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Consider the cautionary tale of music CDs. Everyone, bar the music industry, agrees they've been sold at vastly inflated prices since the 80s. Along come CD writers and MP3s and the market collapses about their ears. Who's surprised? If bootlegging acts as a safety valve to keep software prices sensible, might that not be such a bad thing after all?

I bought MetallicA's newest from Safeways in Sedgley for 12 quid.

is this a sign ?

It doesnt seem long ago that I bought a cassette for a tenner instead of forking 15 quid for the preferred CD, so I hope so. (mind you I also bought the (not ripped off !) DVD of Full Monty for a fiver, so it also pays to not be first, sometimes !)

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ok, its actually XL426 in the picture but you know what I mean.

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or triple chocolate muffins in Tescos.

Speak for yourself !!

*Buuuuuuuuuuuuuurp*

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If that doesn't make you feel a twinge of guilt, you're obviously a hardened crook and should consider becoming a career criminal

It's statements like this that hurt anti-piracy advocates. Why can't you just stop at saying that copying software from a friend is wrong? According to that statement, it seems like it's a short step from grabbing an MP3 from napster to holding a gun to someone's head saying "your wallet, please". It's all just theft by hardened criminals after all.

Copying software (or music, or anything people charge money for) is WRONG, but it's stupid to treat it like a "gateway drug". It only makes file-swappers think people are just overreacting, and there's no social pressure to change.

here is a fact from me... i dont know if itapplies to others here....but here goes..

1. if its something i want , i BUY IT! (ie if its a label i know of from before, ie like DUNE (music) , aha (music) etc.

2. if it hadnt been for radio stations and mp3 files , well then the bloody music would have passed straight by me, ie i listen to radio (real radio, not inet radio) almost 12 hours a day, and seriously there is like 1 or 2 songs a day i would buy, i normally buy em on a collect cd or dont buy em at all and i dont even bother to download the mp3 unless someone gives it to me.

thats me, but then again i aint into the hIphop hype nor the crappy music that is going on atm.

i like real music :)

(i have about 300 cd's in my house, bought em over a 10 years period, and i suspect it wont grow that much really, except for some new trance and rave cds....)

anyway without mp3 for many, this would mean that they wouldnt even have heard the damn song, and thats a FACt! , and normal people (not collectors and leechers etc) will buy that cd if its worth it, and by that i dont mean 1 song is cool (the one u allready had on mp3) and 13 more songs on the cd is utter crap...

(maybe i am getting old? :) )

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Reminds me of this video someone posted on /.

Don't copy that floppy!

(Sorry guys, it's a WMV )

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Consider the cautionary tale of music CDs. Everyone, bar the music industry, agrees they've been sold at vastly inflated prices since the 80s. Along come CD writers and MP3s and the market collapses about their ears. Who's surprised?

Not to start a completely OFF-TOPIC discussion, because I completely agree with your point, but I wanted to make note that there is strong evidence contrary to the RIAA's published opinion that MP3's and blank CD's are what has caused their losses over the past 5 years, mainly relating to poor economy, CD price fixing, and lack of new material among a few other things.

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The booty on your hard drive cost Americans 111,000 jobs in 2001, $5.6bn in lost wages and $1.5bn in unpaid tax. If that doesn't make you feel a twinge of guilt, you're obviously a hardened crook and should consider becoming a career criminal or an oil executive.

Don´t you think people spend that money on other things? There is no loss of jobs, wages and taxes.

Nobody loses anything if i copy for example OfficeXP. There is no production cost for my copy and I couldn´t afford it even if I wanted to.

Not only do many people "nick" music, a lot of people also break the speed limit, reverse onto main roads, jump red lights, make startling noises with their car. All of these are illegal and all of them make people criminals. There are also people who kill and murder, sell drugs, traffic young girls from third world countries to be sold into slavery as prostitues. All this is illegal.

The industry's theory on piracy is that the pirates would buy what they steal, which is a flawed one.The lost revenue is probably much smaller in reality than what they quote.
Of course if you start talking about bootleggers or massive operations to copy and sell thats a whole different thing altogether

Piracy is just an indicator of social unrest and consumer dissatisfaction. The problem will continue to get worse as the companys do nothing to meet the demands of people.
Easily accessed and available cheap and versatile media, mp3's distributed over the internet is just one example of this.

Governments should not be passing laws that remove the rights from the consumer and give it to the corporations. the opposite should be done. after all the government is supposed to be governing for the people. the whole democracy idea is why they have been voted in, in the first place.

As I mentioned before there are many worse crimes than stealing music that continue to happen, and the fact that such a minor crime has so many billions of money spent on it, whilst other heinous crimes can barely rub a pair of penny's together, is just another social indicator of the type of unjust society we live in.

When will people live by the laws? When everyone else does, that means an end to corruption, double standards, lies, deceit and all the other things which are considered normal practice in western civilisation.

Why is it considered ok to steal music, or software or whatever, to break the laws of our countrys to our own benefit? Well everyone else does it, and a lot of people get away with it. Why should the people be the one's who come off worst? They shouldn't, but the only way is to break laws.

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Poster: alx Date: 9-Jul-2003 21:56:47 Reminds me of this video someone posted on /. Don't copy that floppy!

Hee hee, I want a game which allows me to randomly hit keys on a keyboard. Even daley thompsons athletics required you to press two buttons with a rhythm.

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When will people live by the laws? When everyone else does, that means an end to corruption, double standards, lies, deceit and all the other things which are considered normal practice in western civilisation.

If everyone waited on the other fellow to clean up his act first, we'd never get anywhere. Besides, you have no say in what you neighbor does with his hands; they're attached to the ends of his arms instead of yours.

You want your neighbor to stop pirating software? Start by setting the good example, instead of the other kind.

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Entropy entreated: Quote: When will people live by the laws? When everyone else does, that means an end to corruption, double standards, lies, deceit and all the other things which are considered normal practice in western civilisation. If everyone waited on the other fellow to clean up his act first, we'd never get anywhere.

I disagree, I think we'd be where we are, very few people have the presence of mind to live by principles. They would probably call it the difefrence between theory and practice. I think your right tho it is just being a lazy person, but so is not taking an active role in governing your country which can be said for probably 50% of the population.

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You want your neighbor to stop pirating software? Start by setting the good example, instead of the other kind.

An idealistic view, and certainly one I think should be encouraged. I don't think it really works like that at least where I live. If you aren't wiling to bend the rules you tend to be seen as a sociopath, or putting on air's.

Ya know, if nobody copied software, and bought everything that they used, Mr Gates would be a very rich man

What's a Tesco?

;^)

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