Slashdot Mirror


Video and Software Downloads Overtaking Music

Trigun writes "The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is reporting that movie and software downloads have outpaced music downloads. Music accounted for 48.6 percent of files shared online, compared with 62.5 percent in 2002, according to a report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The article says that 1 in 4 internet users have downloaded at least one movie, and attributes the proliferation to access to broadband. Maybe we've just downloaded all the good music already?"

234 comments

  1. Global coverage by SIGALRM · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Across the OECD's 30 industrialized member countries, music accounted for 48.6 percent of files shared online, compared with 62.5 percent in 2002, according to excerpts of the report seen by The Associated Press.
    Interesting. I wonder if the fact that Hollywood tends to distribute movies in the US first--coupled with the storm of global entertainment coverage--contributes to this? If I lived in Germany, for example, awaiting the release of Spider-Man 2 I might want to see what all the hype was about and download the movie.
    --
    Sigs cause cancer.
    1. Re:Global coverage by Mind+Booster+Noori · · Score: 1

      That explains why people download movies, not why do they do it MORE then in the past, and MORE then music. I tend to agree with the author, when he says that's because of broadband.

    2. Re:Global coverage by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If I lived in Germany, for example

      Yeah, and I lived in Germany for awhile, a lot of Germans speak English and could understand an English movie, much more than in the US could understand a German movie.

    3. Re:Global coverage by Dark+Kenshin · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Actually, I think this is due to the fact that the recent quality of music being released isn't that high. This gives movies and programs more focus for people to spend time downloading.

      But that's just my opinion, so whatever ...

      --
      "I only know 2 things: The love for me, and the fear of me."
    4. Re:Global coverage by WatertonMan · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I honestly wonder how they calculate this? I daresay that the majority of people using P2P networks share their music shares which probably are around 1000 files or more. I just have a hard time seeing that most are sharing that many movies and pieces of software. i.e. those sharing movies almost certainly are also sharing songs.

      What I suspect they did is just scanned for not music files. They then end up with all these small files - sometimes the content of you system directory - that dumbnits share or people trying to get a certain GB shared limit share. Yet if they count each .ini file and other such thing as a different software file, of course the number of files will outnumber music. But is that a real accurate count of movies and software shared?

      i.e. shouldn't they count software packages and movies shared rather than *files* shared?

      Perhaps they aren't making this mistake. But given their statistics something just smells fishy. I'd like to see their methadology.

    5. Re:Global coverage by DrEldarion · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'd attribute it more to the combination of more people getting broadband (they can now download huge files in a matter of hours), many legal threats (while the RIAA lawsuits may not have affected downloading, I'm sure many people don't share as much music anymore), and a bunch of legal MP3 download services popping up (if people are buying them legally, there's no point in sharing them on P2P networks).

      Remember, just because YOU don't like the music they put out nowadays doesn't mean that there aren't hundreds of millions of people who do.

    6. Re:Global coverage by strictnein · · Score: 1

      oh come on now... for instance... DAS BOOT means "The FART OF FARTS! I EAT PEPSI AND PEE COKE!"

    7. Re:Global coverage by superpulpsicle · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Man I so agree. The numbers aren't that obvious. You download a movie, it's 600 megs. It messed up at 300 megs. You recontinued to P2P session, does that count as 2 files now?

      It's goes on and on. I can't stand research like this anymore. They are just giving organizations like RIAA fuel to sue by miscalculating left and right.

    8. Re:Global coverage by oogoliegoogolie · · Score: 1

      Remember, just because YOU don't like the music they put out nowadays doesn't mean that there aren't hundreds of millions of people who do And just because YOU like the music they put out nowadays doesn't mean that there aren't hundreds of millions of people who DON'T!

    9. Re:Global coverage by Mad+Martigan · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That's a good point, considering the article addresses the number of files downloaded. I wonder what things would look like if the numbers reflected the size of the files downloaded.

      Also, if they did scan specifically for movies, software, etc, I wonder how porn messes things up. I mean, seriously, how many movie movies have you downloaded compared to how many porno clips/movies?

      It's too bad there isn't a better discussion of the methodolgy in the article.

    10. Re:Global coverage by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      "I wonder how porn messes things up. I mean, seriously, how many movie movies have you downloaded compared to how many porno clips/movies?"

      THERE'S PORN ON THE INTERNET!!!!! When did this happen??!?! I am outraged, and humbly request that you forward the sites and servers distributing this filth so that I may see it for myself! Oh won't somebody PLEASE think of the children!!! ;-)

    11. Re:Global coverage by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      thank you! On the mark sir!

    12. Re:Global coverage by TastyWords · · Score: 1

      Maybe in speach. I'd say a lot of reasonable people can interpret some German on hardcopy. Not something which would pass for anything difficult, but we could make a decent guess at some things. I'm not disagreeing with Germans having a better advantage over Germans knowning English over vice-versa.

      But if you are in a pinch and something appears to be in Finnish or some other distant language, some syntax can be guessed. Again, they'd have the advantage going to English than the inverse, but...

      One of the things about the German aspect is English and German are the closest languages [to each other] on most of the language trees I have seen, such as Scientific American.

    13. Re:Global coverage by netsharc · · Score: 1

      Despite the fact that they do speak English, the Germans still dub non-German movies to German. It's one -- albeit small -- reason why I don't go the movies that often. The other reason being, hey downloading it costs nothing. So yeah, the German government with this dumb law is partly guilty why there are so many illegal downloads of movies.

      And the Germans are pretty bad at keeping their language intact. In TV, magazines and the economy you hear a lot of dumb English phrases. Here's one I just made up "Bei diesen Problem weiss ich den Solution noch nicht. Ich muss es noch checken.". Look at the website of Deutsche Telekom; "WebEasy", "enjoyTarif"... oh well, I could rant all day.

      --
      What time is it/will be over there? Check with my iPhone app!
    14. Re:Global coverage by TastyWords · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I would think there's also the ability to "cook the books" as well.

      Everyone likes to cite "Half of all marriages end in divorce." When it's actually, "There are half as many divorces as there are marriages this year."

      I'm willing to bet dollars to doughnuts some of the quotes are bent around a bit so they sound better in the press. Book publishers found a way to cook the books rather dramatically within the previous five years ago or so. They found out there were a few key channels used to guesstimate total sales so they started pushing as many shipments through those channels then had them picked back up on the other end and distributed correctly.

      All-in-all, I find most of the numbers to fall into the category of this joke:

      Two guys were riding a train together and one bet the other he could tell how many sheep were in the field. The settled on the wager and the first guy went, proudly stating his count. The second guy said, "that's incredible! How did you do it?" The first guy said, "I counted all of the legs, then divided by four."

    15. Re:Global coverage by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You must have taken really ADVANCED German to find such subcontext.

      Das Boot = The Boat

      But I'm contaminated cos I live here in Europe ;-)

    16. Re:Global coverage by kiwipeso · · Score: 0

      I have only downloaded 1 actual movie : 1984. The reason it's the only proper movie is because the sound is out of sync after the first 20 minutes.
      Porn though, I've downloaded 100s of small files that were ripped of websites.

      --
      - Kaos games and encryption systems developer
    17. Re:Global coverage by alwynschoeman · · Score: 1

      I totally agree with you, the last 10 years of music has been an embarrassment to mankind.

      That said, more than 90 % of people are idiots with actually no taste in music, so I guess our theory can't be correct.

