users in Britain who illegally download films and music face being banned from going online, according to leaked government proposals published in The Times on Tuesday. According to the plans, the government "will move to legislate to require internet service providers to take action on illegal file sharing" which record companies and film companies say is costing them billions of dollars (euros) in lost revenue. The proposals were included in a Green Paper -- the first step to changing a law in Britain -- on the creative industries that is due to be published next week. The Times said that the plans would involve a "three-strikes" regime -- users would first receive an e-mailed warning if they were suspected of illegally downloading films or music. They would then receive a suspension from their Internet service upon their second offence, and face a termination of their Internet contract if they were caught on a third occasion.
That's pretty extreme isn't it? Either way it wouldn't affect me even if I was over there cause I don't bother to download music and videos. I can't be bothered with it to be honest. The music that I like I've already got and I don't watch movies often enough to bother downloading them. But still I think that the concequences are a little extreme to be honest. But then again if you do the crime you have to do the time. Doing something illegal we all know has concequences and if you are going to continue to do it all the time then I guess you deserve what you get. That is just my opinion anyways.
Most of what I listen to I have to buy from play.com, HMV or Amazon simply because the music i like is rather hard to download. However my eldest loves the usual chart stuff girls aloud and yuk you get the gist. which is easy to download and saves a bundle on cash.
The music industry has suffered greatly from loss of revenue due to illegal downloading and sharing of copyrighted music. Many think the entire industry is in the midst of a complete collapse of the current business model, and that a whole new industry will evolve from the ashes. one that takes into account the present and future technology. Meanwhile, though, an industry that has billions invested in the current structure is struggling to stay afloat. I'm not sure exactly where I stand on this. In the current structure, the artists themselves are lucky to make a living wage most of the time; the bulk of their income comes from tours and concerts, where as nearly all the income from direct music sales goes to recording companies and agents.
Illegal downloading is excellent - saves money. The internet service providers shouldn't enjoy hearing of these new laws because they'll likely see a decrease in larger download plans from customers = less profit.
Bluemouth, Shoplifting saves money. Do you support that? Dine and Dashing saves money. Do you support that too? If not, what is the difference? Terry
I do't support illegal downloading, but this policy sounds a little extreme. Is there no trial or form of investiagation to ensure your banning the right person? What if its a three person house hold and only one is downloading music illegally? Is there anymore specifics about this plan Raven or is it just a vague perposal?
Not sure as yet but it looks as though they will take extreme measures to prevent us from downloading from hosts such as limewire. For me a lot of what I listen to I have to buy because you just can't download it. However we do pay ridiculously high prices for the albums we listen to and technically file sharing is not illegal so we will have to wait to see. Come What may.
I think that in practice it would be too difficult to keep "offenders" off the internet. There will be thousands of ways around it.
Don downloads music because the music we like is not available in stores anymore. We just can't find it on cd's and our records are too old to be good quality anymore. But videos and movies not worth the trouble.
I have never done it. I think the sites Don downloads from are legal. But couldn't be certain. I would love to find a cd of spanky and our gang.
I think the punishment is fair. I would agree that it won't stop offenders from coming around it, but well it'll keep some of them off the business. Honesty eh? I'll keep shut. And in case you're thinking what I'm thinking, I'm sorry.
Illegal downloading is the greatest thing in the world. It's the great equalizer of the music industry. Unknowns who would never be able to get their stuff out there for a fee are suddenly able to spread their art around and attract people to their live shows, and the big names lose a few ivory backscratchers and are forced to (heaven forbid!) do live music to make up for it. The people win, the majority of artists win, the art wins (live music = real music), the superstars lose a little bit, but their music sucks anyway (they can barely even be called artists, since everything they write is designed around record sales instead of being done for the love of their art, as with many unknown musicians).
I don't. Ever. Although I see a bleak future for the music industry with the status quo, illegal downloading is against my personal ethics. Despite the imperfections of the system, it is still stealing.
