quote:

Originally posted by Dj Smitty20 noob? wtf? I've been here longer than you fuckwad.

hey he calls me that sometimes, its ok.

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Originally posted by Skipper Rocco - do you share those backups with others? Sorry to be blunt, but if you're downloading copyrighted music that you don't own with no intention of buying, you deserve everything you get.

Well, it's not that simple my friend. It's interesting to see some debates just never end and keep coming back.

For instance, do you use any pirated software at all? Be honest now...

Consider the following:

If someone would never have any more than X dollars to spend on music and hence they spend that money but happen to copy other CDs off friends, is that really theft? It is not as though any artists would have been able to get any more money than that out of that person. If you were not able to get a copy of MS Office from someone, would you really go fork out 500 bucks for it? I sure wouldn't. I'd use the free wordperfect that came with my computer. So, am I stealing from microsoft? Legally, I clearly am, but ethically, I am at peace with myself. Now, if I had intended on spending 500 bucks on the software and then was able to get a copy for free, that would be quite different I think.

And what about the impact of music distribution on increased exposure of some artists? I for one can tell you would have never been so drawn to electronica had I not been able to download at will and little by little get sucked in.

By the way, many don't seem to realize that Canadian copyright law does not forbid copying for personal use, which is the whole purpose of the levy on blank media (which is NOT new, used to be on tapes in the old days) to offset any losses to the industry. The article quoted says they are going to go after people who are uploading instead. Gotta love law. It's OK to receive, just not OK to give.

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Originally posted by Arcticboy ... I for one can tell you would have never been so drawn to electronica had I not been able to download at will and little by little get sucked in. ...

BINGO! I agree with you 100%! There's absolutely no way I'd be as huge of an electronica music fan as I am today if it wasn't for those MP3s, livesets, Napster, Audiogalaxy and other uploaders-givers (thanks a lot to you guys!!!), hehe

The thing is, I would not buy a CD that I have no knowledge on, that is, I am not sure about it. I;ve bought expensive CDs before that turned out to be the biggest junk, so I usually download some MP3s on the artist/CD itself to see if it's worth buying. If I really like it, then I would. So YES, I might be guilty of dowloading volumes of MP3s, but like I said before, I buy a lot of music as well. I've never been a regular uploader though, hehe, it's my PC's terribly slow upload speeds for some odd reason that render the feature useless (why? my download speeds are terrific and I got cable) ...

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Whenever you go and buy something, you are affecting someone somewhere, be it environment, a person, or a community - you're making a statement with what you buy. So make it a smart choice ... Its a big picture