    18. Re:Global coverage by The+Slashdot+Guy · · Score: 1

      The last ten years of music has been no worse than any time before it. People have been listening to crap for a lot longer than that. If you need proof, listen to an oldies or classic rock station for a little while.

    19. Re:Global coverage by ioslipstream · · Score: 2, Interesting

      the last ten years of music have been great, provided of course, you don't consider what they play on the radio, music.

    20. Re:Global coverage by mpol · · Score: 1

      On the edonkey network most music isn't shared as mp3 anymore, but as archives, where the tracks of a cd are packed in a .zip, .rar or .ace. That makes it probably non-music even.

      --

      Well, don't worry about that. We can get you back before you leave. (Dr. Who)
    21. Re:Global coverage by tommyboyprime · · Score: 1

      Music, once a large part of my life, has been relegated to background. I read a lot and when I have the time watch movies. I have not downloaded a music file for quite some time.

      --
      This parrot has ceased to be!
    22. Re:Global coverage by Dr.+GeneMachine · · Score: 1

      Completely right. I would even go so far to say that the nineties showed quite an improvement in overall musical quality, compared to the musical nightmare of the eighties... Besides - I seriously doubt anyone could have downloaded *all* the good music that's out there - if anybody has, please contact me - I'll take my 4 TB raid server to your place to get me a mirror... and I doubt that storage space would suffice.

      --
      This comment does not exist.
    23. Re:Global coverage by Dr.+GeneMachine · · Score: 1
      Despite the fact that they do speak English, the Germans still dub non-German movies to German. It's one -- albeit small -- reason why I don't go the movies that often.

      You're so right... that is my main reason for downloading movies. I can't stand the crappy german dubs anymore. Every now and then, if I really want to see something on the big screen, I drive about 100 kilometers to the next cinema that shows english originals without dub.
      Regarding the english phrases, especially in commercials, I saw a poll some weeks ago which showed that most of the customers didn't even understand what the phrases really ment... WebEasy, indeed.

      --
      This comment does not exist.
    24. Re:Global coverage by rinusnl34 · · Score: 1

      change Germany to the Netherlands and that's what i do

    25. Re:Global coverage by Anarcho-Goth · · Score: 1

      Man I so agree. The numbers aren't that obvious. You download a movie, it's 600 megs. It messed up at 300 megs. You recontinued to P2P session, does that count as 2 files now?

      Well, that all depends on who they are and what they want the results of their "statistics" to be.

      If they are the RIAA it counts as 2 files, maybe 1. If they are the MPAA it counts as 900 megs.

      Then again, it isn't as if the RIAA and MPAA are against each other, so they might find a comprimise.

      and I'll be like an average slashdotter in this case and not read the article but ask this question anyway: Who is the "Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development" and do they have any connections with the RIAA, MPAA and related organizations?

      For a good read on how much "research" out there more or less has the results before the test, try reading Trust Us, We're the Experts.

      --
      I hate Liberals and Conservatives.
      If you are a Liberal or a Conservative, then HAVE A NICE DAY!
      Courage.
  2. Bah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    They probably calculated it by megabytes.

  3. its faster.. by cRueLio · · Score: 5, Insightful

    its faster and easier for me to DL a movie off of IRC than to haul my ass to the movie theatre, stand in line, and sit cramped in a shitty chair with no elbow room next to some annoying little kids. i just dl from irc, burn on a cdrw (vcd/svcd) pop it in the vcd player and watch it.

    1. Re:its faster.. by vxvxvxvx · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Sure, but when you go to a movie theater

      • The screen doesn't shake
      • The audio doesn't remind you of AM talk
      • You can actually see who is talking rather than "the white blob"
      • Your girlfriend doesn't leave 10 minutes in after calling you a loser

      All in all, I'd go to the theater.

    2. Re:its faster.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Your girlfriend doesn't leave 10 minutes in after calling you a loser
      Oh, so very Slashdot.
    3. Re:its faster.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      its faster and easier for me to DL a movie off of IRC than to haul my ass to the movie theatre, stand in line, and sit cramped in a shitty chair with no elbow room next to some annoying little kids. i just dl from irc, burn on a cdrw (vcd/svcd) pop it in the vcd player and watch it.
      No elbow room next to little kids? You must be one of those people who the airlines force to buy 2 seats because of your 'girth.' So let's be honest: you don't go to the movies because children run screaming from your blobbiness. Quit making excuses for why you break the law, since you just sound like a lamer.
    4. Re:its faster.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I agree, why sit in a shitty non-reclining chair that proabably does not even compare to a lazyboy or a nice sofa. Plus you dont have some retards head in the middle of your view so this way u have no ppls heads to smack.
      And as far is software goes, why should we be paying M$ for their crappy produstcs, they shuld be paying us for them cuz they dont even work 100%, and linux is free and works way better then windows IMO.

    5. Re:its faster.. by aacool · · Score: 1
      Try downloading a telesync or KVCD or DVD-RIP then. The picture quality of some is pretty awesome. Camgrabs are to be stayed away from

      At least you don't have to deal with ringing phones, gumwads and overly tall people front of you.

      Try leaving a theater 10 mins into a chickflick with the girlfriend all wrapped up in it.

      Love the immersive experience of a theater though

    6. Re:its faster.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I agree, why sit in a shitty non-reclining chair that proabably does not even compare to a lazyboy or a nice sofa. Plus you dont have some retards head in the middle of your view so this way u have no ppls heads to smack.
      And as far is software goes, why should we be paying M$ for their crappy produstcs, they shuld be paying us for them cuz they dont even work 100%, and linux is free and works way better then windows IMO.


      +5 funny. I'd say +4, but 'produstcs' and 'no ppls heads to smack' really give it that extra boost to +5.

    7. Re:its faster.. by jefe7777 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      i've downloaded my share of dvd rips, so problems 1,2 & 3 are non-existent in those cases. i won't watch cams for the reasons you outlined.

      still, the cinema is an enjoyable experience, imo.

      if it didn't cost nearly $10 a ticket and $4 for a box of candy, I'd probably go more often.

    8. Re:its faster.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      LOL dude the DVD of Shrek2 is on alt.binaries.dvdr in widescreen and fullscreen and the video is absolutely pristine with dolby 5.1 sound.... generally movies are of great quality lately, and some are totally superb.

    9. Re:its faster.. by joggle · · Score: 1

      Or you could be patient and rent the DVD when it comes out. If the McDonald's DVD rental thing takes off that would only cost $1 per day even for a new release (currently, that's the only ones they're stocked with).

    10. Re:its faster.. by Strong+Arm+Coat · · Score: 1

      Faster? I think you mean "more convenient."

      It's funny how people who complain about how lazy many computer idiots are, yet they're the very ones who would rather download an entire movie because "It's easier" or "It's more convenient" than going to the theater.

    11. Re:its faster.. by value_added · · Score: 2, Funny

      And and and ... you can make popcorn while burning the cdrw!

      Real butter, too.

    12. Re:its faster.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, and its easier for me to kick your ass and take your wallet than to get a real job and earn some money.

      Hell, maybe I'll just commit identity theft. That way, I'm not really taking anything from you, just sharing. Sound familiar, eh.

    13. Re:its faster.. by Embedded2004 · · Score: 1

      You obviously have not watched any downloaded movies have you. Or been to dumb to know that you do not want to download CAMs, but dvdrips or screeners, which are perfect quality.

