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bricat
HijackThis Helper
Reg'd: Wed
Posts: 28644
Loc: belfast
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hi all, i use winmx and kazaa for downloads and i have just recieved a warning for distributing copyrighted material( a movie). just shows that the p2p sharing forums are being watched, anyone else been notified,i only had two movies, just my luck.
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smuj83
Unregistered
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Apparently it happened to a lot of people:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/30461.html
I'm not too worried myself, Kazaa has millions of users and I doubt the police will raid all of us looking for copyrighted MP3s etc :)
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Poppy
regular
Reg'd: Sat
Posts: 383
Loc: North East England
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No, but the powers that be may close it down or make it into a subscription service. Remember Napster? Personally, I don't hold with downloading illegal stuff from the net. If there are no controls over it, there is more likelihood of acquiring a virus or trojan. Plus, you're screwing the copyright owners out of their royalties. I know we've probably all done it, but I'd rather own a bought album anyway, paid for with my hard earned pittance. 
Poppy aka Susanna
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bricat
HijackThis Helper
Reg'd: Wed
Posts: 28644
Loc: belfast
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i like a lady with principles, lol. reading the home page of webuser i'm just glad that it wasn't a copy of "the hulk" that i had. brian
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putasolutions
regular
Reg'd: Tue
Posts: 12321
Loc: Infinity and beyond
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Whilst I wholeheartedly agree with Poppy, until the record company cease to charge such vastly inflated prices it will always happen. Just take for instance, I could (not saying that I do) go down to my local computer fair pick up 100 cd and jewelcases for £19. Take into consideration ink £8 for 200 pages, excluding distribution, marketing, artists fees, and other miscellaneous overheads the cost per cd is £0.19 per cd
Now take in to account the scale of economy, the cd manufacturers are producing over 200,000 cds a day by my reckoning the cost of a cd is now down to less than £0.02 per unit. You cannot tell me that overheads amount to more than £2 per unit, which then means that £10 goes to the record company and the artist.
The lessons of a market economy is if that your clientele is going elsewhere you tempt them back, usually in reduced prices.
The other point is that the internet is killing music. They cried that in the 80's with the "Home Taping is killing Music" campaign. Hmmm! well I suppose in a way it did because we ended up with Take that, Blue and all these really crass boy bands.
I simply won't download music, and I won't buy until there is decent music to be had to buy
Of all the Things I've lost, I miss my mind the most
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smuj83
regular
Reg'd: Thu
Posts: 16
Loc: Surrey
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Don't get me wrong, I still but albums at up to £15 a pop, I just refuse to pay £5 for a single song. I think the record companies have a massive task on their hands, even if they did close down Kazaa there would soon be a new service available just like there was when Napster was shut. They need to introduce tougher laws and quicker law suits to shut down any newcomers.
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bricat
HijackThis Helper
Reg'd: Wed
Posts: 28644
Loc: belfast
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what they charge for a cd is exorbitant, look at the profits that some of these companies make, corporations are fair game as far as i'm concerned, one drug company last year made over 10Bn, and how many donations did they make to third world countries that can't afford to buy some of these lifesaving drugs, zilch. i do buy albums when the mood takes me but i d/load a lot of seventies music(the good stuff) that you have trouble finding in shops, the ruling by an american court that forced an isp to hand over personal details of customers to the record industry for prosecution i think has moved the goalposts, even if kazaa goes and another one takes it's place the same thing will happen,big brother is alive and well, and is also known as FAT CATS. brian
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Barney_Rubble
regular
Reg'd: Tue
Posts: 2699
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Haven't you people heard? Rip-off Britain is a myth. The government told us that, so it must be true. You know. The people who told us Saddam (aka Sod 'im) had all those weapons of mass destruction they can't find that were supposedly aimed at Londinium. We all know poodle Blair wouldn't lie to us (??????????) any more than his master, Bush, would know how to tell the truth. 
Despite all the assurances that we've got it wrong though, the record industry, in common with every other industry, is certainly extremely profitable, and we're the mugs who have to provide that excessive profit. It's called "what the market will stand", meaning we've got to pay exorbitant prices or do without.
I don't blame people trying to bypass the system when the system isn't fair, and I do buy CDs when I can, but what about all the titles that simply aren't available any more through "legal" channels? In my opinion, the record companies should either make everything available to buy (and the logistics of that aren't my problem) or they should waive their rights in respect of titles that they have made unobtainable except by "illegal" means.
Another point regarding downloaded music files, and one of the reasons why I do buy CDs is that a file small enough to be downloaded this side of Christmas on a dial-up connection will invariably be of inferior quality, having a low bitrate even when it doesn't sound as if it was recorded from a wind-up gramophone using a microphone wrapped in a sock.  (Some of you will know what that's about.)
There is intelligent life on Earth, but I'm only visiting.
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TheFatControlleR
Forum Admin
Reg'd: Fri
Posts: 6689
Loc: Megatripolis
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There once was a time when profit was part of the equation that resulted in a selling price. The profit margin was sufficient to make it worth while producing an item, and if a competitor sold cheaper, one adjusted ones profit margin, tightened it up, to compete.
These days the equation is twisted and the resulting figure is the profit (not the selling price). The selling price is dictated by how much they (the company) think they can get away with or we (the buyers) are mug enough to pay for the item.
If a competitor sells cheaper, they now squeeze the supplier to reduce their selling price (the profit figure is sacred and must never be deminished - what would the shareholders say). i.e. an insurance company recently got the go ahead to cover their pension shortfall by increasing the cost to the consumer (god forbid they should reduce profit to acheive the same aim).
Obviously, free market economics is a tad more complex that this, but we do pay these inflated prices, so why shouldn't they charge them? One alternative is cumminism, and apparently, that doesn't work either 
Adieu,
TFC
Nothing is a problem for me...
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George
regular
Reg'd: Tue
Posts: 3812
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Just to put in my two pennorth even though the why's and wherefores of downloading music are not of interest to me. What I will agree with is the 'rip off' in the CD market, my experience of this was when on a visit to the US I bought a CD relating to a particular Country artist, not too well known
over here. I paid $11, in real money that worked out at £7.50, over here the same CD retailed at £16 at HMV.
Case rested.
Shy bairns get nowt!
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Poppy
regular
Reg'd: Sat
Posts: 383
Loc: North East England
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I agree that CD's and DVD's are overpriced, and usually there is no justification for the high prices. Having said that, I don't think there is any justification to illegally download copyrighted material. I buy most of my cd's from http://www.cdwow.com and their prices are extremely reasonable. Anything I can't find, I'll look for on eBay.
I can do all of this in the full knowledge that I haven't broken any laws, and probably more to the point, downloaded any virii.
Poppy aka Susanna
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Barney_Rubble
regular
Reg'd: Tue
Posts: 2699
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I agree, Poppy. It's an awkard situation. If we download or otherwise copy the music, we deprive the performers of their royalties, but if we buy the CDs we're getting severely ripped off by the record companies, and they're the people who are making the real money. Even buying secondhand could be deemed illegal if the same rules that are applied (illegally in my opinion) to software are ever extended to other things, such as records and books. No more junk shops. No more boot sales. Where would it all end? Arrested for lending books to friends?
Damned if you do. Damned if you don't. I think it's safe to say we're in a "no win" situation.
There is intelligent life on Earth, but I'm only visiting.
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