mmaestro wrote:
Deux_ex_machina wrote:
If they don't do anything about it then what makes it different from something legal (Other than the fact that they say that they think it's illegal?),
In practical terms, very little, although it does mean that little if any legislation is required if they want to switch from not enforcing the law to doing so. As an example, there's been a longrunning conversation about decriminalising marijuana in the UK. It would not be made legal - the police would still be at liberty to arrest or the CPS could prosecute someone for possession, dealing etc. if they
really wanted to, and it would likely be unwise to open a store to sell marijuana, but the average joe on the street wouldn't be at any real risk of prosecution for buying a little for personal use, and the friend of a friend who supplied similarly wouldn't be at risk. But if there was a problem of a huge upsurge in crime associated by dealing, they could simply decide to begin enforcing the next day. It really becomes a timescale thing.
In the case of music piracy, this means that while enforcement isn't happening on a large scale now, the police still have liberty to shut down and prosecute pretty much anyone they choose to, it's just generally considered more hassle than it's worth.
Anyway, it seems that the UK's rather lenient stance on file sharing may
soon change. From the BBC:
Quote:
The UK government could legislate to crack down on illegal file-sharers, a senior official has told the BBC's iPM programme.
Lord Triesman, the parliamentary Under Secretary for Innovation, Universities and Skills, said intellectual property theft would not be tolerated.
"If we can't get voluntary arrangements we will legislate," he said
...
"Where people have registered music as an intellectual property I believe we will be able to match data banks of that music to music going out and being exchanged on the net," he said.
"We have some simple choices to make. If creative artists can't earn a living as a result of the work they produce, then we will kill off creative artists and that would be a tragedy."
Note that the above is more to do with how you go about enforcing, rather than creating laws making file sharing illegal.
Deus_ex_machina wrote:
and besides that just because something is illegal doesn't make it wrong.
And how, pray tell, would you justify it as OK? Just because someone may be rich, and I may dislike how they conduct their personal lives, that doesn't make it any less a crime if I break into their house and steal their property. Copyrighted material is the property of the copyright order. Taking it without permission is theft, pure and simple. It doesn't matter if I dislike the labels, it doesn't matter if I'd
like to just take something that belongs to them. It's still theft.
The reasons we have laws against this sort of thing is precisely to stop stores going out of business and artists from becoming destitute when they're putting in labour to get their art out to you, the punter. As a society, we accept that artists need to be rewarded for their work and that you shouldn't be able to just copy it and take it.
That's just the UK, I'm not worried.
I doubt they are suffering, as you can see from the posts in here the people who solely download are a minority, the ones that are independent often have a very loyal fan base and the ones that are very popular are obviously very popular. I think the risk is exaggerated.
That analogy is off, I am not depriving someone of something, I am simply copying some data from one computer to another.
No It's still theft because the Government says so and because you believe it, in the same way that it was wrong for white people to marry black people not so long ago, not just morally but legally.
And if it doesn't get out to "me the punter"? I've already made my point that I don't get any of the records in my stores by the artists that I like, and the ones that I do are long dead (Maurice Ravel, Johannes Brahms ect), disbanded a long time ago, changed their style to one I don't want to hear, ect. Yeah I don't think they're going to miss money they wont see.
As to the Artists still alive? I've got a link in mind but the site eeems to be giving endless s**t, I'll try tomorrow.
_________________
"They do, but what do you think is on the radio? Meat sounds. You know how when you slap or flap meat, it makes a noise? They talk by flapping their meat at each other. They can even sing by squirting air through their meat." - Terry Bisson
24 Oct 2007, 4:42 pm
