photo taken from crunchgear.com
With the growth of the Internet these days, it has become quite popular for people to share their files online. The most popular of these would be the sharing of music and media files. Artists and actors are starting to see their songs and movies being shared by people online for free.
Should file-sharing be legal?
No, I believe it shouldn't. What exactly is the difference between downloading music online and letting a friend listen to your CD. It's unethical to make it illegal.
South Park had a hilarious episode on this. Here's the link to a clip:
http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/154129
Depends on the file. If it's copywrited, then it already is.
I agree with you there, it does depend on the file.
So what. You are sharing, not stealing.
A songwriter writes a song and the record company pays the songwriter to have a particular singer record and release it.
When that CD is sold, part of the money goes to the record company, the accompanying musicians, the singer, and the songwriter.
When you pay the record company's website to download that song, the same distribution happens each time it is downloaded.
When you send or give that song to someone else, then those who worked on that song are cheated out of what is their rightful compensation for their hard work.
A thief in any other clothing is still a thief.
Incidentally, since I have a nephew that is a musician, it takes a lifetime of training and practice – plus a real good wave of luck – to make even a meager living in the entertainment industry. Why would anyone want to steal from any hardworking person?
Technically you're distributing copywrited materiel freely. Copywrite only allows the paying user to own/copy the file. To transfer or distribute the file across a network without the payment for ownership is a crime.
Now like many crimes it's impossible to police and rampant, but if asking if it's illegal…well that's a simple question.
You call musicians hardworking persons? Hardworking persons are those who work hard for a modest pay, not millions of dollars. These musicians have to suck it up and instead of getting five million a song, they are now getting three.
Jared, you are making the mistake of labeling only those singer/songwriters who happen to become household names and have platinum albums, musicians. Musicians are hardworking persons – from those who sell millions to those with Thursday night gigs at a local coffee shop – they work hard.
I don't think it should be legal, but I wouldn't call it stealing and I wouldn't put people in debt for downloading some songs.
I agree with you on that one. It's ridiculous the fine. I'd lower it down a bit to make it more affordable. Who cares if you download a few songs?
The difference is that the music wasn't stolen and the friend wouldn't get to keep it after returning it.
Stealing copyrighted music online is no different from walking into a CD store and stealing a CD.