    14. Re:its faster.. by FuzzyBad-Mofo · · Score: 1

      Spiderman 2, with a dad in the next row back explaining the movie in blow-by-blow detail to his wee ones.. annoying, yes. Still a great movie tho.

    15. Re:its faster.. by vxvxvxvx · · Score: 1

      Or, I decided to talk about movies in theaters.. Sure, if you wait long enough you can get screeners and dvdrips, but the parent I replied to specifically said theaters, and most movies in theaters don't get high quality downloads until they're either out of theaters or almost out.. do I want to wait?

    16. Re:its faster.. by neonstz · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I saw Spider-Man 2 with 6 friends yesterday. Ordeded the tickets online two days in advance on the internet (paid with VISA). I didn't have to stand in line, I just went straight to the counter to pick up the tickets 5 minutes before the movie started. Before the movie a few of us got something to eat, and after the movie we went out to have a couple of beers/coke. Watching a movie at the cinema isn't just the movie, it's also about getting out and doing stuff with friends.

    17. Re:its faster.. by Joe+Tie. · · Score: 1

      Tell me about it. The local theater where I live is pretty hit and miss about what it gets, more often miss than hit. The nearest good one is two and a half to three hours drive away - so something close to eight hours total taken up for a movie. I'd be thrilled to have the option of just chunking down some money to watch it at home and save the agrivation.

      --
      Everything will be taken away from you.
    18. Re:its faster.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, and its easier for me to kick your ass and take your wallet than to get a real job and earn some money.

      No, that sounds hard. If it were easy more people would do it.

    19. Re:its faster.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh, bullshit.

    20. Re:its faster.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Before the movie a few of us got something to eat, and after the movie we went out to have a couple of beers/coke. Watching a movie at the cinema isn't just the movie How much did the whole night out cost you? Here in the UK that lot would cost around 40-50 per person. Far cheaper to download the thing, get your friends over the house and get a slab of beers from the supermarket! Last time I went to the cinema I think I paid 5 for a hot dog (About $8?) Thanks, but no thanks. Give me a pack of 8 hotdogs and a whole bunch of buns for half the price from Asda thank-you-very-much. And, you don't have to worry about a taxi back from the place after all the beers :-)

    21. Re:its faster.. by Mazem · · Score: 2, Insightful

      That's especially true on college networks. Wide selection of good movies + ridiculously fast download speeds + no car = pirates.

    22. Re:its faster.. by checkyoulater · · Score: 1

      Watching a movie at the cinema isn't just the movie, it's also about getting out and doing stuff with friends.

      Sorry, but I'm going to have to disagree. After all, this is Slashdot. Most people don't have friends, let alone ever go out of the house.

      --
      Is that a real poncho? I mean, is that a Mexican poncho or is that a Sears poncho?
    23. Re:its faster.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Watching a movie at the cinema isn't just the movie, it's also about getting out and doing stuff with friends."

      Getting out and doing stuff with people??

      WHOOP! WHOOP! Fake geek alert! Poser spotted amongst Slashdolt crowd!

    24. Re:its faster.. by ManxStef · · Score: 2, Funny

      Indeed, that's the point: it's an experience rather than just an evening at home in front of a (comparatively) tiny screen and stereo. One of the last times I went to the cinema - there are only two screens here with a very limited choice so we don't go very often - it was a great laugh, not because of the film (which was very good, but not a comedy) but because of a certain incident...

      We'd gone to see "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"; the cinema was packed and the five of us got settled, munchies and drinks at the ready. The only problem was, there were the usual couple of kids who'd not been able to get into anything else, so were sat right on the front row and were doing their best to be annoying.

      Throughout the film they got more and more irritating. One of them, in particular, had managed to find a seat that was squeaky, so was taking great enjoyment in pissing off the entire cinema by rocking loudly backwards and forwards. It got to the point where one of our group, Toots, said quietly, "Right, I've had enough of that little bastard, I'm going to shut him up." He'd finished his small stashed bottle of whiskey and was getting ready to lob it at the kid's head, when Smeg, another of the lads, put his arm out and said, "it's OK, I'll deal with this."

      In a fluke of timing, the film was just coming up to the love scene between Xiou Long and Xiao Hu. Sure enough, through the silence of the cinema came the squeaking of the chair: eewwwwkk, eeek, eeekkk, eeek. Smeg chose his moment well, and spoke out in a loud, clear voice, so the entire audience could hear.

      "Excuse me. Are you masturbating down there?"

      The entire place erupted with laughter. Needless to say, we didn't hear one peep from those kids through the rest of the film :)

    25. Re:its faster.. by sorbits · · Score: 1
      How much did the whole night out cost you?

      My thoughts exactly... In denmark we pay as much as $20 for a movie ticket, and we pay a fee to order the ticket in advance.

      This coupled with the fact that "going to the movies" is just sitting in a dark room with your friends where you are not allowed to talk and following a story which is often forgotten one hour after leaving the cinema, has made me avoid these "social gatherings", and when ever some of my friends suggest going to the movies, I always come up with a counter-suggestion, unless there is something *really* interesting showing.

  4. Blame ' pirates ' by nurb432 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    That way we can have more restrictive legislation.

    --
    ---- Booth was a patriot ----
    1. Re:Blame ' pirates ' by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, what a shocking knee-jerk reaction that would be, as I'm sure the vast majority of these movies and software are either commercial products being downloaded by people who legitimately own them and just don't want their modems to get rusty, or GPL'd software being downloaded by people who can never quite recall how you spell that darned freshmeat.net and need to use p2p instead.

      Also my father is the emperor of Klatch and my mother is a small tray of raspberry puddings.

  5. Its the RIAAs secret plan by AuMatar · · Score: 5, Funny

    Keep coming out with music so shitty noone wants to download it! And its working already!

    On a serious note- do they separate legal from illegal downloads? Lots of movies/software is legal to download.

    --
    I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
    1. Re:Its the RIAAs secret plan by offpath3 · · Score: 2, Insightful
      On a serious note- do they separate legal from illegal downloads? Lots of movies/software is legal to download.

      Seriously. Because if they're measuring bytes transfered, I've downloaded much more legal software (Linux ISOs) from bittorrent than I've downloaded music from anywhere in quite a long time.

  6. What do they call movies by Mik3D · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Sure if you include Quicktime trailers, and short films. But I seriously doubt 1 in 4 have downloaded a feature film... cause guess what, no where near 1 in 4 users has broadband

    1. Re:What do they call movies by wpiman · · Score: 0

      1 in 4 downloaded short p0rn videos is more likely. 80% of those did so at 28.8. "Good things cum to those who wait" they always say

    2. Re:What do they call movies by ResidntGeek · · Score: 1

      Frick dude, I've downloaded feature films, and I'm on dialup. It's much less difficult than waiting for, say, Austin Powers to come to video after it's left the theaters.

      --
      ResidntGeek
    3. Re:What do they call movies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's much less difficult than waiting for, say, Austin Powers to come to video


      Austin Powers has come to VIDEO???!
      OMFG WTF... where do I get it??

    4. Re:What do they call movies by ResidntGeek · · Score: 1

      Bend over and I'll show you.

      --
      ResidntGeek
  7. Of course... by UnixRawks · · Score: 4, Funny

    Pr0n baby pr0n. It's much better than pr0ngroove mp3's.

