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Sam Sachs ~ The issue of piracy these days seems like a huge deal. Many people use P2P networks to download music, movies and many other things. This essay stresses the point that many authors are being robed of profit due to massive P2P sharing. While I agree with the fact that downloading these products can lower the income of the authors, it can also be a benefit for them in the long run. Personally I dont like going out to buy a CD if I dont know if I like all the songs on it or even some of them. Being able to download them or listen to them from a friend that has them would be able to let me know if its worth buying. New movies are another example of how "authors" can make money of this P2P sharing. Often not even 2 days after a movie is release in theaters a "First Cam" is usually posted on the torrent sites, more often then not these movies are horrible quality, if a person like the horrid qualty one they may go see it in theaters. Also with more and more movies being relased in 3d people will more than like go to see the movie in theaters.

Also discussed in the article many authors of these "products" believe in the idea: " Creative work has value; whenever I use, or take, or build upon the creative work of others, I am taking from them something of value.Whenever I take something of value from someone else, I should have their permission. The taking of something of value from someone else without permission is wrong. It is a form of piracy." This is the reasoning that as said in the article led to the girl scouts getting sued by the ASCAP for singing songs around the campfire without paying for them. I honestly dont see how the artists and the ASCAP can go as far to sue people for singing songs. I mean when most people are in the car and listening to music they sing along with it. According to what the ASCAP has said in the past this would be considered piracy, should they be allowed to go so far as sueing anyone that sings a song without buying it? My answer would be no thats going way to far.

To Sam Sachs Steven Ho Piracy is a huge deal to artists. Probably not as much as their labels who take most of their money though. I do agree that pirated stuff makes authors gain more popularity. There are many times when a friend will link me a song on youtube that i've never heard of. Sometimes the songs are from unknown artists or popular artists that I've never heard of. Either way, it makes me aware of them, and I usually download their song afterwards. ...A friend of mine... pirates movies alot. He doesn't download cams because the quality sucks alot. He will usually download good quality releases that come out once a movie becomes "old". Studios are getting smart by making movies in 3D. There is no way to pirate them and retain the same experience as seeing it in a theater(most 3d movies are gimmicky). Pirating these films will just gimp your experience (AVATAR!!).

@Sam Sachs & Steven Ho James Le I would also have to agree that pirating makes the author or artist more popular. With music albums for example, while it's true that pirating causes declines in sales it also increases profits for most artists. Thanks to pirating or file sharing, popular and unknown artist are able grab a wider audience of people online. Popular albums would be easier to find online and their album sales are expected to be low. Less popular artist on the other hand, would have an increase in album sales. Why? Chances are the popular artist has all his songs in every album posted up online somewhere. Making it less likely for consumers to buy their album. With less popular artists, you might find a few of their songs you like online but not the rest. This could possibly provoke you to go ahead and buy their album(s). Piracy and file sharing isn't the only two methods which are contributing to this effect. Social online music services like Pandora or Last.fm are also supporting the situation. Of course we all hear that the music industry is losing dramatic amounts of money thanks to pirating/file sharing. Is that really true though? Well I can agree that they are losing money but on a pretty small scale. While there has been a decline in profits over the years, pirating/file sharing is not really the main culprit. In this case, I will be vague and blame the internet. Back in the day with our walkman/discman, album sales were booming but then the internet came along. That's really when sales started falling. More ways to discover information, socialize, and take action. This culmination should of foreshadowed the many calamities to come. Before we could only discover music in a few ways, friends, advertisements/marketing, the music store, and the radio. Now most, if not all, of those choices are pretty narrow. The music industry was basically in full control of what consumers were being exposed to. Now that the internet has freed us, we are free to find more ways to discover music and the like.

__Michael Larrabee__

With the rise of piracy for all digital markets, the amount of legislature and restrictions on the use of digital content increases. It has become a vicious cycle for both parties in the digital market. Pirates will always complain the prices are too high for products, but at the same time with the lose of profits companies will restrict how their products are used and how much they cost for the consumer. Lately many companies are creating arbitrary digital distribution systems that require users to create an account and verify their purchases and if you lose your information or your information somehow becomes disassociated with your content, it will no longer work. Other programs require constant verification of the software through the internet and if the connection is lost to the servers, your use of the product will end.

