-Am I stealing when I download a song off Napster?? Or is it just “sharing?”
-Also… is Napster being shut down??
IMO, it’s ok. After all, Eminem’s fighting against it…
If he doesn’t have to give a f*ck, then why do we have to?
Here’s my take on the subject:
It is stealing in a way, but when I get stuff off the internet like songs, if I like the music I go out and buy the CD. I like having all of the stuff that comes a long with the CD anyway. I know of a couple of people who get stuff and then burn their own CD’s but I don’t. CD’s are too damn expensive anyway. plus the major record stores price fix stuff anyway which is total BS. I say that if you’re like me then places like Napster only help sell music as in the last couple of months I’ve bought 4-5 CD’s that I would have never bought. I think there are more people like me than the type who just burns their own CDs.
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- Short answer: yes, using Napster is a form of theft. Making unauthorized copies of copyright protected material is illegal. -And this might be hard for you to believe, but a significant part of the reason that musicians play music is because they expect to get paid for doing so. There are legal MP3 sites on the net, but they usually have “unknown” acts seeking free publicity by giving away some of their music.
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- -And so what if record companies are fixing prices? It’s easy for someone uninformed to imagine all that cash going into a few greedy executives’ pockets, but those profits get spread over a lot of people: record companies are releasing more new artists each year now than ever before, and record stores are effectively being forced by customer preference to carry larger and larger inventories. Where did you think they got the money to do these things? And quite frankly, if you live in the US, you would be pretty surprised if you knew of all the laws scattered over the books that “allow”, hell, even “require” price fixing of consumer commodities - , and the US is one of the most open-market countries in the world. Getting gouged a buck or two for a CD (that is a luxury purchase) isn’t really much to cry about.
- The whole Napster thing is roughly as silly as wannabe programmers bitching about how they can’t burn a copy of their favorite game and then play on the game company’s multiplayer server because the CD key doesn’t copy correctly. - MC
I recently became addicted to Napster. I love it, I’m listening to some songs I got off it right now.
The way I see it is this, it’s like a library. Stephen King doesn’t get paid every time I check out “IT”. SOMEBODY had to buy those songs in order to get them on the computer to begin with, now it’s like a massive library.If I like a book enough, I buy it. If I like a song enough, I’ll buy the CD.
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- No, it isn’t.
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- Yes, but in that case, there’s only one copy of “It” being passed around, and he did get paid for that one copy. If he found out that you were making copies of his books and giving them to your friends for free, I’m sure you’d hear from his lawyers. - MC
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MC’s right, pepperlandgirl. I know you’ve been involved in a conversation about this before, but it looks like you took nothing away from it. Too bad. How can we fight ignorance if we ignore the truth?
Not half as expensive as they are to make. My last band, we probably spent somewhere in the neighborhood of $8,000 dollars recording, mastering and pressing on our own. And if I found out some schmoe was giving our music away for free, I’d sue their pants off.
If a deaf person downloads a song is that theft?
Of course, I won’t concern myself much with napster when the government of the US can get away with taking billions.
CDs are only expensive to make if you’re not part of a major record company. The physical object itself costs about $.10 a piece to crank out. The cost of the artists, etc is only slightly more when spread over the thousands of copies distributed. A CD should cost $7, $8 and that would still allow for a healthy profit to be made by all.
Have you noticed that the price of CDs has never gone down? Everything else technological goes down–I can buy a CD player for half the cost of one when they first came out, and it’ll have more features too. Same with everything else–computers, video games, and so on. Why don’t CDs go down? Because until Napster, there was no reason they should let them go down. People really like music, and pay more than they should for it. So a whole lotta price gouging goes unpunished.
pldennison: send me an mp3 of your band, and I might buy a CD if I like it. Don’t, and I guarentee you have no shot at me risking money on a band I’ve never heard of. And there’s lots more like me. So why complain? You could use it to your advantage; many bands already do (think TMBG).
My father was a professional music composer, arranger, and conductor before he retired. I can tell you that if you use Napster to download a song that an artist did not give expressed permission to be distributed for free, you are stealing. You are stealing from the composer. You are stealing from the lyricist. You are stealing from the record producer. You are stealing from the recording studio’s owner, and all of his staff. You are stealing from all of the people who took the time to do their job so that the song could be recorded, produced, packaged, and distributed. You are even stealing from the retail stores and cashiers who ring up the CDs in the stores.