    --
    I
    1. Re:Of course... by Mind+Booster+Noori · · Score: 4, Informative
      I don't really know what was your intention when you posted this, but I've seen this moderated as Score:0 and Score:2...

      You have a point here: probably the most kind of downloaded "movies" (which I suppose they call to everything with certain extensions, like .avi, .mpeg, ...) is porn, and with the expansion of p2p file-sharing networks and broadband, more and more people probably download porn stuff there, I even imagine lot's of teens using p2p software only for that purpose...

    2. Re:Of course... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      "I even imagine lot's of teens using p2p software only for that purpose..."

      heck, I can imagine a lot of adults using computers only for that purpose.

      (including an x-co-worker with ihs office computer)

    3. Re:Of course... by Mind+Booster+Noori · · Score: 1

      x-co-worker? x? Oh no, YOU GOT FIRED? :-)

  8. Same old story by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Just another round of MP/RI-AA trying to make the money they're used to. Trying to push for government regulation, infringing on our rights as citizens.

    All empires crumble, why won't they accept it?

    1. Re:Same old story by Neil+Blender · · Score: 3, Insightful

      infringing on our rights as citizens

      Downloading stuff is not a right. It's a privilege.

    2. Re:Same old story by Trespass · · Score: 2, Insightful

      infringing on our rights as citizens

      Downloading stuff is not a right. It's a privilege.


      It's neither. It's a mechanism. The map is not the territory.

    3. Re:Same old story by antiMStroll · · Score: 1
      " Just another round of MP/RI-AA trying to make the money they're used to.

      And it's working. RIAA: legal threats, suing users and advertising it, ad campaigns castigating typical consumers, criminalizing legislation, and falling markets. MPAA, relative to the RIAA keeping very quiet, a billion dollar month. Correlation isn't causation true, but it certainly merits a look.

    4. Re:Same old story by Dr.+GeneMachine · · Score: 1
      Downloading stuff is not a right. It's a privilege.

      So is copyright...

      --
      This comment does not exist.
  9. Maybe if by size... by Xshare · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Are they counting by size of file? Or maybe they are including all the .r00, .r01, .r02 files as SEPERATE files, but I don't see this as completely right.

    1. Re:Maybe if by size... by Hatta · · Score: 1

      It's the porn man.

      --
      Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
    2. Re:Maybe if by size... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, but I have 100 MP3's to every porn movie I have, even though the total disk space requirements are similar.

    3. Re:Maybe if by size... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you actually keep your porn? I get rather bored with them after the second viewing or so and will just download another. A good song I'll keep forever.

    4. Re:Maybe if by size... by dnahelix · · Score: 1

      It depends on the porn, like that scene in Idol Country with the two latinos. Damn that's hot! I've watched it several times and know I'll watch it again.

      --
      Slashdot Eds Link Anonymous Posts With Logged Posts
      They Are Vermin Feeding On Each Other's Feces.
      I Hate \.
  10. A probable cause by slungsolow · · Score: 1

    It may have to do with people enjoying the movie after seeing it once and not wanting to go and pay for it again. It may also have to do with the fact that wanting to see Gigli in the theaters was pretty damn embarassing for the millions of J-Lo fans out there.

  11. RIAA spin by carlos_benj · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Great. I'm sure RIAA will see this as vindication of their sue the customer policies. "See, they've moved on to other media since we started..."

    --

    --

    As a matter of fact, I am a lawyer. But I play an actor on TV.

  12. Surprise, surprise... by stienman · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What the RIAA is doing is having a chilling effect on online music trading, like it or not. I don't think the MPAA will have any recourse but to pursue the same tactics, but with much larger penalties.

    It would be nice to see the full stats, though, to see if music has plateaued (as would be expected) while movies climb as broadband proliferates.
    br. -Adam

    1. Re:Surprise, surprise... by Mind+Booster+Noori · · Score: 3, Interesting
      What the RIAA is doing is having a chilling effect on online music trading, like it or not.
      Of course is having: lot's of people (including me) are buying LESS CD's because some of them are with copy protections that doesn't let people play them on their CD players.

      Wow, nice move.

    2. Re:Surprise, surprise... by PhoenixFlare · · Score: 2, Interesting

      "What the RIAA is doing is having a chilling effect on online music trading, like it or not. I don't think the MPAA will have any recourse but to pursue the same tactics, but with much larger penalties."

      Only partially correct. I believe it is having a chilling effect (maybe) on trading of music produced by RIAA members or that would otherwise get you in trouble with the RIAA if caught.

      Conversely, in some areas, such as ( to use a rather geeky example ) anime and video game soundtracks, music is easily found with a bit of work and people are more than willing to share vast quantities.

    3. Re:Surprise, surprise... by Jane_Dozey · · Score: 1

      Or they could employ other tactics that the RIAA totally missed the boat on, such as legal downloads for a fee. If they start doing things like this _now_ then lots of people will start using these kinds of services and get used to it. Especially since broadband is growing, meaning so will their potential audience.
      I'd be interested to see if the MPAA have the sense to try legal downloads out, and what effect it has on the problem of illegal online distribution.
      Surely it makes sense to exaust your options before you start alienating your customers?

      --
      Silly rabbit
    4. Re:Surprise, surprise... by TLSPRWR · · Score: 1

      music is easily found with a bit of work Huh? Finding rare Videogame and Anime soundtracks is a pain in the buttocks. I've tried to download songs for weeks after searching for days to find them. And with Bittorrent it's even worse, I can never connect to a tracker.

    5. Re:Surprise, surprise... by PhoenixFlare · · Score: 1

      Finding rare Videogame and Anime soundtracks is a pain in the buttocks.

      Well, first of all, I wasn't really talking about rare soundtracks.

      That said, try installing DC++ (DirectConnect) and then go to a pretty good hub at vgmcentral.no-ip.com for starters. Read the rules at http://vgmcentral.no-ip.com/ first. Mainly VG soundtracks, obviously, but anime and other stuff mixed in as well.

      That's really the best place I can direct you without knowing exactly what you're looking for....Other than that, get creative with Google search terms.

  13. Number of files or size? by __aagctu1952 · · Score: 1, Redundant

    So, are they talking about the total number of files swapped or the total size of them? I suspect the latter, and in that case it's no big surprise: One ripped movie shared - ~700 MB. One ripped CD shared - 70 MB.

  14. MPAA not exactly impartial by NachoDaddy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    A separate global study published Thursday by the Motion Pictures Association found that about one in four Internet users had already downloaded a movie. Most said they would pirate more if they took less time to download.

    The problem is right there.

    1. Re:MPAA not exactly impartial by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, downloading dvd images on 1 mbit takes way too long. If the telecoms and the mpaa got together to get everyone fat pipes with reasonable royalties to media companies, everyone would be much better off.

      That was the problem you were referring to, right?

    2. Re:MPAA not exactly impartial by danila · · Score: 1

      As opposed to saying they would pirate less if downloads were faster? That's not exactly what I would call an interesting result...

      Personally I can only say "whatever". I will still go to theatres because I can do it for 1.5$ (morning showings), but I will still download movies because the movie theatres usually only play the latest stuff or don't play the latest stuff because international distribution is sometimes fucked up.

