Throughout this ongoing hoopla about P2P and file{sharing,swapping} the RIAA are going about telling everybody that they are 'stealing'. This is a clever spin to make it seem (more) evil. The only loss with filesharing is the potential loss of a sale. It's like calling somebody a thief because they wrote a negative review of a CD. They reduced the potential sales, are they stealing too?
I'm not saying that it isn't wrong (or not illegal) but you cannot compare the physical theft of a CD from a music store to downloading a few MP3s over the internet. The RIAA is in a unique position, they fuck over artists and they turn round and fuck over consumers with overpriced crud. Then they complain that P2P users are the culprits.
I like buying CDs. I prefer to own a shiny original in a nice case than a CDR. I own well over 300 CDs. The amount I've bought over recent months is less than usual, there just doesn't seem to be much that I want to plonk down fifteen bucks for. I've got no real point accept for the fact that I'm more than happy to spend my hard earned money on a quality product. I'm sure I'm not alone, but the RIAA doesn't seem to want to listen.
Re:Ways to get more CDs
chaoticset on 2003-07-07T20:25:31
My brother did the same thing and has a collection of CDs easily totalling over two thousand. He is what the P2P movement is at its best -- a guy looking for stuff most record companies don't bother to put out any more, rarities. They're all he looks for, and he doesn't find that many.
mp3 isn't just about CD's - I have 90% of my mp3 on CD or Vynl or cassette and often on all 3. Some new, some old - many bought at very very low prices.
I agree that mp3 just isn't the same as having a real CD - I have lost gigabytes of mp3 files stored on workstations at various jobs, I've lost 100's of MB of mp3 on my desktop at home mucking about with partitions or just freeing up space.
You can't just pick up your mp3 collection and take it home or abroad, unless you have a laptop.
Easy come - easy go. Perversely the clamp down on p3p has meant that the mp3 I now have are more valuable to me because of their relative scarcity and how limited my access to mp3 is - this means its worth me buying cdroms to burn them onto - rather than as before just downloading them as and when I needed them
Then there is the curious case of music that isn't in any back catalogues and unavailable outside of mp3 like the the slovenian band Tornado Lue who split and don't have cd's available to buy anywhere - I managed to find and download one copy of one song that somebody had posted on the internet.
I don't like the RIAA or copyright law, not one bit, but the argument that the RIAA is just a bunch of crooks thereby making theft OK is just not enough for me. I have never used napster or anything like it on the net but I have shared music with friends in limited amounts much of which made us all buy CDs of the music we sampled. People say they have the best interests of the artists in mind but, let's be realistic, I don't think that's true. We all want some new tunes and we don't want to pay $15 or more a CD for them..or, if you live in europe, about 20 euro which is about $25 per CD. I don't know how or if a compromise will come, but it won't come if people keep saying that they swap files because the RIAA is just a bunch of money grubbers...hey, the entire US is like a giant ponzi get-rich-overnight-if-you-sue-the-right-company scheme...start thinking instead of just reacting like teenage children. I completely support Apple and their iTunes store as they have at least tried to make a happy medium between online files and record companies. Think.
Re:well, this is my problem
inkdroid on 2003-07-07T21:55:52
I'm wondering how you are able on the one hand able to say:hey, the entire US is like a giant ponzi get-rich-overnight-if-you-sue-the-right-company scheme...start thinking instead of just reacting like teenage children.
And then moments later:I completely support Apple and their iTunes store as they have at least tried to make a happy medium between online files and record companies.
Last time I checked, Apple was headquartered in the United States. I have absolutely nothing against people criticizing the US (there is alot to criticize), but I get somewhat defensive when I hear the 'entire US' labeled like this.
