Music Piracy

[lars_ulrich]

how many of you people actually go out and buy ur favourite bands cds or any music cds for that matter? i certainly do, although i do use the P2P programs. i use them mainly for videos although i give in to temptation and do download a few songs especially if they are new band that i want to check out b4 buying their cds. so what about you guys?

 

[vernplum]

I buy all my music as CD.

Normally, i check soundbites from Amazon to see if I like it. For favourite bands, I just buy them automatically, unless they have been trending towards putting out crap albums (like Metallica).

 

[mikemann]

This is a very sticky issue, and I think it is as sticky as the issue of "banning of smoking".

No doubt I think you are refering to the ST(computer section) article a couple of days ago. In the article, it's mainly refering to the net generation kids, those who grew up during the time of napster (teenager then), till today. I do agree that there is a generation who mostly DO NOT give a heck on Net piracy. I also forsee, a new generation of young adults who will hit the job market soon with a type of attitude we have not seen before.

This attitude I am talking about, is about expecting Instant Gratification without effort or care for others. By today's generation, there is already a whole bunch of people who are living beyond their own means. Which could worsen with the new generation of yound adults. Can you imagine a whole generation of people who comes out and instantly max out their credit cards, roll on month by month by further borrowing, till they can roll no more. Worst still, the "what the heck" attitude could prevail on bankrupts in the future. People may not give a damn anymore that they are bankrupts.

Thus the people who actually suffers are the ones who makes an honest living, and live within their means, and foster good family values.

So where has all the courtesy campaigns gone to?? The Net generations live largely on anonamous identity on the net, getting away with being rude, obnoxious and downright mean. This attitude will also bleed into the person character in the real world as well. So we are expecting moral decadence, what is being done to avert this???

Thus it's very logical that the kids in their teens participating in piracy, will contiunue on in life advocating piracy into young adulthood and finally being adults too.

Actually, I find that pretty stupid, as it is pretty tough to find good quality pirated stuffs on the Net. More and more tough each year. You end up wasting more time than it's worth, the time spent to make money can get the same original product of premium quality (music CDs).

 

[gordonzz]

Sia lah mike..... nice post... the new generation thing is very true..and you can predict some more power! :lol:

and i am one of those who grew up with my first p2p was napster :lol:

 

[mikemann]

Nah, just a personal observation. I am also quite outta touch on what youngsters do these days on the Net. Piracy is just a cornerstone on what we can dub "the evils of the net".

Actually, I also grew up during the technology boom, the digital age. It's different then, but piracy has always being around. Can you imagine the pirated CD shop "Ka kia" (shop assistant) saying that the Net has hurt a lot of their business too........hahaha....

Napster was fun for a while, but the downfall was that the contents were not always good. Poorly made recording and worst virus attachment are the bane of p2p stuffs. Then lawsuits came in and rain down on the parade.

Somehow, an original copy always feel more complete when comes to music. Also funny how an original copy will play on almost any player, whereas pirated ones have more compatibility issues.

Anyway, I am just speculating, there is no basis on what I am predicting. Just my own feeling on the matter.

 

[stars]

no offence mikemann ?

perhaps abit too stereotyped ... there are net brats but how many of those are around in the world ? societies change , things change , culture changes but these take time, they are not instanteous.

although i m from the internet instant gratification generation, i dont think the instant gratification , mindless consumerism , inconsiderate "who gives a -tooot- about society , life is about me" kinda attitude persists.

its the same as the 60s stereotype. not everyone form the 60s were hippies , smoking weed , wearing psychdelic rainbow coloured ragged clothes , smoking pot , drug takers , casual sex, liberal behaviour , LSD , getting high , transcendetalism.

it may be true that society is moving into that direction , but how much of it is actually culture ? The US of the 40s and today are distinctly different. people of that generation had morals , had values. People who influence mass culture today , pop stars who support virginity but turn out to be the biggest hypocrites and the standard for immoral behaviour. But look beyond what the media shows. look at the average joe on the streets. does the average joe behave like that ? No. seriosully , i dont think so.

in any case , consumer , credit card debt , its all part and parcel of a growing economy. As economies grow , they eventually progress to become a high consumer society , societies in which consumption forms much of aggregate demand ,which translates into a countries GNP. its just economic evolution , nothing more.

no offense bout this , but i feel that the notion of internet generation , gen X gen Y is all bull. the internet was like wad the first TV generation of people had. they were exposed to constant media bombardment all their lives, they were exposed to content from a vast range of things. yet , has TV overgrown and overtaken our lives to become the social monster that destroys the basic foundations of society ?