      --
      Future Wiki -- If you don't think about the future, you cannot have one.
  15. oh the humanity! by kgarcia · · Score: 5, Insightful

    *sigh* So, one in four internet users worldwide have downloaded movies online.

    oh wait, no it was only in Eight Countires...

    oh, and only broadband users were polled.

    ooh! and I almost forgot, of those that answered, one in four said they had downloaded at least one (YES, ONE) movie...

    nothing to see here... just FUD and paranoia...

  16. SOFTWARE downloads? by grm_wnr · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Video and software downloads? Looks we're back to the roots here.

    From the article:

    experts say the vast majority of file swaps are still unauthorized.


    Well, isn't that a defining feature of file swaps? Swapping copyrighted files (as opposed to just downloading them, which can be legal or illegal) has always been illegal.
    1. Re:SOFTWARE downloads? by octothorpe99 · · Score: 0

      Well, technically, you could swap a file to which you hold the copyright and then its not illegal anymore :)

    2. Re:SOFTWARE downloads? by Kozar_The_Malignant · · Score: 1

      > Video and software downloads? Looks we're back to the roots here.

      Yep, it's 2004, and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has discovered that there are Warez D00dz. How amazing.
      --
      Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
    3. Re:SOFTWARE downloads? by Hatta · · Score: 1

      No, the defining feature of file swaps is that you're swapping files. If you have the permission of the copyright holder then it's perfectly legal to swap those files via p2p.

      --
      Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
  17. I though... by Kjuib · · Score: 0

    that hollywood sent out Night-Vision Goggles to stop this... yet it seems to be growing more than ever... who would have thought it? (definite sarcasm)

    --
    - Your stupidity got you into this mess, why can't it get you out? -Will Rogers
  18. Sales down because of bad customers or bad music? by mroch · · Score: 3, Interesting

    In my opinion, if CD sales are in fact down (hard to tell), it's due to the lack of good music rather than file sharing. I don't buy CDs anymore, but that's not because I can download everything. It's because everything out now sucks. Like the post said, maybe we have all the good music already... If the record companies spent their money making really good music like they used to, rather than their new tactic of suing their customers, I'm sure CD sales would go back up.

  19. 3.141 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Poor movie industry.

    Perhaps if there were more mass release movies that weren't money grabs I'd not download them, but instead support them by paying for a ticket.

    I've bought Amelie, for example. It wasn't playing localy, so I downloaded it and then, since I liked it, bought it. Had it been playing locally I would have gone to see it.

    On another note, what if someone did an iTunes type thing, but with movies...

  20. Propaganda! by c0ldfusi0n · · Score: 1

    Additionnally, the MPAA has published a paper (PDF, 2 pages) titled "Protecting the Movie Magic in the Digital Age" that is basically what they have been up to (or at least parts of it) which you just might want to read. If anyone needs me i'll be watching King Arthur.

    --
    A computer makes it possible to do, in half an hour, tasks which were completely unnecessary to do before.
  21. Their Percentages Are Totally Off by Pavan_Gupta · · Score: 2

    A Full Feature Movie is around .. let's say .. ~500 megs. (yes, it can be bigger and smaller.)

    A full length song is around .. hmm .. ~5 megs. (again, variance possible.)

    That means, everytime a Movie is downloaded, the equivalent of 100 songs would be required to make up for that bandwidth usage.

    So, basically, I'm saying per copyright violation (or not sometimes), that music is far more highly pirated.

  22. market penetration by jpnews · · Score: 2, Informative

    "...no where near 1 in 4 users has broadband."

    Broadband market penetration in the U.S. is over 40%.

    1. Re:market penetration by slungsolow · · Score: 2, Funny

      Don't forget about AOL 9.0 Optimized. You can surf up the 5 times faster at no additional charge.

    2. Re:market penetration by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      However, to save you from having to RTFA, since you obviously didn't, the report talks about 1 in 4 users WORLDWIDE, not just the USA. But, was a good try anyway.

    3. Re:market penetration by jpnews · · Score: 1

      I did read it, AC.

      And I did not refute or support the conclusion(s). I just stated a fact.

  23. Cameron Diaz by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Could this be the reason?

    1. Re:Cameron Diaz by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Sweet!

      For a screenshot, this for-pay site is letting people download it; but I'm not sure it's worth that much.

      If only downloading such movies for free was legal we could see it too...

    2. Re:Cameron Diaz by Hatta · · Score: 0

      Nice, got a .torrent?

      --
      Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
    3. Re:Cameron Diaz by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But that would be illegal, wouldn't it?

    4. Re:Cameron Diaz by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No but they do

  24. Music down by volume or percentage? by DdJ · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Is music swapping down by actual volume, or just by percentage? That is, are people swapping less music, or did video/software swapping just grow faster than music swapping did?

    If music swapping is actually down, could it be because there are viable legit music download services now? I know I've bought multiple albums from both iTMS and Audi Lunchbox myself...

    1. Re:Music down by volume or percentage? by slungsolow · · Score: 1

      Damn good point.. iTMS does have a pretty good saturation at this point. Perhaps it has contributed to the decline of illegal music files.

  25. In-theater cameras by Satertek · · Score: 0

    I downloaded an in-theater camera movie once, but never again. The quality was so horrible i couldn't understand why anyone would even want it. DVD rips on the other hand... >:D

    1. Re:In-theater cameras by MachDelta · · Score: 2, Informative

      Cams are hit and miss. Theres at least one cam (telesync actually) floating around out there of Spiderman 2 that is VERY good quality. No jitter, no people standing up, etc. Its awesome. I also found a cam of The Girl Next Door that was really really good. Cept theres a part where the cam gets bumped and the picture is tilted for a few seconds while the guy fixes it :P. But thats what you get for fast and free.

      There are a lot of really shitass cams out there too though. Like I said, its hit and miss. I find cams are most useful for those movies that i'm kind of interested in, but don't feel like blowing $20 to go see in the theatres. If its a really good movie, then yeah, I might go see it with some friends or something. If it sucks, all i've wasted is two hours and some bandwidth. :)

    2. Re:In-theater cameras by RyLaN · · Score: 4, Informative

      Yes, there is an extremely nice (not noticeably different from a dvd, except for faded colors) rip of Spider-Man 2 going around. *cough*friend got it*cough*.

      What's more interesting to me is the fact that thousands of people have grabbed this file from BitTorrent sites like this one that require a registration, valid email et all to join. They literally signed up, and had their IP addy registered into a database of 'trusted ips', so that they could download Spider-Man 2. Simply Astonishing. I've seen 4 or 5 of these sites that appear to be using the same code, it wouldn't take the MPAA more than 30 seconds to start another one and start nabbing people IN THE ACT. Not to mention the fact that all the connected IP Addresses are visible from the tracker page..

      --
      At least the war on the environment is going well
    3. Re:In-theater cameras by Maul · · Score: 2, Insightful

      And many of these people likely still paid to see the movie in the theater at least once.

      --

      "You spoony bard!" -Tellah

  26. I download videos... by ejaw5 · · Score: 2, Informative

    fansub Anime! Find a good one like Naruto and Full Metal Alchemist (although FMA recently got licensed) and you're set.

    Better than the Primetime crap that comes on broadcast tv...

    --

    $cat /dev/random > Sig
  27. once again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I guess avi killed the mp3 star...

  28. i never did understand p2p for LEGIT downloads.. by adamgeek · · Score: 1

    i'm seeing an increase in the number of legit software dist's available via BT, etc. i mean, why does mozilla need to make the 1.7 RC available on BT?? Especially a lot of releases that already have mirrors on half a dozen servers internationally.

