What are your thoughts about Music Piracy?

Question

Copying music can land you in court and with heavy fines. I'm all for respecting the work and talent of artists but what is the real deal with copying music? I mean the VCR was produced with the intent of copying television programming, audio cassettes were used similarly. So what is the real issue of copying music and where is the line between legal and illegal?

Answer 1

Music is a service, meant to entertain. Regardless of the media it is on it is never really considered "yours" in the eyes of the music industry. Making a copy of a CD you have purchased for the purpose of preserving the original CD is completely legal.

If, however, you were to mass produce copies to sell, or even to give away you have broken the stipulations of a contract on the back of the CD case (also on most CD's themselves). Says that copying for the purposes of blah blah, don't have one of them in front of me so can't tell you exactly what it says.

Strangely enough sites such as MinMX and whatnot are not technically illegal; they are a file sharing host site. They don't provide the media, only the means to transfer it, so it isn't really illegal. Since they are a main entity though the music industry has gone after them first as they are the largest and most accessible target.

In reality it is the people utilizing the site in order to upload/download music that are breaking the law, or at least as I understand it.

The argument has been made that "back in the day" kids would stick their cassette recorder up to the radio in order to record their favorite songs and no one ever said anything about that. Thing is that while that seems pretty innocent under the law it is still technically considered illegal, though was never a issue to the point of what the internet has provided.

Also of interest is the argument that the music industry simply charge too much for CD's so it's ok to get a freebie from time to time via download failing to realize the loss of revenue from illegally downloading on such a massive scale is what has help to contribute to the increase in price to begin with.

All in all, imo, I consider it stealing, same as pirating a movie or say stealing a piece of art. It's their songs; they just put them on CD and such to share with you for a fee.

Answer 2

Like another poster said you're just trying to justify the fact that you nothing but a common thief Most bands are struggling to just pay their bills there are just a few high paid celebs, the rest are barely making it, trying to pay their bills. touring is very expensive these days, if you aren't a top 10 act, I know of several great musicians, that have had to QUIT, because they couldn't make enough touring pay the bills. Bands should not HAVE to tour, just pay the thousand$ and hundred$ of thousand$ it cost$ to record, a lot of bands don't tour as much, it's hard work, living on the road, you have no life, why should they HAVE to tour for 10 months, just to support your habit of stealing. Touring doesn't pay all the others involved in the recording process. The producers, The Engineers, the backup sings studio musicians the mixers the masterers They all wrked for months too, and don't get paid from the tour. If you want music to be free, YOU spend hundreds of hours writing, recording, mixing producing, engineering, remastering, doing all the work, then spend all the money recording etc, an YOU give away it away for free? your "rant" is flawed, do YOU work for free for months?

Answer 3

Copying a CD you have bought for your own use is totally legal. Distributing those copies to others is wrong and a violation of copyright laws.

As to your VCR example, it was challenged in the courts. The court ruled that it was legal to record broadcast TV shows in order to view them at a later time. However, copying and distributing copyrighted TV and movies without authorization is a crime, just like distributing copies of music is a crime.

Answer 4

I'm blackbeard baby! Screw the RIAA and MPAA they're a bunch of repugnant entertainment nazis who are evil as the black cold blood that is flowing through their greedy little veins.