 

[Cloudsky]

I don't even listen to the sound clips, I just buy straight away.(although I do read the reviews first) :lol:

 

[mikemann]

Hahaha...... You know it was almost a 'crime' to stereotype in recent times. Every where on TV and the media, you see people so concerned about "political correctness". People in the media were actually afraid to 'generalise'. Yeah, you are the Net generation, so you fall into the category on the generation that think stereotyping is a crime......hahahaha.... :lol: :lol: That is so passe.

Well, we are talking about trend here. Trends come and go, may come again. This generation problems may come to pass when a new law comes in place to stem the problem. Only time will tell.

I don't mind being stereotyped myself, it gives me some deeeper defination of what I am. So I think stereotyping is not a dirty word, it's cool.

On spending beyond one means, puting it as helping the economy.......huh?? What's the logic there, you mean that the govt can simply print more and more banknotes?? Maybe you should ask Mr Alan Greenspan that question, I dunno.

So chill dude, maybe you want to watch me do some breakdancing for you, or I should call in the A-team to solve the problem.....hahaha.... :lol: :lol:

Peace
8)

 

[stars]

no offence taken bro .

hmmz , the high consumerism society thing is pretty real wad, just look at japan, south korea , england , america. almost every household there has a credit card. almost every household across there and europe involves mortaging and refinancing. the world economy is built on hyper consumerism , we cant live without it.

but you are defintely right in the sense that there has to be some limit in credit and spending. this reckless spending is runing our world. there has to be some moderation.

stereotyping is not politically incorrect, in fact , stereotyping is damning. i mean , stereotyping means classifiying u as a certain breed of people , a certain group or type with a core common characteristic.

but no two individuals are ever alike. to classify and to group is to go against the nature of human behaviour . for statistical purposes , yes , but stereotyping as a general reduces individuals to , i am this , i must do this.

e.g stereotype of rockers : sex , drugs and rock n roll

how true is that >? arent u offended if you dun lead ALL of that lifestyle it goes again the grain of ur belief ?


anyway mikemann i tihnk we took this thread serious OT better put it back into place .

music piracy :

my case in point. why feed the guy who has millions , owns a penthouse , has his/her every whim satisfied , behave like a brat in public , has no respect for any other being on the planet ?

are you paying for his cocaine addiction , his lawsuit with child rape issues or really paying for the scandals behind sex tapes , hypocrisy in the mass media ?

why not :

help pay the wages of a humble poor dude who is struggling to go through some chinese college or can barely afford to survive past school soemwhere in indonesia and is the breadwinner of 7 younger brother and sister whos dad has gone saling to earn money for the family ?

or you could help to fund the installments of some rich pirate who has 9 misteress , a luxury villa in indonesia , operations across south east asia and just added luxury 7 series beemer to his fleet of armoured benzes and cadillacs ?

winner : capitalism
loser : everyone else

( this sounds so commie )

 

[mikemann]

stereotyping is not politically incorrect,

Hmmm...... Maybe we should rephrase the word "stereotyping" with "profiling", cause you are taking it in the concept of doing bad, eg. criminals. Well, that's what police will do when handling any case (when police handles any case, it's most probably bad).
That's why I said, you grew up with the concept that stereotyping is only meaning bad example.

(e.g stereotype of rockers : sex , drugs and rock n roll) It's not true to deny the fact that the association is always there. That's why we fit it into the person's profile, if you are a rock star, chances is that you are involved in a fast and hectic life, fast women, and often social ills like acholism and addiction is smack in front of you on an almost daily basis. Not to mention rubbing shoulders with rich and famous (some underworld). If we deny that, then police will have a tough time to crack cases. This is reality, not something like on TV, if you don't like it, juct change to a different channel.

I must illiterate, this is not a bias-ed view or opinion. Many rock stars are living clean lives too.

It's very tough to explain in details, maybe age has something to do with the view. Perhaps when you hit my age, you could have a same opinion by then.

my case in point. why feed the guy who has millions ,

Ok......now it sounds like you are stereotyping too?? So who is guilty???