  29. This is jacked in so many ways by Unnngh! · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Seriously, this is the most poorly written article I have ever read. Check out these gems:

    Video accounted for 27 percent, up from 25.2 percent, the study will say.

    So, movie downloads didn't really increase much.

    The OECD report does not give separate numbers for pirated downloads and those that do not infringe copyright

    I'm not even going to start on this one.

    The biggest growth in downloading last year was in "other files" - neither music nor film - which almost doubled their share to about a quarter of all downloads. The category includes software and pornography, but the report gives no breakdown between the two.

    Basically, they're saying they have a lot of data and it seems to indicate something, but they can't really say what, so they just threw out some numbers. Nice work, OECD.

  30. 1 in 4 isn't believable by richmaine · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Come on. I forget the stats on broadband, but I didn't think 1 in 4 even had broadband yet. Could look it up, but don't have time right now. Certainly can't be much more than that, particularly in the U.S.

    And I'm not going to believe that *ALL* of the broadband users have downloaded movies. (I haven't :-)).

    I'm also not going to believe that a noticable
    fraction of dialup users have.

    1. Re:1 in 4 isn't believable by Mind+Booster+Noori · · Score: 1

      If you read the article you'll see that they only inquired broadband users.

    2. Re:1 in 4 isn't believable by richmaine · · Score: 1

      I did read the article and it says no such thing. The word "broadband" doesn't even appear in it. Nor does any synonym. Now perhaps that's what the MPAA "study" actually said, but if so the article misquoted it. Where did you get this information? The MPAA study? If so, link to it? There isn't one in either the /. note or the Seattle post article.

  31. I really wonder about acuracy by Omega1045 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    With all of the various companies/qualities/methods to connect, I really wonder about the quality of such a survey. I would seem to me that these numbers seem rediculous. When I think of all the non-nerd (non-broadband) people I know, I don't think one of them has ever downloaded a movie.

    --

    Great ideas often receive violent opposition from mediocre minds. - Albert Einstein

  32. Re:i never did understand p2p for LEGIT downloads. by slungsolow · · Score: 1

    Because it helps to decrease bandwidth usage and server load. Which in turn saves them (and their partners who mirror the download) money.

  33. Decline of Morals by feilkin · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Personally, I think it all can be attributed to a visible decline in society's moral standards. When music first became availible online, most people did not hesitate to download it because for the most part, it is guilt and worry free. Until there is some sort of legal safeguard put in place that will cause people to think about voliating copyrights, the numbers of people downloading will continue to rise. In real life, people will think twice before stealing from a store because there is a known punishment for being caught (and even this is happening more). Fileswapping doesn't have such rigid rules and regulations, or at least it's hard to enforce them online. Not to mention that industries trying to enforce them currently are going about the wrong way in the first place. Think about it though, my sister who is middle school is downloading movies. I think that it shows either lack of education about what can/cannot be done online legally, or simply not caring about those laws either way.

    1. Re:Decline of Morals by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Man, you're talking some crap. As you ID number shows, you're nothing more that some sad fscker.

    2. Re:Decline of Morals by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Which shows that there's something wrong with the laws themselves.

    3. Re:Decline of Morals by Hatta · · Score: 2, Insightful

      And since when does legality == morality?

      --
      Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
    4. Re:Decline of Morals by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "I think that it shows either lack of education about what can/cannot be done online legally, or simply not caring about those laws either way."

      Speaking of lack of education about the law, did you know that copyright laws restrict distributing materials to others, not using them yourself? Rich jerks like Darl McBride and Jack Valenti might tell you that getting stuff for free is illegal, but it isn't. Which is why the RIAA might go after filesharers, but they're helpless to do anything about leechers.

      More to the point, however, is the observation that if everyone's ignoring the law, it might just be a stupid law. The last 6000 years of science and culture have been based on copying and sharing, not on government-mandated monopolies on ideas and expression. There is a big difference between "illegal" and "immoral". I have a moral code I try to live by, and nothing in that code says copying is bad. You won't find a ban on copying in any religious code or text, as far as I know.

      You can argue about whether copyright and patents are good for innovation, or bad for innovation; good for the economy, or bad for the economy; and so on. It's all subjective. What is objective is that it is the natural state of free society and a free market that people voluntarily exchange goods and services with each other. Free societies don't use laws to prop up dying revenue models, or to force people to be your customers. It's obscene that corporate-whore-law has gotten to the point where the punishment for copying a movie (for personal use even) can be worse than the punishment for actually raping and harming another human being.

  34. Legal Music Downloads by Noksagt · · Score: 1

    I wonder what happens to these numbers if you include iTunes Music Store and other legal music purchases. These services have been pretty successful. Maybe this report adds to a case for implementing slick infoware from which to download media at reasonable prices. Current video and software on demand is nowhere near as inexpensive and well-put-together as the music on demand.

  35. 1 in 4 internet users? by PineHall · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Maybe I am not in the know, but I don't know a single person that has downloaded a movie. And considering the majority of Americans have dialup, I find this hard to believe. (I can't say about other countries, but I suspect for most countries that holds true.) It would take a long time on dialup to download a movie. It just does not make sense.

  36. Re:back in the day... by aacool · · Score: 1
    A better approach is bittorrent through Suprnova

    Auto-resume, throttled speed, no leech benefits, etc.

    Of course, no one downloads copyright violations that way do they?;)

  37. I wonder.. by RyLaN · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I wonder if they're measuring traffic from Debian's apt mirrors, RedHat's up2date, Gentoo's emerge... I know that just between the 4 Debian systems I run there can be anywhere from 100-300 megabytes of updates per week. Granted, one is stable, two are testing and one is unstable. But still, I can't think of a week that I've *ever* downloaded 300 megs of music. Most software packages are much, much larger than even an entire album, so this doesn't surprise me at all.

    --
    At least the war on the environment is going well
  38. What we need is... by mcr2002 · · Score: 1

    iMovies. Somewhere to download movies to burn to disk, kvcd would be ok for this. How long before the MPAA wake up and realise this? Apple could tie their DRM in with a system like bittorrent to assist with bandwidth issues, maybe even if you contribute enough bandwidth you get a discount?

    1. Re:What we need is... by Satertek · · Score: 0

      Problem with that is, with music, alot of people only want 1 song on a CD. So they buy it from a place like iTunes. Movies however, theres only one, so I would think that buying a DVD of it would be much easier.

  39. PORN by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'm sure Porn accounts for atleast half of the video downloads on the Internet. Or maybe 75%? Who knows.

    I do know that it accounts for about 90% of my video downloads.

  40. What I would be interested to see by mcc · · Score: 1

    Is some figures that would indicate whether there has been a de-emphasizing, either in pure numbers or in percentage of overall pirate traffic, of music piracy corresponding with the rise of pay-to-download music services such as the iTunes Music Store or Napster2...

  41. here's some legit P2P music downloads for you by MichaelCrawford · · Score: 3, Informative
    Bit Torrent was in general developed to ease p2p sharing of legit material.

    --
    Request your free CD of my piano music.
    1. Re:here's some legit P2P music downloads for you by trawg · · Score: 1

      Welcome to LegalTorrents.com, the smallest website on the Internet!