Many people these days will argue that piracy is alright because the value of the product is not high enough and what you get is for too expensive. This is especially the case with any production software such as Autodesk 3ds Max for 3D modeling which can cost thousands of dollars. Many people that want to produce content cannot afford to make the money until they've created something they can sell, but to do so, they need to pirate the software first. With the constant pressure to avoid piracy, creators are losing sight of adding value to their product so that this doesn't become necessary. At some point both parties will reach a crossroads, but not before pirates and digital content holders suffer a huge hit.

To Mike: John Rampersaud Piracy is always something that will affect any industry. If a person has the ability to get something for free they will do because of the money that they would save. Hackers create virus not because they have but because they want to, and with the amount of people it affects gives them the joy of creating the bug. No matter what the companies try to do, their will always be piracy, and the companies will always increase the price of their products.

Alex Morrow

I think the idea that the Internet is turning more and more of this "non-commercial" creativity into "commercial" creativity is quite intriguing - and a bit intimidating. Creative content over the web is constantly and consistently downloaded, uploaded, shared, streamed, viewed and linked - 24 hours a day, 7 days a week...the point is it's always being obtained in some fashion or another. A few other ways it can be accesses is either legally or illegally - illegally being the more popular method. These artists who create this "intellectual property" lose money this way, probably not noticeably, but still. Once something is on the internet someone, somewhere, someway will find it, get it, and share it with lots...and lots of people. All people who could potentially be buying it. The fact that laws are governing so much of what goes on over the internet is annoying, but necessary.

I'm currently downloading a song. I'm not paying for it, either. And I doubt that the artist will notice any decline in their income level. This is awesome - I get music for free and chances are I won't get in trouble for it. I'm going to tell my friends about this song, and they will tell people, and many of those people will go and download the song illegally, for free, as well. But in turn, all these people who like this song, will now be more inclined to spend money to get better, more exclusive access to this person's work. Perhaps they will go to one of their concerts or maybe get their next CD - regardless the creator's popularity just spread exponentially. Because one person downloaded a song. Try to advertise any better way. You can't.

The internet is a new form of media advertising - it should not be stifled by the big name companies with government ties doing what they think is best for society. While pirating might initially rob an artist of a few pennies, the outcomes are far greater. Any aspiring artist or content creator of any sort should take advantage of this magnificent - and free - way to advertise their work. This is free publicity - and the whole world can see it. I think that the internet is a great way to gain widespread support and popularity, especially for someone just entering the world of "intellectual property". The internet is a technology that is here to stay - creators should embrace it and the new techniques it brings to showcasing work for potential consumers down the right. If played right, the internet game can make you rich.

David Noonan To Alex:

I think what you're getting at here is similar to what Cory Doctorow was saying when he published Content online, allowing people to download it for free. He is treating the internet as a new form of advertising, like you suggest that others should do as well. After all, there are probably more sales gained by such a marketing strategy than lost - few people will treat the downloaded book as a paper book, but many might read the book and decide they would like to buy it. This can obviously apply to the music industry as well, which I know that some bands have done or tried to do. Unfortunately, as this author stated, many companies would rather stifle the technology than adapt to it, so they are doing what they can to fight that which they should embrace.

Aula S

I do agree that piracy does decrease the sales but at the same time it could be used for greater good. As Dave mentioned the internet can be treated as a form of advertising, for both music, movies and books. Many upcoming artists find their big breaks by posting videos and tracks on myspace. On myspace they allow users to download their songs for free, I feel it works similarly to passing out a demo, but also having a fan base before you even begin with a major record industry. With books I would find myself buying an actual copy book more than I would find myself buying music or a movie. And I think that varies from person to person, people will either want to reread a book, or buy a full album from an artist, or watch a movie. As James mentioned its not just illegal piracy that is holding people back from purchasing music, movies, and tv shows. Its the fact that now you can watch and listen to these forms of media because of sites like Pandora and Hulu. I feel that industry needs to find new ways of exploring the technology that is brought to them. Its like saying that because we now have the internet there is no need for journalist because our newspapers are predominately read online. Its the way the industry decides to take advantage of technology and incorporating it into our lives. I think iTunes is actually doing a really good job of incorporating the constant changing and accessibility people have to entertainment. iTunes has a section in their music store that you can get free music from new and upcoming artists. After the week though, the music then has to be paid for. You can get lucky and legally download really good free music without any worries of also downloading a virus along with your song. And it works really well for the artist, an artist that I would have never heard of otherwise, is now someone that i'm looking forward to finding out more about their music. I may even look into their album and purchase one song, a common complaint from piraters you have to pay 10 dollars for one good song.

