But if DVD quality movies could be downloaded in minutes and played in full quality and Dolby sound on your home theater system....then would it be OK?? Is it the relative inconvenience of stealing movies that makes it less attractive or is there really some manifest moral difference between stealing music and movies/software that makes the latter abhorant? Or is it just that it feels OK to steal from music producers and artists?? Afterall, the cable guys are pretty scummy, does that make it OK to steal your cable TV?? How about not liking the way Microsoft does business?? Probably OK to hack and jack their stuff, right?? Heck, the guy next door is a total scumbag - maybe just steal his new Hummer??? The point being - if you can rationalize stealing in one form, why not all forms? Besides, it's not like anyone spent any time or money producing all that music, right?? It's good enough to listen too if you can steal it, but not if you have to pay for it...
I'll tell you what. If all of this forces the prices of CD's and DVD prices to come down then great. That industry has completely emptied the pockets of the very people that have supported them. It's really sad to see young black kids with no food and no clothes spending their last dime on the latest rap cd only to see the guy that made that cd driving around in a 200k Mercedes and seeing the 10 million dollar pad he lives in on the MTV show Cribs. It's pathetic. These people are making so much money at the expense of the very people who are willing to support their artistic endeavors. I don't feel sorry for them for one second. This is going to be a real wake up call for that industry. And I couldn't be happier.
I don't have anything against the few artists who do make it big and spend their money on whatever they want. However, the MTV videos, music, etc. has created a false impression in most people's eyes that [band cuts album = they make a lot of money]. Very few bands ever make it to that level. I wouldn't call Britney Spears a musician anymore than I'd call a baseball a musical instrument. She is an entertainer -- not a musician. She is a pretty face to put on top of some basic tried-and-true rhythms and that is precisely what the record companies love -- exposure and brand recognition. What incentive does a record label have in spending millions of dollars to promote new artists when they can keep funneling in money for people like Christina, Britney and Madonna? These big name artists like Tupac, Nelly, etc. are great for record companies because the music doesn't matter as much because there is already such a large loyal audience for these "entertainers" that good quality music isn't a top priority. If you look at albums from the past like Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, Elton John, Fleetwood Mac, etc. -- these "artists" produced high quality and original music that was enjoyable to listen to. The music was more introspective, whereas today music is more of an association with other things (bling bling, gold chains, fancy cars, hot women, etc). This is why you see a lot of people playing the same RAP albums in their cars with the speakers turned way up and the windows down. Not all bands are going down that road, but the one's that don't have to suffer the whims from the financial agreements they make with the record labels. Whereas Britney could walk into Columbia and say, "I want this, this and that" and they give it to her without much negotiating. However, a new artist that really does make music will have to get some type of shitty retainer deal and wind up paying the record company back for the money they front to the new artist. A lot of musicians have been driven into bankruptcy from this while the record labels are pumping their cash cows for all they are worth and spitting on a lot of the really good musicians.
Sorry, but that's probably one of the most ridiculous and naive things I've read in a long time. Hell, let's everyone start boosting cars - maybe it'll make those rat bastards in Detroit lower the prices. You know, gasoline is pretty pricey too - perhaps everyone should start knocking over gas stations - send them a wake up call to lower their prices and stop making so much money. Perhaps you'll advocate breaking and entry to get into all the overpriced sporting events around the country - those damn athletes just make too much money afterall. Nobody forces anyone to buy a CD/DVD - for the most part, they're buying a bunch of crap produced by people with little or no real talent, but it's up to THEM if they want to piss away their cash on no talent junk. Trying to rationalize stealing as if it's an altrustic effort to force those big bad money makers who (shame on them) wastefully spend the money they make (they should be saving most of it for the day people realize they have no talent) and who are somehow forcing all these dumb kids to throw away their last dimes is charmingly naive and nothing short of laughable. The number of recording artists making it obscenely big is a small percentage of the overall industry and an even tinier fraction of the number of doctors who do unnecessary procedures to line their pockets, dentists who push overpriced crowns to pay for their latest Lexus, assembly-line opthomologists specializing in geriatric cases so they can rip off Medicare on every procedure, and hospitals that charge $20 for an aspirin and more for a semi-private room than a suite at the Ritz Carlton. All that does far more harm to those poor stupid kids who supposedly spend their last dimes on CDs that you're so concerned about "saving" because it makes medical insurance unaffordable for them and a large cross-section of the population.
No, I think you misunderstood my post. I am not advocating stealing to lower prices. What I am saying is that you want me to feel sorry for these people and I do not. I don't care if people download their music from the internet and hurt their sales. I just don't have any compassion for them so you are not going to make me feel bad for them. If kids wants to spend $20 on some rap cd all power to them, it's their money, they can do what they want with it. But if you think I'm going to shed a tear for the poor people in the music industry then think again.
Oh, so because they're stealing from people who are making a lot of money - it's OK. Sorry, I didn't understand there was a double standard involved here. No one said anything about "feeling sorry for them" - just that stealing (regardless of from whom) was still stealing. But apparently, if they steal the work of people who are making a load of dough - that's OK. They somehow deserve it. Hopefully your friendly neighborhood burgler or car jacker doesn't think that YOU are making a lot of money.
don't forget that not all downloading of music or movies: 1) is stealing. music / movies which are in the public domain are not stealing. 2) deprives ANYONE of money. for example: some movies can not be re-broadcast because of legal reasons concerning music rights. they also can't be sold in any format. another example of something which has no loss to anyone involved is unusual / oddball tracks which will never appear on cd, can't be purchased, etc. some of these include promotional tracks sent only to radio stations, and long-out-of-print stuff (for example, will the super bowl shuffle ever appear on cd?) i long ago advocated in an editorial music companies putting their *entire* back catalogue on-line for sale (this was before they had worked on rhapsody, etc.) to get rid of the "another example" part, and to make the promo/japan-only tracks available for purchase online, but it's not happened. oh, to answer your question: if you want recent movies, and are tech-savvy, use bittorrent. i never have, but it's apparently *the* place to get current stuff. i use overnet, because i only want hard-to-get stuff which i can't purchase anywhere. and if you want to purchase dvds, i'd suggest deepdiscountdvd (dot) com.
Again you are missing my point here. I am not condoning stealing. What I am saying is that I don't feel sorry for them. You want me to feel bad about downloading a song from the net and I am telling you I don't give a rats ass. Pure and simple. Sorry to put it so bluntly but sometimes thats the only way to communicate. I just don't have that much respect for the music industry. Again, I am not making a moral decision here, just telling you I don't care.