  42. Downloads by locarecords.com · · Score: 2, Informative
    This is propaganda by the movie industry - plain and simple. Expect some legislation, hard words from politicians and poor starving movie execs to start bleating on about how hard their lives and the company profits are. This is the first salvo in a public relations drive that softens up the public ready for DRM for the movie masses.

    No doubt some high profile ridiculous case will be discovered of a student with a trillion dollars in film copies in his/her bedroom causing the entire movie industry to fail. We've seen it before in music and we'll no doubt see the same arguments and PR tactics mobilised again to get legislation passed to *save* the industry.

    It is depressing but it seems to work everytime. I only hope that people start to wake up and take a stand before its too late and the corporations have it all locked down exactly how they want it...

    --
    ---- The Open Source Record Label : : LOCARECORDS.COM
  43. I call bullshit. by mcgroarty · · Score: 1
    The article doesn't explain enough about how they came up with their figures.

    As I see it, the difference is that more and more music trading has been pushed underground on encrypted networks and the likes, whereas you can still Google up movie and software torrents left and right. By design, even if you're part of many of the music sharing networks, you can't tell how many others are around, and can't get raw index lists of files to count.

    If they're counting the people caught, the above still holds. Music swapping is more mature, and so it's tougher to catch folks.

  44. Fansubs are still illegal by vxvxvxvx · · Score: 1

    Seeing as fansubs are still illegal, I don't see it any more (or less) ethical than downloading any other video..

    1. Re:Fansubs are still illegal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      May I ask a question?

      Which sounds at least just a little better:

      1. Downloading a foreign show that someone has been kind enough to translate that may or may not make it to market?

      2. Downloading the latest crap Hollywood movie you can go watch at the local theatre?

      Illegal, yes, but I can't just run to my local video store and pick up the latest release of brand-new-anime-that-no-one-has-licensed-here-yet or watch on tv new-show-that-hasn't-even-been-released-on-dvd. How do you think half of the anime titles now released commercially in the US ever got popular? How did anime go from being some po-dunk niche market to pulling in really nice cash? Due to such things as fansubs Japan expanded their anime selling market to at least double its size, and are now actively courting the American dollar. American companies like ADV, VIZ and so forth do rather well with titles; look at Inu Yahsa on Cartoon Network, or Funimation's various Dragonball properties. Some of the companies releasing titles now started out as fansubbers.
      On anime, I think the original companies win out more.
      At least most fansubbers yank a show once the license has been bought out of respect for the company...can you say that about someone having a bittorent of the latest Harry Potter? I think the anime fansub is just a wee bit less of an evil...

      (posts as AC due to not posting enough to warrant an account)

  45. downloads cause increased sales! proven! by fermion · · Score: 1

    Or is it a coincidence that record downloaded coincides with record ticket and DVD sales.?

    --
    "She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
  46. The Seattle Post *isn't* reporting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful
    The Associated Press is reporting. The Seattle Post is just regurgitating the wire service.

    So many papers are 90% commercial press corps content that Slash and similar may as well differentiate and learn to link to Associated Press directly for these stories.

    Reward the papers with more visitors when they have local unique content. More ad impressions might encourage them to start putting their focus on real reporting again.

  47. Bittorrent Linux ISOs by Satertek · · Score: 0

    Bittorrent has become very popular for ditributing Linux ISOs, its possible they are including them in their statistics...

    1. Re:Bittorrent Linux ISOs by Satertek · · Score: 0
      There are TERRABYTES of data transferred by bittorrent at sites like "The Linux Mirror Project"

      http://www.tlm-project.org/

  48. funny thing is.... by thegoogler · · Score: 5, Funny

    my MOTHER got me started on downloading movies, she said "o is that new denzel washington movie, ya the the man on fire one out yet?" and i said no. so then she said "well i one of my friends said there kids are downloading movies, you have whatchamacallit broadband couldnt you do that" she pestered me untill i burned her a vcd. good job mom. set an example, on how to GET ME IN JAIL!

    1. Re:funny thing is.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You need to call her your "m0th3r" now that she is l33t.

  49. Re:Sales down because of bad customers or bad musi by Pidder · · Score: 1
    In my opinion, if CD sales are in fact down (hard to tell), it's due to the lack of good music rather than file sharing. I don't buy CDs anymore, but that's not because I can download everything. It's because everything out now sucks. Like the post said, maybe we have all the good music already... If the record companies spent their money making really good music like they used to, rather than their new tactic of suing their customers, I'm sure CD sales would go back up.

    I see posts like this in every thread about downloading music. In every single one, without fail. And when I see one of these thread I think about all the great new music I listen to and discover every week. Great music is being released every day. By companies within the RIAA (yes even the RIAA releases good music, OH THE HORROR, but since it's released by the RIAA it must suck, right?) and by indie labels.

    Could it be that you aren't really that interested in discovering new music anymore? Could it be that you don't care enough to make an effort? Everyone complains that they only hear crap music on the radio and on MTV but they still don't make an effort to find the gems out there, and they are there, trust me.

  50. Can accuracy be downloaded? by NeuroManson · · Score: 1

    For one, they didn't exactly verify the types of movies downloaded, whether the copies were incomplete/corrupted, or whether said movies were correctly titled.

    As far as I know, people looking for a good DVD rip or screener will download multiple copies. Also, they'll have to download multiple copies if they find that copy of Spider-Man 2 turns out to be a fake.

    --
    Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
  51. So what we need to do then is ... by hurfy · · Score: 1

    to download more and more copies of linux distros til music and movies are a tiny percentage of downloads ;)

  52. Video includes all the TV shows by sideshow · · Score: 1

    I don't have a TV so if I want to watch a TV I download it. The majority of TV never comes out on DVD and if it does it sure as hell doesn't come out the same week the show aired.

    --

    Hollow words will burn and hollow men will burn.

    1. Re:Video includes all the TV shows by Satertek · · Score: 0

      Same with me, I usually download TV series that I am busy when they are on, or ones that must be watched in order to make sense. (DS9) Reruns can't cut it and I'm afraid I don't have $700 to spend to watch a TV series 1 time through.

  53. True at my university - judging by DMCA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    I can't say anything about the number of downloads, but at my university the number of DMCA complaints (by copyright holders) about movies and TV shows has outnumbered the complaints about music files for a year or more.

  54. I don't believe it by snStarter · · Score: 1

    I find this difficult to believe. It means that just about everyone with broadband has downloaded movies. I guess I'm just a stick-in-the-mud but I haven't and no one I have asked has either.

    I think they are pushing the stats to make the situation look worse than it is. By a LOT.

    Not that I like people stealing movies, cause I don't. I doubt if any person in a creative art that can be ripped off is much in favor of having their work used and not compensate them for it. Not if they make a living that way.

  55. 25.2 percent to 27 percent is a major increase? by Pantero+Blanco · · Score: 1

    "Video accounted for 27 percent, up from 25.2 percent, the study will say."

    Okay, the 62.5 to 48.6 percent drop for music files was sizable, but video doesn't seem to have increased much at all.

    Shouldn't the title say "documents and software overtaking music downloads"? That's the only thing that could be making up the difference. Shoot, it even says that in the last paragraph of the article.

  56. Music industry take note: by BumpyCarrot · · Score: 1

    That means you RIAA! Even when we can get it for free we don't want it!

    --
    Do you see what I did there?
  57. Interesting... by mace_15 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So I guess there must be a correlation between amount of downloads and the record takings at the box office recently? Quick, let's make Hollywood some more money!