I'v enever downloaded anything illegally. I want to make video games and I can think of four or five who had some major problems with leaks and copies of the game being illegally obtained online (The big killer are illegally modified versions of the games such as the GTA4 Hot Coffee or the Elder Scrolls Four topless mods that people just get for free online. Its kind of a double whamy. Illegally modified, illegally obtained.). It would be rather hyporicitcal of me to be in the industry and support illegal downloading. Of course the price of buying an album is outrageous. Normally, an album will have two really good songs, three or four ok songs, and the rest are just crappy. Why should I pay upwards of 20 bucks to get that? That's why iTunes rocks. I can just get the songs I want and only for 99 cents each. Sweet.
I don't download illegally either. I enjoy buying albums. I feel more motivated to listen to them after I've spent money on them. Also, I'll find songs I never would have found before that I really like. It seems that when you illegally download music, you only download the songs that you like.
I think I must be a natural collector or something, because I like to have the physical CDs of the music I own.
Yeah, I buy them too. I have completed discographies for Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones before they sucked (anything after Some Girls), R.E.M., Nirvana, The Doors, The Beatles (When they were good... Rubber Soul until the end) etc. That's hundreds of dollars worth of music, but I definitely don't regret spending that. It was worth every penny.
I have to admit the music I like eg bands such as Marillion and the Mission and other style bands such as Delain, Lunitica, Satyrian, you just can't download. However I prefare to have the originals on CD for my collection. I love so many different styles of music but those are faves especially Marillion. So I choose to buy those on cd and not download. However I'm not a saint either. (yup its true) the lesser Music I listen to I do drop in file sharing and download. For example My daughter loves the chart stuff dance hip hop urban etc. stuff thats everywhere. I download that for her. And I do download others that i listen to but not as much. more so for adding to a collection of downloaded stuff. in saying that though since august 07 I've barely file shared at all. So I guess the thrill of freebie music has worn off. I've never however downloaded movies. never tried and never been bothered. I rent them in the post. for £15 a month which is the price of one movie new. Some films I buy more so tv series because with films you watch 'em once and you've seen them occassionally you'll watch it again but after 3 -4 times of seeing the same moie you just never bother watching them again.
Forkfoot, Please clarify for me how illegally downloading an unknown artist's work is beneficial to them. It allows them to spread their work and attract people to their live shows? If that was the artists' intention, don't you believe that they would put their work out there for free (which a number of them do)/? Or is it greed on your part, not wishing to pay for an artist's creativity and labor, while claiming to be altrusistic in the illegal venture because, afterall, illegally downloading artsits' work is beneficial to them--you just know it better than they do. Please prove to me live music = real music, and thus justifies illegal activity. And even if you can, then illegal downloads would be pointless, right? Why bother if it isn't 'real music'. Because you believe some major artists' work 'sucks' is justification to illegally download download it? Artists that put out major records don't love their art? And you know this how? And Stephen King, JK Rowling, Tom Clancy among others who put out best sellers really don't love their art either? I am personally having difficulties following the logic of the assertions made supporting illegal downloading of artsits' work. Terry
Well most profits made by an artist are as my good friend fellow Moderator Cogito pointed out are made of tours and concerts.
Because a waitress earns the majority of her income with tips, does that mean that the small hourly rate the restaurnat pays her should be infringed upon? Terry
I download. I download music, because I have music ADD, and it's rare that I'm in the mood to listen to an entire album by one artist, and I'm not going to buy 3,000 CD's, from each of which I'd only listen to one song. Edit: I would also like to make clear that if I really like a band, I will go out and buy their album rather than downloading it. I do believe in supporting people who consistently make music that I enjoy. I download computer applications. As a technology management student, pretty much every class I have requires me to install software on my computer. As a financially struggling student, being able to download the programs I've needed (Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Microsoft C++, etc) has saved me a lot of trouble. And in my opinion, these programs should be free to students anyway. It doesn't seem fair that on top of ridiculous tuition and text book costs, we have to pay for our own software as well. Personally, I think the music and movie industries are being douchebags. It's not about creating art anymore, it's not about the enjoyment of creating something that makes others happy. It's about how much money they can make from it. And that is something I don't support. Yargh, a pirate's life for me. Edit again: I don't download movies. A lot of online movie downloads are poor quality. Plus, I don't watch a whole lot of movies.