It’s easy to blame the Big Evil Corporate Record Company, but it’s made up of a lot of people who work hard, and who are trying to make a living in the music industry.
What amazes me is the short-sightedness of folks who think downloading from Napster for free is some god-given right they are entitled to.
If you keep stealing, after a while there won’t be as much to steal. The companies are going to get really strict and make it harder to bootleg. And a lot of artists won’t find the incentive to create music on a regular basis. Then what?
You are all dooming yourselves.
Just because you have the technological ability to, does NOT give you the right to steal something you were not given permission to take.
If I forget to lock my car, does that give you a right to steal my car? No.
If I make a big meal, can you come to my home uninvited to eat my food? No.
Sorry this is such a hot-button issue for me, but this is as much a moral ethical issue as anything else.
– The Newly Wedded Blushing MrsBaglady
I got involved in a big thread on this very subject a while back. If I recall correctly, what I said was that downloading Napster might be legally defined as stealing, but it is not unethical because a “lot” (unknown number, but definitely quite a few) of people do it. It’s like speeding: illegal, but indulged in by all.
I personally don’t see Napster as stealing, because the stuff I download I never would’ve spent the money to buy. In my experience, most of the stuff downloaded by me and my friends is either old music from the 70’s or the latest teeny-bopper hits. The old stuff doesn’t have much profit potential left, and the new stuff is making millions for its writers/recorders/producers even as I download it. So I don’t feel too guilty.
I also heard somewhere that musicians make a lot more money performing live than they do selling recordings. When you look at how much some concert tickets cost (hundred for the Rolling Stones and Bruce Springsteen, $50-100 for damn near everyone else) I’ll download their music free with relish!
I really don’t care where the money goes, I’m just not going to pay for something I can get for free, illegal or not. I’m sure I’ll get flamed for saying that, but I hey, I don’t give a rats ass!
and creating an appreciation for artists that aren’t in the spotlight any more.
Every song I have DLed I would NEVER EVER buy. I never planned on buying it. So the artists/whoever weren’t gonna see my money anyway, what difference does it make? I’m not gonna spend like $15 on a CD for a single song. I don’t have that type of money.
i see some beat up 1970s car on the street… what a ridiculous piece of crap. i would never waste my money on that. by your logic, it would be ok for me to hotwire it and drive it away. fool.
i see a mercedes benz on the street… i would never throw down that kind of money on a car. so by your logic, it is ok to steal it. fool.
pause for a minute. think. it isn’t really that difficult, and it can prevent you from typing such nonsense again.
you didn’t pay for that music, you don’t own it. simple as that. the fact that we have so many napster threads is ridiculous.
damn straight.
So, I can assume that those of you who would never DREAM of using Napster also would never record a song off of the radio, or dub a CD from a friend?
why would you assume that? there you go with your strange logic again.
i use napster all the time. but i’ll admit that i am a thief. i don’t try to foolishly justify it.
Get real Kilgore. I’m not taking someone else’s music, I’m making my own copy. By your analogy, if someone has a record I really like, it’s okay for me to steal the album from them. That’s not what anyone DLing music is doing. fool.
To stick with your example, if I see a Mercedes I really like, I’ll go home and custom-build my own instead of buying one for thousands of dollars. THAT’s what DLing music is like. fool.
Maybe you should watch old Star Trek episodes. Pay particular attention to the “Spock” character. He follows something called “logic.” THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT: I suggest you apply this thing called “logic” to all your future posts. fool.
Oh, and reread the last two lines of my last post. fool.
no, you dumb fuck. that is not what it’s like.
you seem to be forgetting that someone owns that music. it is not public property.
the analogy you used is comparable to hearing a cd, going home, picking up a guitar and making your own song based on it.
don’t tell me about logic, you stupid shit.
you don’t own the music. there is abolosutely nothing you can say about that. artists are selling you a product. that is it. the end.
fool.
[quote[Get real Kilgore. I’m not taking someone else’s music[/quote]
who wrote the song? who performed it? who recorded it? who advertised it? who distributed it?
unless you can answer ME! to any of those questions, then you are taking someone else’s music.
think. please.