[Stealth]

that's ridiculous.

so if someone breaks into a house and steals a television... and then a few days later gets caught. he/she should only be made to pay the retail price on the TV he/she stole? lol that's comical. it's the principal.

That's completely different, we're dealing with petty theft here, not breaking into an Rapper's house and stealing his bling. A more apt analogy would be someone breaking into your house and stealing some change out of the change-dish you keep near the door, and then - when they're caught - making them buy you a Television, all the while saying 'shutup, that's completely fair'.

no it's not. theft is theft... just because you steal 'less' or something that's "worth less" doesn't make it any different. it's still theft.  and as such, you're breaking the law.  and as such, you can't ***** when you get a fine slapped on you. especially not now. everyone (especially a MIT student, i'd imagine) knows that what he's doing (or what he did. heh) is wrong, and that he stood risk of getting in trouble for it.

[NGTM-1R]

If you want to punish them, don't buy it.

You of course realize that by pirating, you are punishing them by your standards.

[Grey Wolf]

Actually, under the law, it's not theft. The crime they would get charged with, assuming it went into court, is allowing other people to download the songs from them, not downloading them themself or having downloaded songs in their posession. Therefore, it's copyright infringement.

Personally, I've given up on piracy. Quality's not good enough for my taste. Now, I'm just selective in what I buy.

[Kosh]

Actually, under the law, it's not theft.

Whatevery one seems to be forgetting when they say this person "broke the law" is that these are CIVIL LAWSUITS, not criminal charges. These are just mafia style scare tactics designed to intimidate and scare people into following their rusted, creaking business model.

[Grey Wolf]

They're being sued for copyright infringement, as that's the proper response under the law to copyright infringement.

[Martinus]

no it's not. theft is theft... just because you steal 'less' or something that's "worth less" doesn't make it any different. it's still theft.  and as such, you're breaking the law.  and as such, you can't ***** when you get a fine slapped on you. especially not now. everyone (especially a MIT student, i'd imagine) knows that what he's doing (or what he did. heh) is wrong, and that he stood risk of getting in trouble for it.

So what your saying is that since all theft is equal all thieves deserve the same punishment surely? I can't really see it any other way than that. I should go to jail for the same duration as a person who stole cash from their workplace even though what I 'stole' is effectively of zero monetary value; if I could only have gotten it by paying for it in advance I would never have bought it in the first place.

Need I also point out that access to a wider array of musical styles and types has increased the uptake of more music? People who'd never have heard of international artists or musicians who don't get a top ten hit actually find out about their music and buy CD's that they'd never have heard were it not free for a taster in the first place.

[Descenterace]

the cd comes along, which is cheaper to reproduce and has poorer sound quality to analog media

Nuke... WTF are you on? CD quality is higher than the resolution of the human ear and is immune to distortion. How exactly is that better than analogue media? Analogue has far higher potential resolution, admittedly, but if both are better than the ear can distinguish why does it matter? Plus, analogue media is not immune to distortion.

Finally, note I said potential resolution. Whether or not the recording device can write data at that resolution is a different matter. Then you have to factor in the quality of the medium and the accuracy of the player.

I believe people who say they can hear the difference between analogue and digital recordings. They make the mistake of treating the analogue as a benchmark and assuming that it's 100% correct. That's wrong; the difference between analogue and digital is either the aforementioned limitations of analogue media or the settings of the digital playback device (which can be adjusted; you can't fix analogue distortion).

[StratComm]

Analog playback does have a slight advantage over digital in that, regardless of the fidelity of the digital playback, it does not rely on reshaping to convert it to a sound that you can hear.  Digital playback can be restricted to the hardware that's doing the playback itself (limited bit depth on a soundcard in post-processing where the 1's and 0's are actually converted to an audible wave, for example) just as much as analog playback can be distorted by the equipment doing the playback.  The difference is 1) extremely high-fidelity analog equipment is more common than the digital equivalent and 2) the types of distortions made by analog equipment tends to be more pleasing to the ear than the distortions that can be introduced from digital output.  Digital is quite capable, but we rarely get to hear it to its potential.

[redmenace]

I would never believe it untill I saw it
http://www.playitcybersafe.com/pdfs/Curriculum-CC-2005.pdf

[aldo_14]

I would never believe it untill I saw it
http://www.playitcybersafe.com/pdfs/Curriculum-CC-2005.pdf

i'm suprised it's a ferret and not a weasel.

[redmenace]

lol, well they are very close. I really wonder wtf was going through their minds when they wrote that cartoon.

[Kosh]

lol, well they are very close. I really wonder wtf was going through their minds when they wrote that cartoon.

Dollar signs. We have to breed the new generation to be mindless consumers. After all, actually thinking about something before buying it reduces profits and puts pressure on the studios to put out QUALITY instead of **** (can't have THAT now can we).

[Grey Wolf]

Old, but classic.

[Descenterace]

Is it just my imagination, or does the ferret look downright evil in the first frame of page 3?

[aldo_14]

Is it just my imagination, or does the ferret look downright evil in the first frame of page 3?

That's because there's the other cartoon, where the ferret jumps through the monitor and viciously mauls the kid.

[Eightball]

If prices seriously dropped, I suspect people would continue to pirate, saying, "well, since the CD is only 3 dollars, they won't lose much if I DL this."

[Nuke]

Old, but classic.

in mother russia, the music downloads you!
communisim rules!

[Kosh]

Some would, but many would not.

[Nuke]

If prices seriously dropped, I suspect people would continue to pirate, saying, "well, since the CD is only 3 dollars, they won't lose much if I DL this."

i wouldnt be so quick to say that. pirating music isnt as free as one might think, the cost od bandwidth for example. my cable modem provider has about a 5 gig cap on my downloads. when i dl music from underground bm bands (mind you theese bands are more intrested in getting their message out that actually making money, and will seldom release the albums in quantities of more than a few hundred, and in many cases, will release whole albumbs for free download on their website), i usually get it at a bitrate of about 192 beind about 100 megs an album, meaning i can download 50 albums a month (but 15-20 is a more accurate number). now my net bill is almost 80 bucks a month. so you can say it costs me between $4-$5.33 an album. if they sold music for $3, id go th the record store every month and come out with a doezen underground albums (assuming i could even get them, most are rare and i dont exactly live in a place with big record stores). now surely in other locations bandwidth is cheaper and there are no caps. but you see where im going. piracy isnt as free as they claim.

further more all this drm nonsence and pay internet music stores like itunes only let you buy music in "safe" formats that only work with proprietary media players. also if your computer breaks down or you switch mp3 players your media that you bought will no longer work. also backing up your media becomes a hassel. i think the reason people arent catching on to this new technology, is because all their safe media restrictions make it suck. we show no trust for the music industry and they show no trust for us, and that creates a void. look at the responce to the friendlyness of that galactic civilizations game and the response of the people who bought it. thats what makes people want to buy a product.

[karajorma]

If prices seriously dropped, I suspect people would continue to pirate, saying, "well, since the CD is only 3 dollars, they won't lose much if I DL this."

I doubt it some how. There would be some people who would continue but even with no internet these people would simply tape songs off of the radio or their friends anyway. The number of people who would buy things would go up however.