file sharing. Options

[*kryogenix*]

file sharing. should people be allowed to "share" software, movies and music with others over the internet, or is this cheating the author/studio/artist etc. ?

I believe file sharing is wrong. People are hard at work producing these things. Why don't people just buy the licensce to the software/movie/music?

Why am I against file sharing? Because I'm going to be a computer programmer. I don't want to starve because some 12 year old downloaded my program off KaZaA. Think about how the artists must feel. I know they aren't starving, but still, they aren't receiving money that's rightfully theirs.

Software is to be treated like a book. You purchase the "book" and can read and access the material within the "book" any time you want. You can even share the "book" with a friend. However, because two people in two different places cannot be reading a book at the same time. When you lend the "book" to someone, you effectively lend them the licensce to view the book as they please. The same goes with software. Treat it as a book. You can share, but when you do so you are transferring the licensce to the person you are sharing with.

Sharing is fine, but only when one of the parties has a licensce to use the media that they are sharing.

[gerundio]

erm, they're both illegal. did you pay for the music? no. does the artist want you to pay for the music? yes. what's the difference?

LOL. Well first of all, a car is usually much more expensive than several hundred songs.

Secondly, music on the internet is digital information, and not much more than that. Thus, what you download are just copies that required little more than a copy to make. You can't "copy" "burn" or "download" cars. Cars need to be manufactured by hand or by machine in order to exist. There's a big difference.

And not all artists are against file sharing.