Is illegal downloading justifiable? [ENDS 23/05/2010]

[-:Undertaker:-]

It is wrong yeah, but i'd much rather the police and government worry about the real criminals and crooks before they start targeting people simply downloading music for free to save them money, not to mention the fact a lot of people are cash-strapped in general thanks to soaring taxes so people will attempt to make savings.

[Swastika]

i personally download albums and songs all the time and yeah its probably wrong but so what? if its there to get for free, then get it?
most of the songs i download are like 90's rap so there isn't much of a market for it anymore either, i don't listen to new obnoxious and idiotic music from the UK - it's all crap.

people can get internet for free, cable tele for free, clothes from the local lorry raider for next to nothing - so why not download an album?
nothing really gets done about it anyway, so everybodys at it.

[HotelUser]

Consumer software used to cost a ridiculous amount, and there's some developers who still think they can rip you for 50 smackers per application (meet Apple which actually wants hundreds of dollars for freeware comparable applications). Piracy was usually the only choice to get the entertainment out of your computer which should have been, well--otherwise free. Since the iPhone/Android and the app store, the popularity of linux amongst consumers where package managers are of choice for obtaining software (and it's always freeware) and because of how easy, and well published developing tutorials are for languages like vb.net or JAVA (which even has the built in GUI toolkit and rediculously easy to use IDEs like netbeans), and particularly how easy Google's made android developing (where you can basically construct a wondrous GUI with just basic XML knowledge and hardly any object oriented mindset at all). Now-a-days developers are pushing out freeware applications because it's easier to develop an application and get published to such a high audience (with help of app stores). A lot of mobile app and web based app developers gain revenues from ads anyways.

So no, I don't think pirating is justifiable anymore. There is most likely always a freeware alternative (atleast on Windows) for most all your apps (save for most games). I don't understand why we should pirate applications, when we can download the freeware alternatives, give feedback to the (usually) opensource developer and s/he can even profit from the little ad revenue or thrill of knowing someone's using an application they made!

[Anarchist]

Okay first off, you got to think of the the possible things that we do pirate. I think we can categorize into four main groups - Audio, Video, Applications, & Games.

Audio costs a ridiculous amount of money. There is no doubt about it that people like me, that live in developing countries that have VERY LOW GDPs making $1 per song skyrocket to around $5 per song. I'm a living college student that has to pay tuition fees and depends on that one or two dollars per day as my meal for lunch or dinner.
Also, big companies. What these big companies are doing today is that they are they ARE NOT selling music anymore but on the other hand they are selling a PRODUCT. Meaning that they only care about the money and not really about the quality of the music.
Overall, exceptionally skilled people SHOULD be able to make a living off themselves by using that skill. If you take Mozart is an example he wrote most of his music even with a day job to support himself. The absence of intellectual property didn't stop Mozart from achieving what he did and today he is regarded as one of the most famous of the classical group of composers with a lot of references to pop culture and influenced by many bands. Many artists achieved by using their skills WITHOUT intellectual property.
If I want to support the artist, I'll go to there live concert, buy their merchandise, and maybe even paying the artist directly rather than paying the record company which only a small fraction of that money goes to the artist.

As for videos, I feel that there is too much stuff on a DVD that I don't want. When I download a pirated film, I don't have to worry about the advertisements which are a pain to watch. I also don't want all the extras that a DVD comes with. Do I really need "deleted" scenes? There's a reason why they are deleted. I also don't want trailers. DVDs are also pretty expensive with $10 a pop making them hard to get.

On the other hand, applications are completely different. If you can't afford it, then just look for a freeware alternative. People complain about the expensiveness of anti-virus and other programs, when there are a bunch of freeware waiting for you at download.com. Also, applications aren't culture, so they shouldn't be made to the public for free.

As for games, I'm two-faced about them. DRM is kind of killing the game industry where publishers are pushing their products to have the latest "security" to protect it from piracy. What DRM is actually doing is an inconvenience to a lot of gamers out there. Why do I have to be on the internet to play a single-player game? The number of legitimate users should be enough not to add a DRM to games. DRM is not a good way to combat piracy - instead it's kind of backfiring.

To put things in summary, I don't agree with piracy but it's more convenient as it is right now. Why put up with the entertainment industry and their laws? I definitely would like to see an overall change to the system which I can freely support. But that would probably be a long, long time before that can happen.

[[Chris]]

Personally, i do see Illegal downloading as bad. But.. Its there? You can google it and its there, Straight off to download. Why not?

As for music - I'll download an album, If its good - I'll BUY the CD - If not, I'll delete it and Youtube it if i want to listen to one song.
Movies - Dont really watch them
Games - I've got a few games on steam, They are all i play/download - BOUGHT games.
Xbox games - I have a flashed console, BUT i cannot use my hard drive with them, So - i'll download a game - If its good, I'll buy the retail disk for my None-flashed xbox
Apps - Come on, Whos going to pay £100+ for a program that a google search cant answer.. Not all freeware alternatives have the features of a paid program (Like photoshop for example, or Flash)

As above - DRM. It only affects REAL PAYING CUSTOMERS.. People who download games have NO problem with DRM usually, Leaving only paying customers to be troubled..

[Gibs960]

I use Limewire and I know that I getting songs which I should really pay for, for free. But I don't think it's illegal or anything

[MattFr]

I buy CDs of albums I really want, because I like my music to be in FLAC format, which is often difficult to find. Otherwise, I'll just download the albums in the highest quality I can find. I don't feel the need to justify it to myself.

[AgnesIO]

I see the reasons why this is majorly wrong. But you can't compare it to stealing a car, people shouldn't have to pay for SONGS, they should get them free

Why don't people take down Limewire etc. if they care so much.

Because being a musician is a skill. A bit likely building houses. Do you think people should get houses and food for free too?

[Special]

Depends if you're selling it on or not - only then it's wrong

[Matthew]

i do use the odd website to rip mp3s off youtube, and it is simply because of the ridiculous prices on itunes etc atm. 99p for a song (in some cases)! this is very overpriced. i think if they lowered the price, then a lot more people would actually use it, and not illegally gain songs.

ive never downloaded illegal copies of games etc though, just music x