How do you steal ?

Limewire is a pretty nifty lil gadget to have as well....... not that I'd ever use the program of course....

A lot of us bought it all the first time round!

When some of my favorite artists, like anything with Jack White involved (White Stripes, Raconteurs, his collaboration with Loretta Lynn), I buy the CD without question. This is because, over the years, some artists have failed to disappoint. Sadly this is not the case with the vast majority of artists, and, for this, I blame the record industry, who is concerned only with pumping out a bunch of crap music with a slick sound and a glamorous image. That music just isn't worth $15.

If someone developed an online music delivery service that actually paid a decent amount of the royalty to the actual musician, instead of to marketing agencies, record labels, and all the hangers-on, I'd be all for it.

If you're interested in Newsgroups, easynews has a great search function that will search all of its groups. It makes things much easier. Giganews and others didn't have this feature a year ago when I was picking a service, but they might now.

Yeah, and I think Ford charges too much for their cars, and doesn't pay their workers enough. So I will just go steal that workers car and use it.

Where is the bloody logic in that?

Sorry, but I am just getting a little sick of trying to do the right thing when it seems like 99% of the people out there are not.

I get a bit sick of people buying the RIAA's lies and thinking that copying something is the same as /stealing/ it. IT'S NOT! I'm not saying it's right, but it's definitely not the same thing, and it's defnitely not /as bad/ because it doesn't deprive the original owner of the item.

If you could pop round and 'photocopy' a ford workers car for yourself would that be /stealing/ ??

(Edited on 2006-08-27 10:00:34 by lauriek)

What a load of bollocks... this is the OFF-TOPIC Forum. If we can have open discussions here about war, politics, Hezbollah/Israel, alcoholism, child pornography, murder and any other of hundreds of more sensitive topics then we can openly discuss file sharing and music copying.

That's not that odd. I don't care about such things, but I certainly think that if you find value in collecting original CDs then it's a good enough reason to plunk down the cash. It's the same reason I buy movies and games that I really like- I want to have the actual original article, not downsampled or adulterated.



As someone who's been a DJ since he was a kid, I've spent thousands upon thousands of dollars for music in different formats only for the formats to change and render my collections useless (and that's just the START of everyone's problem with the recording industry). So, apart from the odd rare B-side or flavor-of-the-month-that-nobody-will-be-able-to-stand-in-two-months, I actually own all the music I've ever downloaded anyway. I know I'm not alone in my belief that the recording industry continues to dig its own grave with greed, bullshit and intimidation, and after years and years of it, many people are tired of it. Taking the discussion elsewhere doesn't change the truth- that many people feel they've gotten the shaftola from the music industry and they don't care if the whole thing falls apart. If I could buy the music I care about directly from the artists without paying for all the hoopla, I'd do that. As it is now, with DRM and all the marketing crap, I say screw 'em.


Make no mistake- if iStockphoto hadn't changed the face of the photography market, many people would be stealing your photos too. Luckily, we make them available, under an extremely fair license, at a great price- so they don't have to.

I find it surprising that this thread has continued, actually. Especially given some of the discussions about copying and/or theft of our own iStock images.

One good thing to come from the whole music piracy gig is the drastic drop in CD prices ofver the past few years.

I have to say that I agree Pete. I'd LOVE to be able to buy my music legitimately through someone without the DRM crap. I don't own a CD player - hell, even my car's stereo is MP3 - but I've had too many headaches with DRM.

Yep! I just bought the SOAP soundtrack this week at an actual music store (not some discount chain with edited shite-CDs) and paid $11, and that wasn't a promo price. If that was standard price point, I'd be inclined to buy more often.

Well, it is like I have always told my employers. If you don't like the licensing, you don't buy it or use it. If everyone thinks the same, the provider will change or go out of business.

Hell, they are always changing car models and making them incompatible, why don't I get a new free car every year?

I agree iStock is doing a good thing. and people use it. But, shold we condone the people that think $0.50 is a fair deal to still steal our pictures?

The Music industry has changed many new bands sell their out put directly via their web sites. Let me make it clear I am no fan of the old school music business that turn out boy and girl bands on a regular basis. But I would like to see people get rewarded for producing good stuff.

Dude, your car analogies really suck...

Get this - when you buy a car you are buying a physical item. When you buy a CD or an iTunes download (or when you bought a compact tape, LP etc) you are NOT buying a physical item, you are buying a license to listen to that music, packaged together with a convenient holder of that music for you to access.

Hence, purchasers of old music on LP, tape etc are /entitled/ to have that music in digital form for their convenience. Whether it's ripped from tape/LP and remastered, or downloaded from a torrent is irrelevent.

Thats not a new car, its having your car polished.

Also, funny thing-

When car companies make new cars, your current car doesn't suddenly stop working.

And yet my Meatloaf "I'd do anything for love" cassette doesn't seem to work in my car's CD player, nor my laptop computer.

And before you tell me that it would indeed still work in a cassette player, find me a laptop or car that comes with a cassette these days.

I'm with Stetner on this one.


When you copy a book, get a friend to burn some software for you, even tape off the TV, you are - in essence - stealing something. It's the intellectual property of the creating artist(s). You are taking the results of someone's else's mental and physical labour - for the rights to which they've assigned a value to themselves and a cost to you.


It shouldn't make an iota of difference whether it's a car (the idea of it, the development of it and the construction of it having been done by someone other than you), an Istockphoto, or a piece of music. If you don't like the terms under which you may use the product or service, then don't participate in the exchange.


Copying the works of others, without their permission, when they are available for sale, sounds seriously like "me want, me have" and to hell with ethical conduct.


Edited to add: Yes, the changes to technologies are a drag and I imagine can be nightmarish for some folks who need to be in the lead. The answer is to use your consumer dollar's power and withhold it from companies that don't support older versions. You can write to the CEOs. You can start your own micropayment Istockmusic (well, under another name, maybe!) that has legitimate agreements with artists and appropriate licences for purchasers. But to just take it because you want it and it costs more than you either can afford or wish to pay? Nope, not good.

(Edited on 2006-08-27 17:56:02 by Acerebel)

the difference between downloading something and physical stealing is
that downloading something does not diminish the amount of product
available. If I want a CD badly enough I'll buy it, I've never forgone
buying something because I could download it, if I've downloaded it I
wasn't going to pay for it anyways. So now I have the product, and the
producer didn't lose a thing because I wouldn't have bought it anyways
and there are still just as many in the world.

Lauriek - Could you please send me your top 5 best selling istock shots? Don't worry about the licence agreement or the fee, I'm only going to test them out and use them for a project. If I think there good enough I MIGHT purchase some of the others in the folio. I'm sure you don't mind as I'm not stealing because it's not a physical item.

By the way, same goes for every other istocker.

Thanks guys, I'm much obliged.

(Edited on 2006-08-28 01:05:36 by TimothyBall)