POLL: Do you think illegal file sharing is theft? Indicate if make a living in music

[dmartin]

Let's try a poll to see what percentage of people think file sharing is theft, and if these participants have made a living in music.


Do you think illegal file sharing is theft? Indicate whether you have made a living in music or not.

[chrisso]

Not that I think it's too relevant.
Wrong is wrong.
Also, web fora are not noted for honesty.

[HobbyCore]

I think you should read this topic.

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/pirat...-stealing.html

Whether it is or is not theft does not directly imply whether or not is is unethical or wrong.


If you're trying to be clever by making a poll to counter the discussion in that thread, I think you should consider that you're asking if SHARING is THEFT. Taken as the words are commonly accepted it would be very difficult to make a claim that they can occur at the same time.

[dmartin]

Originally Posted by chrisso

Not that I think it's too relevant.
Wrong is wrong.
Also, web fora are not noted for honesty.

I'm not expecting scientific results. Obviously, people can easily lie in a poll based on opinions. But it might put things a bit more in perspective if enough people were to take the poll.

[laserheart]

One thing I know for a fact: Just because someone downloaded a song, or an album, from an online source does not mean that that artist(s) has lost a sale.

In the vast majority of cases, they wouldn't have made a sale to that person anyways.

I can't count how many times I have downloaded a song only to find out I hated it, and was glad I did not have to pay for stuff that I would consider "crap".

That being said, I still buy much more music from artists I have never heard of, because I had the opportunity to sample their music before I bought it.

The stuff I buy is not the stuff I hear on the radio, which these days seems to be very limited and programmed by the 3 or 4 companies controlling all of the radio and television media.

[matt thomas]

the funny thing is, the question in this poll has a definite indisputable answer (well two actually in this poll), its surprising how many people have got it wrong

narco

[Capstan Cappy]

Originally Posted by laserheart

I can't count how many times I have downloaded a song only to find out I hated it, and was glad I did not have to pay for stuff that I would consider "crap".

That being said, I still buy much more music from artists I have never heard of, because I had the opportunity to sample their music before I bought it.

thats exactly how i do it as well, however i consider music/movies that has been downloaded and liked but not bought afterwards as theft..
it seems the end-user will decide wether he will award the artists with a sale..

[Mike6581]

Downloading a song to decide whether you like it or not is as much theft as going into a shop and helping yourself to a bar of chocolate or a bag of crisps you've never tried before and determining whether or not you're going to pay of it on the basis of how it tastes. The only difference is that if you were to try this in a shop chances are you'd either get beaten up by the shop owner or get paid a visit by the boys in blue, in most cases both - certainly in my home town!

Though in all fairness I don't think there'd be anyone out there who'd mind if that was all people were doing, downloading the odd song off a site before deciding whether to take the plunge. Most bands actually pop a couple of their songs on their MySpace or official website so you can sample their work. The problem is that there's a significant majority of torrenters who don't stop at the odd song and will just download album after album, film after film, without ever so much as buying one CD or DVD.

[matt thomas]

Interesting at the time of this post there is not single response from someone who thinks illegal file sharing is not theft that has not made a living from music.

it makes me suspicious of the level of honesty displayed here, I mean, if you thought sharing was not theft, and you wanted to make a point, you might just claim falsely to have made a living in music because you think that then your statement of position would have more impact. Then again maybe its true that nobody here supports sharing who has not been a music industry professional..

narco

[chrisso]

Originally Posted by narco

it makes me suspicious of the level of honesty displayed here,

I agree.
However, from reading some of the threads I think many of the pro piracy brigade regard themselves as having had some level of involvement in the music industry, even if it was playing about with some music software at home, or doing a few gigs with a local band.

[Jamzone]

No professional fellow musician and/or writer/producer/anything has ever said to me they're pro piracy. That's it folks. Easy and understandable. The rest of you is just not in the game.

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by HobbyCore

If you're trying to be clever by making a poll to counter the discussion in that thread, I think you should consider that you're asking if SHARING is THEFT.

OK come on are you really just a very cleaver satirist or are you really that blatantly Wrong again He is not asking if the general concept of SHARING is theft ... He is asking if the specific activity of illegal file sharing is Theft ? and the answer is of course yes.... It seems as though the whole concept of the illegal aspect of file sharing is beyond your ability to understand ?? Maybe I can help clarify .... Its real simple... LEGAL file sharing is Sharing and ILLEGAL file sharing is THEFT plain and simple ... This ain't rocket science !!!

Taken as the words are commonly accepted it would be very difficult to make a claim that they can occur at the same time.

Well you might be on to something here !!! perhaps the words "Illegal file sharing" should be changed to ...Illegal Misappropriation and or Distribution of Copyrighted Material.. or the acronym IMDCM for short ???? That way the conceptually challenged may be less confused ?? what do ya think ???

[DunbarCustom]

I do not believe sharing is wrong . . .

I do believe sharing someone's property with an unauthorized party is wrong . . .

particularly when the property holder(s) are deprived of what belongs to them . . .


There is no justifying theft . . .

I used to steal. You name it, I stole it. But when I learned better, I argued for what I wanted even though I knew it was wrong. Then I decided not to argue but accept the truth and live accordingly.

[rack gear]

bump

[Dean Roddey]

The reason this poll is meaningless is because illegal file sharing itself is not the problem, but the abuse of it by people. Putting bullets in a gun won't kill anyone, someone has to pull the trigger. So you get people saying, well I only download for preview. Of course if that were true on a broad scale, we wouldn't be in the position we are in. The real problem is people benefiting from intellectual property without paying for it.

The semanticists can point out that I can download a thousand files a day and never do anything but delete them, and nothing has changed. They can claim that the vast bulk of songs downloaded are discarded. But of course we know that the vast bulk of songs downloaded are the most popular ones, which means that the people downloading them specifically were looking for them and almost certainly already knew they wanted to have them.

So the fact that you downloaded the first hit by the 13th Floor Elevators and decided you didn't want to keep it is pretty irrelevant to the music business. The problem is people downloading specifically what they know they want, because they know it's a very popular song, and they've already heard it. Those are the songs the music business makes it money on, and the fact that those are also the most stolen makes the damage that much worse.

[joelpatterson]

True, true, and true. Or, you could look at the world and say the bottleneck, or the stranglehold, or the hoarding of music is over-- time and the steady march of technology has torched the old world and reduced it to cinders.

So, here were are, standing in the ashes of all that once was-- and some of us are furious that our tickets are no longer valid, the show was canceled and no refunds will be forthcoming, injustice is triumphant, and we are very sad about it. Or bitter/enraged/lips a'foam.

The time has come to deal, citizens. This noble, principled protest-- it ain't gonna lead anywhere. It's... hate to say it... futile.