Originally posted by Stevus
Oh boo hoo, you can’t listen to some music. What do you think e-bay and all the online stores are for. I may like downloading MP3s, but goddamn. Some people just can’t seem to see that going out and getting some part-time job has the same effect as downloading songs. You get the music you wanted.
Steve is my new hero.
Originally posted by Nulani
HoHoHo! It’s not illegal to download mp3s in Norway: As long as you own the cd. Now I don’t the cd, but who’s going to come all the way here and check?
Same Here…Kor feels Happy for being Chilean…for first time…
Or you can just switch to an anonymous service, like Freenet, something I predict people will start doing in large numbers once these lawsuits get rolling.
The music companies are going to litigate themselves out of business if they don’t get with the picture and adjust to the times we live in now. You know what they say - the bigger they are, the harder they fall. And only an organization that’s dying (or thinks they’re dying) would sue their own core customers.
omgomgomgomomgomgomgomgomgomg it’s RAST!!!
And yes, nasty business this hole lawsuits thing. But I really doubt it possible to track/sue the thousands (millions?) mp3 downloaders that are in the USA.
What if you’re under 16? Child labor laws restrict you from working then really. It’s not in everyone’s power to get a job and afford the music.
As Rast said, suing their own customers isn’t going to make things better. Just because people stop downloading mp3s doesn’t mean they’ll suddenly start buying cds.
Hi Rast, long time no see 
Anyways, about all this mp3 stuff… yeah, I download occasionally (from friends, not Kazaa or any other file-sharing proggie), even if I download 1 track, I take note to buy that CD in the near-future… that’s how I work… The artists needs support, people. I understand many of you can’t afford them at the time being, but when you can, please show some support.
You don’t have to sue them all, they only have to sue a few of them in order to scare everyone else into ceasing their use of the service.
It’s a good tactic and one that I’m confident will prove successful if they carry it out as they have threatened (which is to sue indiscrimatly, regardless of whether you share 1 file or 10,000). If you know there’s a chance, even a very small chance, that you (or your family if you’re under 18) could be sued into bankruptcy just for swapping a single song people aren’t going to risk it.
But… what the music companies don’t get and have never gotten is that this is a battle they can’t win - it doesn’t matter if the law is on your side. It doesn’t matter how big your army of lawyers is, if you’re outnumbered 10 million to 1 you’re still going to lose. For every service they figure out how to shut down, many more services spring up to take their place, services which are designed to be immune from the method of attack used on the previous generation. The RIAA’s efforts to stamp out piracy are actually increasing it due to the fact that P2P networks are being forced to evolve into services that are decentralized, resistant to attack, and now (well, soon anyway), totally anonymous.
Think about it - way back when we had Napster. Napster was great. Napster could have been the record label’s new big thing. It was completely centralized and had web content and chat integrated right into the program. Napster could have taken the record companies into the 21st century if they had embraced it, but instead they attacked it and destroyed it with relative ease.
The execs went home. When they woke up in the morning, people were already working on decentralized networks that could not be shut down. This gave rise to various GNUtella clients and the current more popular Kazaa.
They tried to sue them too, but due to their decentralized nature it was ruled (on several occassions) that they could not be held liable for piracy occurring on their networks. The people making P2P software had succeeded in covering their own asses. So now the RIAA is trying a new trick - going after individual file swappers. When you download a file from the current P2P networks it’s sent directly from the sender to the reciever, thus, the person downloading the file can ‘see’ the person who sent it. Like I said, the RIAA doesn’t have to sue everyone, just enough people to scare everyone else.
So… the next generation of P2P services will be anonymous. Good luck trying to figure out how to shut them down. I’m sure they’ll try something, but it doesn’t really matter because the demand is still there and people will figure out how to get what they want.
This whole mess could have been avoided in the first place if the record labels had made friends with Napster instead of shutting it down. They would have had a nice, centralized, hugely popular service to do… whatever they wanted with. Everyone would have been fat, dumb, and happy. Apple has recently launched a new pay music service which is proving to be successful as it doesn’t have many of the moronic restrictions which doomed the music industry’s early attempts at online music distribution, but it’s years late and has a lot of ground to cover, if it makes the cut in the long run at all.
But… who knows.
wow (check ou the big brain on rast)
what you’re saying makes a lot of sense, i’m like… impressed.
Well, Sparrow, Rast DID found this place, so he’s kinda like the Cranky Kong of RPGC…only less cranky |-P
And yeah, What Rast is saying isn’t new but it sure as hell is true. The RIAA’s chances of victoly are slim to none.
Nice to see that RPGC’s founder still posts here.
Anyways, what about if you’re caught downloading a mp3 track of an album you own?
I know that more than half of the mp3 I downloaded were from albums I already owned, but wanted to have the tracks on the pc.
I think I’m in love with you Rast heart bubbles
gets over it
you’re right… no matter how hard they try is isn’t going to stop and when this new technology develops… there I shall be… shining in the glow… back to getting the music I will love… :o
of course… some day when I find myself a J-pop star in Japan with Yen streaming out my rear I shall just walk down music store rows with outstretched arms…
giggle
I agree with supporting the artist but… sometimes that’s hard to do neh?
pockets empty damn…
an example of this for me is I downloaded an anime from there that wasn’t available in the US at the time… but now I’m hearing it’s being licensed to come out here… and I’m determined that it shall be mine… one way or another… ^^’
I’m downloading MP3’s right now…
Originally posted by CrystalRose460
an example of this for me is I downloaded an anime from there that wasn’t available in the US at the time… but now I’m hearing it’s being licensed to come out here… and I’m determined that it shall be mine… one way or another… ^^’
Which anime?
Anyway, I’m agreeing with Rast here, but also thinking that if even a few people find ways to retaliate against RIAA, it won’t be good for either side.
Look, alot of the music I listen to is from discontinued CDs, and ones that weren’t in large quantities when printed. So tell me, why would I want to spend 40 hours of my life working, and then an unknown amount of time anywere from a day to years trying to FIND one CD, when I could spend half that time getting the MP3s?
Capitalism stinks. Humanity stinks for CHARGING people MONEY for music. Life shouldn’t work this way, music is like air. I’d like to say you don’t charge people for air, but it has come to my attention that yes, yes we do do that too.
MP3 or some other file that is being shared, unless the world wants to start printing more copies of old stuff that will inturn COST them more money, since that seems to be all they care about, then I am not suporting yet another ‘get more money’ plot to undermind my musical taste.
I don’t want to start a war with a recording compainy, which I might add didn’t even publish any of the music I listen to, but I don’t want to become another meal for their ever expanding appitite, so I will simple dodge to another file sharing program.
:kissy:
Originally posted by Phoenix Valkyrie
[b]Which anime?Anyway, I’m agreeing with Rast here, but also thinking that if even a few people find ways to retaliate against RIAA, it won’t be good for either side. [/b]
The RIAA site gets hacked like what, a few times a month?
And I’m taking bets on how soon until they get hit again.
Originally posted by MegamanX2K
And I’m taking bets on how soon until they get hit again.
It probably already has in retal for this bullshit lawsuit… but uh I’ll say by the time Xelo is unbanned from the chat.