Err....really back to topic. I want to add that there is a pirate in everyone, be it big or small, it's pretty much human. A very classic case of feeling like Robin Hood. How ever we live our lives is up to our own beliefs of what is right or wrong. Be it you are just sharing 10X mp3 files on the p2p or distributing big time, the law could come after you one day, and if you are not lucky, even a small amount of stuff could spell big trouble. Do whatever you feel right, just do not get caught with your pants down.

 

[anep]

my case in point. why feed the guy who has millions

i like this point of view...

honestly, i got most of my albums online. u see, theres always this money issue. i'm still a student u see, i dun work. so downloading from the net is the only way i can keep up with latest songs. i cant be buying every new albums that juzz got released. and one advantage of downloading albums from the net is that the albums usually "leak" days before it gets released. quality wise, its quite good.

u might think i'm some cheapskate guy hu always want things for free right?
okok, i do buy albums of my favourite bands. reason is i'll be "supporting" the band and the music is of better quality.

for music piracy, i think its gonna continue for a very long time, until some REALLY strict law is passed down.

 

[stars]

lol bro

that isnt stereotyping ... more of painting a scenario
but yea. stereotypes are easy to get across.

no offense or being racist here but just to prove my point

when ya think of nigger : u think of rapper with lotsa bling --> 50 cents

when ya think of AFRICAN-AMERICAN : bill cosby , ray charles , Samuel L jackson

same term , vaguely the same meaning , different contexts

lol ... this discussion very colourful !!

in any case : no offense intended to any person who feels insulted or angered at this statement. as mentioned before , it isnt a racist statement or anything of that nature, but an example of stereotyping

 

[mikemann]

Boy I miss the days when a Gay person means a happy person, now it's strictly means people of the same sex being in love.

Those were happier times.

I rest my case.

 

[RG2820]

WAHAHAHAHAH!!!! this is such a political topic........

Stereotyping and all.... Honestly i feel stereotyping and generalising is juz a crude method for an individual to try to make sense and understand the complex human social structure...... Well cuz if say u were to like noe n understand most of the ppl ard u, if u have the time to in the first place, then its like quite alot of info to store don u tink?

so to me i feel stereotyping is oh k n in a way needed in society

honestly, i got most of my albums online. .

I agree wif u cuz i'm a student too and thats the only way that make sense to me in terms of money.... and the quality of most of these music is good thanks to newer software.... if say i am supporting a certain band i will buy their albums as a sign of support..... but i don tink its very possible for the gov to stop p2p piracy cuz of the sheer number of ppl using it.... it will take alot of resourses and time to weed this problem out.... Haha unless capital punishment is imposed on the offender... kiddin...

 

[hifi_killer]

i dont see how the situation is gonna get any better with the growth of the portable mp3 players market. These mp3 players are capable of holding more and more songs, its gonna encourage even MORE downloading to fill up the diskspace. 1 gb = approx 200 songs. So your gonna pay 99 cents for each song? It is gonna cost you $198. The latest model can store like 20gb. so ur gonna pay $3960 for to fill up the 20 gb?

I own several music cds that claims to be "copy protected" which is total bullshit, i can easily rip them using media player. When one p2p company goes down, 10 more come up.we use technology created piracy ironically it is not able to control it.

If we want to control piracy for good,we should do more to put technology to good use. and yes,the law is simply very very weak in this case because of the sheer number.

 

[gordonzz]

man.. i know you people gonna hate me for this..

but im downloading.. and downloads ALOT..

the reason is cuz im only interested in smashhits of the songs only.. OFTEN an album.. only like 2 songs nice or famous..den if i were to buy every album.. wont i be broke?

for those bands whom im interested of all their songs.. i do buy their original album..

 

[lars_ulrich]

well thats what everyone else is doing. and how do u know the rest of an album is shitty if u havent heard it? bcos pple tell you? dont u want to hear for urself? its a really sad thing bcos dream theater's new album octavarium is scheduled for world wide release only on june 7th. but ive seen copies of the whole album already out on the net.

 

[gordonzz]

so u mean i should buy every album.. to find out whether all of them are nice or only some are nice then? :wink:

 

[shred5]

There's no ending to this piracy problem..

Its really up to consumer to decide whether to buy or don't buy..



*sigh* Those Sim Lim Square days are really getting on me.

 

[lars_ulrich]

if there's a good song on any album that u like, then buy the album, or else at least get the single. or if theres a band that u particularly like, get their albums, especially the newer ones.