Music industry to sue hundreds of song-swappers!?

Whoever is holding or held the music would be liable no matter if they downloaded it or not. The trail of evidence would likely be there should they be able access your environment and hardware.

A counter to that would be to download from a third party like a library or work. The only way to prosecute you would be if they had video footage of your downloading. Which is entirely possible. But unlikely.

It would seem difficult to crack down on illegal downloading, but that's basically what microsoft does, and I hear they get people pretty good. So I think it would be possible to successfully prosecute. It seems like they could do the same thing Microsoft does. Which is key code the music.

 

They tried this, the code was broken in like a day.

 

bailey, the rest of my post clarified what i was trying to say. post the rest of it.

 

Taping songs off the radio is perfectly legal. Taping albums and then giving them or selling them to your friends is illegal.

You truly don't see the harm in downloading music that you did not buy and making your own CD with it? The harm is that you acquired a product and didn't pay for it via a method that breaks the law.

You recognize that downloading a CD and selling it is illegal. Don't you see that you are effectively selling a CD to yourself when you don't pay for it? For example, if all of your stuff is worth $1000.00 and you download a CD's worth of music, all of your stuff is now worth $1015.00. You have gained $15.00 (give or take) worth of merchandise without paying for it.

 

Rubbish. Your model of financing the music industry is through live ticket sales? That might be fine if you're U2, but what about a small band, starting out? Would you pay $100 to see a band that you hadn't heard before? Because you won't have heard them. They won't have received the financial backing to produce any recorded music (even if you remove the cost of duplication and distribution, music is still an expensive business). You might feel that CDs are over-priced, but removing all costs? Far-fetched.

 

That would ruin my poor attempt at humour though

 

I would like to see some proof that file swapping has anything to do with the decline of singles. Pre- recorded cassette tape sales have dropped as well is that because of file swapping? Last year was the most lucrative in RIAA history, they're just to ignorant to realize file swapping opens people up to new bands etc. which makes them more money in the long run.

 

Of course not.

But you missed an important point, the music is free. If the music is free, then I will download them and they will be heard. As far as the financial backing, it's like any other business, you venture into something knowing there are risks. There are other ways to get money from music fans then CD's. There's DVD's, apparel, MORE CONCERTS.

 

Here's an idea,

if you don't like the product don't buy it, and don't give the industry fuel for the fire by downloading. The argument that I download music because I don't feel is worth buying is a bunch of bullsh**. If you don't like the product than you don't like it, don't buy and don't STEAL it. Do you realize how hypocritical that is. I don't like this car so I stole it.

I hate to go Trader_Jorge on you guys but that is the definition of economics. If the product sucks and no one buys it, then the producer has incentive to either lower the price or make a better product. But if people are downloading music, what's the incentive??? What insurance does the music industry have that people will pay $10 when the availability to STEAL is always there?

 

So what would be your guess for the "largest collections" across the country. I have almost 1500 songs on my Kaaza, I know of people that have closer to 4000. So who knows. If they really want to stop this "problem" they ought to attack the computer companys for selling computers with "CD burners" if you cant buy a burner than you cant burn the music.

 

is using your colourful sense of humour your favourite thing to do to make fun of your neighbour?

 

True. What is the Riaa's next plan? To sue those that listen to the radio? Are they going to search everyone's car for a CD they might have burned from songs off the radio?

 

OMG. I thought I had a lot with just over 100 songs. How big is your hard drive?

 

Bad analogy. I can test drive a car until I'm blue in the face. I can't test drive a CD. The problem with a majority of the CD's being released today are that we pay $15 for a CD of music that we think might be good. That's fair, right? But what happens is the singles we hear on the radio are good, but the rest of the album sucks. That's wrong. It's false advertisement to a point.

 

Sure you can...go to any music store and listen to it.

 

When the market changes, you find different ways to sell your product.

 

Yes, I definitely get into music while using crusty headphones that sweating, dirty teenagers have used all the while standing amongst strangers.

 

Yeah, pretty much.

 

Its not the most direct analogy but its close. How much do you learn from a car from a test drive? Do you know how the car is going to run in two or three years. Believe me, there are plenty of people who fell in love with their car just smelling the new car smell on the show room floor only to realize they never would have bought it when they have to get a part shipped from Japan. Everything we buy, we make some sort of leap of faith, from food to furniture, to cars, to music. So no, if that's your definition of false advertisement than every consumer product on the market has become more vulnerable.

 

I have about 5,000 songs. But they aren't sharable. Maybe 30 or so get shared. I move them onto a different hard drive.