# (Illegally) downloading "free" music, movies etc - have you/do you **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 8, 2012, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegally-downloading-free-music-movies-etc-have-you-do-you/630872 "2012-08-08T15:56:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2012, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegally-downloading-free-music-movies-etc-have-you-do-you/630872/61 "2012-08-15T23:35:37Z")
I did not download it, but I came to be in possession of a hard drive with the entire season two of game of thrones, so that makes me just as guilty I suppose. But like last year, I will pick up the DVD of season two, so that it balances out. Declan ---
**Author:** ![Imasquare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Imasquare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Imasquare)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2012, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegally-downloading-free-music-movies-etc-have-you-do-you/630872/62 "2012-08-17T05:17:06Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > I used to pirate music and video games, but then iTunes and Steam came along. Turns out that I didn’t really want avoid paying for things, I was just to goddamn lazy to go actually go to a store. Why I still can’t easily do the same thing with movies is beyond me. You can rent movies and TV shows from iTunes. ---
**Author:** ![williambaskerville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f14d63/32.png) [@williambaskerville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/williambaskerville)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2012, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegally-downloading-free-music-movies-etc-have-you-do-you/630872/63 "2012-08-17T06:13:13Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Yes, I’m talking about the 1986 movie with Amanda Plummer and Oliver Reed. Technically, the Tom Hanks movie was _Cast Away_ Wasn’t it Amanda Donohue ? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2012, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegally-downloading-free-music-movies-etc-have-you-do-you/630872/64 "2012-08-17T08:36:34Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Yes, I’m talking about the 1986 movie with Amanda Plummer and Oliver Reed. Technically, the Tom Hanks movie was _Cast Away_ > [@williambaskerville](#): > > Wasn’t it Amanda Donohue ? You’re a better man than me. I wouldn’t have been able to resist the urge to post “Technically, the star of _Castaway_ was Amanda Donohue.” ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2012, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegally-downloading-free-music-movies-etc-have-you-do-you/630872/65 "2012-08-17T10:42:17Z")
Well, strictly speaking it was Amanda Donohoe. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Apocalypso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Apocalypso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apocalypso)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2012, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegally-downloading-free-music-movies-etc-have-you-do-you/630872/66 "2012-08-18T12:10:51Z")
Back in the Napster days I used to download music to sample it and see if I liked it. If I did, I would buy the cd(s). I found so much good music that way. I don’t like the radio much (too much chattering and commercials), and listen to a lot of smaller bands that wouldn’t get played on the radio anyway. So it was great. Then when Napster folded, I went to a couple other services for a while, then they all started shutting down so I gave it up. I have a ton of mp3’s now, but they’re all from my own cd collection. I do sometimes long for the glory days of music sharing, it was a great way to sample and check stuff out. I do understand that a lot of people use it to get free music and not pay for it though. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2012, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegally-downloading-free-music-movies-etc-have-you-do-you/630872/67 "2012-08-18T18:43:51Z")
> [@oreally](#): > > Remember this is anonymous, fess up 😉 How do you figure? ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2012, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegally-downloading-free-music-movies-etc-have-you-do-you/630872/68 "2012-08-19T02:31:31Z")
I don’t truck with piracy. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2012, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegally-downloading-free-music-movies-etc-have-you-do-you/630872/69 "2012-08-19T17:41:05Z")
> [@GargoyleWB](#): > > Wondering if you’ve had to run the circus of university textbooks. I call this more ‘civil disobediance’ rather than stealing. > > Case in point…a $195 grad school textbook that the professor mandated yet was only used for one supplementary chapter (20 pages) out of 400 pages and the publisher has no available early editions or student versions? And the university library only had one copy of? You can bet that the whole lecture hall either had a download or photocopy of it. This is an incredibly poor example. You and others have suggested that the textbook industry is somehow a racket, but i don’t understand how the industry is to blame for your particular problem. The textbook publisher produced a 400-page textbook. It’s not their fault if your professor only wants to use one 20-page chapter in his course; it’s not their fault that your library only has one copy; and it’s not their fault that your professor and/or your library were too lazy to digitize a copy of that chapter and make it available for download, which would have been perfectly acceptable under Fair Use in your situation. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegally-downloading-free-music-movies-etc-have-you-do-you/630872.md?page=3)