Illegal Song Downloading.

I've downloaded songs illegally. Haven't we all? There are of course the songs that can't be bought (covers, live versions, demos,...). And I have the habit that if I like a song from a particular artist, I'll download the album to see if I like the entire thing. I want to make sure I like the records I buy and not spend the little money I have on something I'll regret.

But if I like it I end up buying the record anyway. I have a soft spot for having a physical copy of the records I listen to, hence my extensive cd collection.

News time! Clicky

In 2009, The Pirate Bay was found guilty of assisting copyright infringement; they were each sentenced to a year in prison and a fine of 30 million SEK ($4.2 million/£2.8 million).

They all appealed, and yesterday it was announced that they lost. They were all still found guilty, and though three of the founder's sentences were reduced from one year to ten, eight and four months respectively, their fine was increased to 46 million; something one founder stated that they both couldn't, and wouldn't pay. They can still appeal to the Supreme Court, but have not declared their intent as of yet.

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry hopes this sentencing will quickly lead to ISPs "taking action" to block The Pirate Bay's website, shutting it down permanently.

...Have luck with that, IFPI. Wishing you every success in beating the Internet.

Well, it looks like I'll have to find a new site to get my torrents, then.

So they're killing Pirate bay. Again. Oh no. I'll wait till they stop breathing for sure till I start worrying.

I download my music from Frost Wire, only because most of the time, I get worn out of my songs and don't want them any more. Plus, who would want to pay more than a dollar for most songs off iTunes? It's ridiculous.

Even if large sites shut down if your friend buys the album they can still send you the tracks. I just don't see why people use the argument about "it's hurting the artists". No, it's not. Not unless they self-produce. Otherwise it's just hurting the label that's tossing the artist peanuts.

^This.

I'm cautious about downloading illegally mostly because of the viruses it'll give my computer. Nothing's happened to me so far (knock on wood) but I've heard some real horror stories. It's enough to make me swear of the internet entirely.

I use DVD Video Soft to download from Youtube. Copy the link, click the paste button on the app and blammo it downloads into an mp3. Quick, simple, and clean.

^
I have a great website that i can download straight from, but when that doesn't work there are so many sites that just rip audio from YT videos.

Sigh. I wish I could do that. A lot of the music I listen to isn't even on Youtube. Like there'll be one song, maybe, and some covers, but never entire albums of songs, or my favorite ones. I have a site, but it takes links down after so much time.
I'm in this situation right now where I can't find this album and it's pissing me off because I really don't want to get it off iTunes since all that does is make Apple money. I'll probably end up buying the CD… if I can find it.

heyJAYhey:

I'm cautious about downloading illegally mostly because of the viruses it'll give my computer. Nothing's happened to me so far (knock on wood) but I've heard some real horror stories. It's enough to make me swear of the internet entirely.

Usually viruses are easy to spot if you're using something like the gnutella network (Limewire, Frostwire, etc...), because of any questionable tags in the title, an obvious wrong filetype, or the file clearly being much smaller or much larger than it should be.

I've never seen a virus infecting a song though. It's usually through movies, mostly quicktime .mov files, that I see most viruses, that and I have seen Windows Media Player specific viruses in pirated movies.

Really, if you know what you're doing you can avoid viruses. If you're careful and know what to look for. Also, your operating system helps. Windows gets a lot of flak from viruses, if you're using a Mac, be wary of quicktime files and .pdfs, but you're chances are pretty good that you'll be safe, using Linux... you're perfectly safe.

loverfayce.:

Sigh. I wish I could do that. A lot of the music I listen to isn't even on Youtube. Like there'll be one song, maybe, and some covers, but never entire albums of songs, or my favorite ones. I have a site, but it takes links down after so much time.
I'm in this situation right now where I can't find this album and it's pissing me off because I really don't want to get it off iTunes since all that does is make Apple money. I'll probably end up buying the CD… if I can find it.

I often get the same problems, but usually it's easier for me to find it online than at a record store irl. I mainly stick to Rapidshare or Mediafire links myself, and torrents. If you know where to look, you'll find everything... the only albums I haven't been able to find I can count on one hand.

I'll download a couple songs and if i really like them i ussually end up buying the record

loverfayce.:

Sigh. I wish I could do that. A lot of the music I listen to isn't even on Youtube. Like there'll be one song, maybe, and some covers, but never entire albums of songs, or my favorite ones. I have a site, but it takes links down after so much time.
I'm in this situation right now where I can't find this album and it's pissing me off because I really don't want to get it off iTunes since all that does is make Apple money. I'll probably end up buying the CD… if I can find it.

Where does it say that buying songs off itunes makes money just for Apple? At any rate, most artists get money from their shows, so who else gets money from selling their music is irrelevant. Apple is obviously given the rights to have the songs in their store, so I see no issue with buying music from them. I prefer that to illegally downloading something.

^ But Apple does make a portion of the profits. And I'm guessing it's a rather large portion, because if bands got $1.50 for every song someone got off there they'd be a lot richer.

Bands tend to make about ten cents for every album they sell.

Zazoo:

I use DVD Video Soft to download from Youtube. Copy the link, click the paste button on the app and blammo it downloads into an mp3. Quick, simple, and clean.

My cousin recommended it to me. At first It was great, and downloaded the songs. But after a while, they came up with a new version. So then I tried dowloading the new version, but It doesn't work anymore.

^ We have the new version and it works just as well as the other. Is your computer maybe preventing it or something with a hidden program?

We use DVDvideosoft and get all of our songs from youtube. We don't have the money to buy CD'S or use sites like iTunes. Most of the time we only have like 40 or 50 dollars at the end of the week and food is what it goes for.

It seems to me that a lot of more recent bands seem quite nonchalant about illegal downloading, which then makes it slightly odd that a hugely successful, long-running, well-off band like Metallica are one of the most up-in-arms about it. xD

Alex; oxytocin.:

It seems to me that a lot of more recent bands seem quite nonchalant about illegal downloading, which then makes it slightly odd that a hugely successful, long-running, well-off band like Metallica are one of the most up-in-arms about it. xD

One reason may be that a band of 20-something year olds are probably young enough to have illegally downloaded songs as teenagers, before they became as famous as they may or may not be. They probably see some benefit from illegal downloading (it may encourage someone to one day properly download their music, and file sharing is often a fast and easy way for friends to share music and for word to get around about a new band) and therefore are more lax about it then a band like, as you mentioned, Metallica.