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.

[*kryogenix*]

Request it? Uh, no thanks. Like they'd ever get to me. I don't even listen to the radio anymore, all they play is absolute crap.

They play absolute crap because no one is requesting the good stuff.

Well, I never exactly typed in a random band name. There's something called online music reviews.

So you do know they exist before you download their music.

Thank you, regardless if that was sarcastic or not.

you're welcome.

I'm not stealing the whole thing...it's like...stealing the engine of the car, testing it out, and then buying the car. I'm not stealing the whole car and driving away with it. Nonetheless, I am still stealing, but in the end record companies DO get their profits.

It's great that you buy it anyway, but how is it going to be enforced?

Ahh... what CD's are you buying? $20? LOL. If I buy a CD it's usually less than $15.

Again, I just said that there is a huge difference between stealing a car and stealing music. Can you read?

stealing is still stealing, no matter what. just because it costs less doesn't mean it's not a crime.

When are you going to understand that because of the nature of music and the nature of cars it's different. I stopped talking about the initial cost a long ass time ago. Music is music. It's information. You can copy and recopy it a million times and it doesn't cost you anything to do so. Cars are actual concrete things and once you steal one, the company or the dealer has not only lost money on a potential sale, but more importantly will also lose money replacing the stolen car. So downloading music is definitely not the same as stealing a CD from a store. The same thing as the car is involved. OBVIOUSLY YOU ARE THE ONE WHO HAS NO IDEA HOW TO READ.

OK, i'll make an easier comparison for you to understand. Say you buy a book(like a comic book, about 20 pages, 3-10 dollars). Your friend wants to have a copy of it, but since he's a freeloader, he asks to just scan the pages. You do so and give him the copy in a zipped file. It cost you nothing to copy it. But is it wrong? Yes. Copyright laws pertain to intellectual material too. Copying intellectual material is stealing.