No it doesn't all go to fat cat executives. It goes to marketing and paying for VMA awards There are sound engineers, song writers, producers and the hundreds of people that work at the label. Once again, people defend stealing creative content by convincing themselves they are only taking money away from rich fat cat execs which is just not true. Please show me what you are basing that on.
My guideline Downloading p*rn = okay cuz its smutty and dirty anyways, and you dont want to get caught with it in your hands, dont want "charges showing up in the account" an all. Downloading movies and music = its like, official and stuff. I guess I should pay for it or whatever, and they're always suing people anyway. I havent downloaded a recent bootleg movie in years. Or more exact its like 20 paid to 1 download. I'm fine paying for things even with no budget for it. I was fine paying for it 20 years ago. The internet didnt make me all of a sudden question the creative direction of Hollywood and the music biz. That argument is kinda hollow But I still wont hesitate to download the pron. No remorse there until they bring it to a halt.
I would say about 99% of people on Earth with an active internet connection have pirated something before, whether it be downloading a song from limewire or torrenting games, movies, and TV shows on sites like these. So... it's a battle you cannot win.
Actually, you should understand that my comment was harmless and non-committal on this debate (until I revised it later). Regardless of the content in his/her initial reply to my post, it was the misinterpretation of my post which is the sticking point. Surely you can see that.
My point was that the art itself is not owned by the artists. They get virtually nothing in the scheme of things, which limits their ability to do what they do in the face of the higher-ups TELLING them what to do. This means that creativity is stifled and the consumer, us, gets fed equal parts crap and nonsense. So, given my personal opinion of modern day popular music, yes: hurt them all in every way imaginable. [/moderately facetious soapbox.]
Most musicians actually make very little back from their CD's. You are benefiting them more by attending their live-shows and buying their CD's there. And the casings for a DVD movie actually cost more to make than the disc itself. The film industry is one of the highest profiting and is the only industry where they can release 10 or more products and still make money with only one being successful. Just something to think about!
The hydra will regrow and respawn... the two companies falling will not change the times. Still, record companies don't make bad artists. People that buy their music do. Punishing or eliminating labels through piracy will only remove financial and marketing support from the music community. That's not to say that it can't be overcome, or even that it might not be for the best, but it's a bit like asking politicians to stop taking campaign contributions. Some might get "chosen" without it, but lots of good ones would fall by the wayside of those who have strong financial backing. Most aren't willing to risk going it alone, and those that invest expect a return of some sort. It's not that unusual or ridiculous or even greedy from a business standpoint. Lesser talent often sells out to increase otherwise anemic support. This can and does force the hand of the More Talented frequently to follow suit. Happens all the time in every facet of life.
IsoHunt shut down: BitTorrent site IsoHunt will shut down, pay MPAA $110 million isoHunt, a search engine for BitTorrent files founded more than a decade ago, has agreed today to shut down all its operations worldwide. The company, founded by Canadian Gary Fung, will also pay the movie studios that sued it $110 million. Fung gave up his long legal fight just weeks from having to defend his site in federal court; a jury trial was scheduled to start on November 5 in a Los Angeles federal court. Earlier court rulings had already determined that Fung was liable for "inducing" copyright infringement, so the court trial would have largely been about damage control. The MPAA had stated studio lawyers would have sought as much as $600 million had the case gone to trial. On the US version of isoHunt, Fung had already agreed to filter out MPAA content when it showed up. isoHunt argued that it was solely a neutral search engine and had never directly copied the illegal content. But that defense failed isoHunt, as it has generally failed to defend peer-to-peer file-sharing sites in the years since the 2005 MGM v Grokster ruling. A federal judge and a panel of appeals judges agreed that Fung had "induced" others to infringe copyright. Fung had "red flag" knowledge that there was infringing content on his site. He promoted the fact that popular TV shows and movies were there to get more ads. It's a long-awaited vindication for the MPAA. "[This settlement] sends a strong message that those who build businesses around encouraging, enabling, and helping others to commit copyright infringement are themselves infringers and will be held accountable for their illegal actions," MPAA chairman Chris Dodd said in a statement. While the lawsuits take a long time to come to fruition, the entertainment industry has been pitching no-hitters when it comes to suing websites where peer-to-peer technology is used to trade copyrighted files. Napster, Grokster, KaZaa, and Limewire are the biggest tombstones in a growing graveyard of file-sharing websites. None of them were able to avoid liability in court, and many paid hefty settlements. Limewire, for example, paid the RIAA $105 million. It's only the user-generated content sites that have been able to use the DMCA Safe Harbor defense that isoHunt tried, but failed, to use. Video-sharing site Veoh, for instance, beat Universal Music when it was found to be protected by Safe Harbor—but the company went bankrupt in the process. YouTube has spent $100 million fighting a copyright lawsuit brought by Viacom, which is still being litigated.
Do you know why these execs pump money into the Nickelbacks, Britneys, and Jonas Bros. of the world? Because people actually buy their CD's and make the company money. I'd be fascinated to see what the music industry would look like today if album sales accurately reflected the public's taste in music.
Wow, who would have known the changes in 4 years. I used to be a HEAVY private torrent tracker user but nowdays I rarely even download an album. With Pandora, Spotify, Grooveshark, whatever it is that I pay $9.99 a month for for instant song play, etc. who even still downloads music? I even quit ripping movies thanks to Redbox, Netflix, HBO GO, Showtime GO or I'm too busy watching recorded shows on the DVR.
Me too. I get what.cd notices about them shutting down my account every few months due to inactivity. I login for maintenance. I got a new Laptop a few months ago and have been too lazy to transfer my old stuff to seed. I'm also at Waffles (I think you invited me) but rarely login. I'm straight Spotify paid now. It doesn't include everything I want to hear (no Silver Jews) but it's too easy not to use.
It took the entertainment industry long enough. They should've funneled resources into innovation like streaming services. Instead startups were able to emerge, providing what people always wanted: high quality, easy-to-use, safe, convenient streaming services. And it's worked. Now they need to re-focus their model yet again as artists are shunning traditional labels for do-it-yourself distribution -- run by startups.
I agree. Once people were able to get easy access and easy to use, there is little reason to pirate. I know use Spotify. I have access to HBO Go, Netflix, Amazon Video. At home I get all the On-Demand stuff from all the premium channels. I mean, I signed up for ballstreams.com for Rockets access. That's $7.50 a month. If CSN Houston would have offered that I would have jumped on it and they would be making the money instead of some company in Norway.
So...I'm off to piratebay? I don't mind paying for things. But with the way that commercial sites are going I feel like everytime I place an order, another bit of my personality is being added to the illuminati's data-bank. Someday I might regret ever placing an order on itunes...and registering for facebook.
Instead you would rather download suspect files off of pirate sites that might put trojans and bots on your machine instead.
