vast collection of vinyls and cds too but most of it is from before my own downloading craze began. i understand why people are anti-piracy and stuff but i simply do not feel strongly enough one way or the other. half the music on my computer id not heard before i downloaded it. and had i not liked it, i couldve deleted it. happens all the time. but if you blindly go out and buy a record only to find you dont like it, thats money lost. and im not in a position where i can take risks with the money i do have. so i use the alternative option. and also, a fair bit of the music i listen to will not be found in a record store round here. imagine finding a chino xl cd in australia? unlikely.

[cstyle246]

$Free.99 but if it deserves support it will get my support...