David Weiss

Exactly! You can't fight Piracy these days. It's just not possible. Sure you can go and tackle a few people here and there, but the internet is so vast and it covers so many countries that it is just not realistic to go and fight against it. Aula has the right idea here. Industries need to give up on the quest to end piracy and find a way to work with it. This constant battle is just wasting time and resources that companies can use to further their business. Some businesses have caught on to this. However,. most of them have not. The problem is that most companies are afraid to give stuff away for free. They don't want to chance losing sales by making things available online. I doubt that this stance will change anytime soon, especially with American companies, seeing that we are all about ownership. Personally, I feel that making things available online helps to make the company more respectable. I respect companies that put their products on the line. I respect their courage to do what is typically thought to be outrageous. That kind of attitude makes me want to buy things from companies.

John Welkner

Piracy is a growing problem that can be very hard to control the spread of. I think that the biggest problem of piracy is that when its over the internet it not like the traditional piracy. When a real world pirate takes something, he takes it for good and takes it by force. Whereas, a internet pirate really only copies the works with a click a the mouse. This leads normal everyday people to commit piracy over the internet because it does not feel like a bad thing you are doing. The only real way to stop your work from not being stolen over the internet is to not put it on the internet.

Peter Quattrociocchi III I agree with John and David, the only way to stop piracy is to stop the servers sending the information (like they did with other search engines). Also, it has been shown that giving demos or a small wuantity of something free as a sample can actually improve sales. Piracy will always exist, however. I don't think there will ever be a sure way to stop it.

Jing Wang I agree with John, but I don't think its quite enough to just not put thing on the internet will be able to stop your work from being stolen, because someone else may do the job for you. For example, someone watched a movie and uploaded it to the internet, however, the movie producer might never try to put the movie on the internet. Just like Peter said:"Piracy will always exist." The more powerful the internet become, the more chances piracy will happen. The right direction should not be trying to stop piracy, people should consider piracy as a resource from the society. Thinking about someone doing the production and distribution for you voluntarily. The right thing to do should be working your way around and try to this power form the entire world, not to go against it. Personally, I don't think piracy is right, but I do think that piracy can help spreading information and improve general knowledge level over huge population. Most people like to the word "free." If people could use software, watch movies, listen songs and read books for free, I believe they would spend more time doing these things or try many more different things. Maybe the original producers should get paid by the government or other format of public payment.

Alvaro Giorgetta

I do agree with some of the people here. You cannot fight this new kind of piracy. However I don't think its is as bad as stealing something in the real world. Let me give you an example, I download free music from the internet all the time. I get it from other people who put links online. Since I work as a DJ I download 20 to 30 song a day. I listen to them and in most cases I delete them. Lets say that I keep 2 to 3 songs per week. Let me tell you that after I know an artist very well and I like his style I tend to BUY his CDS or singles without even listening to them. This is only possible because I listened to his material before. Besides sometimes I even put the music I bought on my website or in youtube so people can listen to it because I like to share music and express myself trough it. . Also a year ago a friend of mine downloaded the lord of the rings, the fellowship of the ring from a website and gave me a copy. I liked it so much that I bought the entire collection (3 movies) plus the three books. I think that there is so much out there at the reach of our hands that we cant just simply turn around.

I really like what LAWRENCE LESSIG is saying about piracy and how things have changed. I also agree with him and what he thinks about how the law’s role is less and less to support creativity, and more and more to protect certain industries against competition.

"Just at the time digital technology could unleash an extraordinary range of commercial and noncommercial creativity, the law burdens this creativity with insanely complex and vague rules and with the threat of obscenely severe penalties.We may be seeing, as Richard Florida writes, the “Rise of the Creative Class.” Unfortunately, we are also seeing an extraordinary rise of regulation of this creative class." Page 19