  58. From the article: by Kozar_The_Malignant · · Score: 3, Insightful
    The OECD report does not give separate numbers for pirated downloads and those that do not infringe copyright. Despite a growing number of paid-for services like Apple's music site iTunes, however, experts say the vast majority of file swaps are still unauthorized.

    The biggest growth in downloading last year was in "other files" - neither music nor film - which almost doubled their share to about a quarter of all downloads. The category includes software and pornography, but the report gives no breakdown between the two.
    So, no breakdown of how much is actually illegal, just "experts say." I wonder how much of "other files" is accounted for by bloated Microsoft critical updates, service releases and patches? How much is tasteful internet erotica? How about digital video of my daughter's college graduation sent to relatives?
    --
    Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
    1. Re:From the article: by Analog+Penguin · · Score: 1

      So, no breakdown of how much is actually illegal, just "experts say." I wonder how much of "other files" is accounted for by bloated Microsoft critical updates, service releases and patches? How much is tasteful internet erotica? How about digital video of my daughter's college graduation sent to relatives?

      None of that exists!! The Internet is only used for illegal purposes! Terrorists use it, and now these illegal downloaders! Maybe they're economic terrorists by ruining the profits of the movie studios?

      Seriously though, this is reaching the point of sheer ludicrousness. How is it that these guys can spew this stuff constantly without even a modicum of a challenge? I know, I know, it's because they control the media too. This is getting sick.

  59. Software downloads.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    does this count all the people using apt-get and emerge? Shit, I download some software every week.

  60. Questionable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I am sure the statistics used to arrive at this conclusion are quite questionable. The sample was probably fudged (it probably was no where near random or large enough to be statistically significant, much less accurate.)so as to show a high percentage of piracy so they'd have something else to lobby congress with to get the Induce Act passes.

  61. Solution for Music Cost by PingPongBoy · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It's just a matter of time that DVD capacities will reach the stratosphere, far more space than required by a movie. Therefore why not be able to buy a massive assortment of music all written on the same disk when you go to buy a movie? The store would have a computer where you select a movie or two as well as humungous music collection. You simply select what you want and a disk is created while you wait or for later pick up.

    You save all the time you need to wait for downloading. You are assured of the quality. What more can you ask for?

    When you consider all the box office records being smashed there's always going to be people buying movies. When they can also just pick up a few songs for a song, no one can lose.

    --
    Know your pads. One time pad: good for cryptography. Two timing pad: where to take your mistress.
  62. I don't download SHIT anymore. by EvilStein · · Score: 1

    I got tired of movies turning out to be yet another copy of "Little Nicky" - I swear, *THAT* has to be the most pirated movie of all time. I thought I was getting 5 other full length feature films, but nooOOoo.. I was getting more copies of "Little Nicky."
    Adam Sandler would be pissed off if he knew how many times that movie has been grabbed off the net.

    And porno flicks? Bah. Every 'effin keyword they can think of, they'll use to describe a stupid short clip promoting some website.

    I went old school - getting verified good stuff from friends. :P

    1. Re:I don't download SHIT anymore. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You've got to stop downloading from Kazaa. Seriously. Try Edonkey, or even better, the Newsgroups. In Newsgroups I've never seen a mislabled movie, and they usually post a preview so you can see if it's worth your while. Try it sometime.

  63. Seattle? who do we know there? by rbird76 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I wouldn't doubt that there is illegal uploading/downloading going on, but I'd have a hard time trust any of the **AAs as unbiased sources...

    While the SPI has a good reputation (I think) I can help but wonder if this article might have something to do with a little software company in Washington who has a deep and abiding interest in software- and hardware-based DRM schemes. Hyping the threat to companies from "software terrorists" is a prerequisite for the kind of digital rights infringement that Microsoft and other want to sell the public and content providers.

    This doesn't mean that copying isn't happening, just that someone nearby has an incentive to make the problem appear larger than it is.

    1. Re:Seattle? who do we know there? by ainsoph · · Score: 1

      As someone who lives in Seattle and is appropriately disgusted by the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ tentacles those fuckers have over this town, yer asumption is most likely correct.

      You should see how they buy votes!

  64. in other news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The MPAA seeks to outlaw broadband internet connections.

  65. Math? by TyrelHaveman · · Score: 1

    The fact that the percentage of all shared files being music decreasing does not mean that less music is being downloaded. Although the OECD has not released their report yet, I would be willing to bet that the actual number of shared music files did increase or stay somewhat level, while the number of video/software shares increased by much more. Percentages don't mean a lot when the totals aren't constant :)

  66. Fair use? by chrysrobyn · · Score: 1

    If I go to a website and get a torrent (or if I go to an IRC channel, or even a usenet server) and download a DVD rip / telesync movie, and then I drive down to a theater, pay my $7-10 and never walk through the front door with my ticket, can my subsequent single viewing of the same movie be construed as "fair use"? Can that be the same "time shifting" that's legal for TV?

    Say I've got an 8 month old baby girl, and I want to watch movies at home with my wife after our daughter goes to sleep, would the RIAA rather have our movie fare x2 or have us watch stupid sitcoms?

  67. Re:Sales down because of bad customers or bad musi by Mia'cova · · Score: 1

    I think what's happening is the vast majority of new bands that get picked up by labels have a couple good songs which get a lot of polish in the studio to sell the CD. But in the more 'nitch' markets (death metal, trance, etc) you find far more consistent offerings. Since it's harder to sell a disc in those genres I don't think they get the same kind of money invested. With less money, the artists need to be a little more dedicated to doing the best they can so the music speaks for itself. They're not going to be living off a hit single. Maybe the "no good music" argument comes from the overly saturated pop music markets. Ah well, just my take..

  68. duh... by zeropointentity · · Score: 0

    How big a head start did music have?
    Everyone's already got 10 billion songs. Why would they need to download it anymore? They can just get a couple dvd's worth burned from their friends.
    For a nominal fee of course. I mean, I DID spend all that time downloading it for them. I should get paid something out of it.

  69. My Reason by Handpaper · · Score: 1
    ADSL download speed: 512kbps
    MP3 et al bitrate 128-256kbps
    Connection utilisation 80-100% (I feel cheated if it's not!)
    I literally do not have time to listen to it all.
    So, I download video.

  70. Blame broadband? by bigberk · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Broadband definitely makes it easier to download large amounts of data... but when I recall my own history, I was downloading a heluvalot more music in the days when 56 kbps modems first appeared. Back then it was an exploration of all the good music that's out there and that I had never heard before. Suddenly it all became available, waiting only 15 minutes or so for a download. For years I have felt that I have all the 'classics' in my private MP3 collection, and I don't often seek new music. When it comes to mainstream pop I certainly have 'heard it all before' and crave nothing.

    So if "the industry" doesn't produce any new music that is worth craving, people don't download or buy it.

  71. Archives Making Their Marks? by seanscottrogers · · Score: 1

    One question I would ask is how they are defining music - many "groups" are releasing full albums as archives (zip files, etc) which these investigations may not pick up on if they are filtering on other criteria (mp3, wma)

  72. Video and SOFTWARE downloads. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Everyone seems caught up on the "movie" aspect, but they're also including software-- and, presumably, games from Nintendo ROMS to brand-new disk images. If they're talking about all forms of downloading-- from newsgroups, to torrents, to IRC, etc.-- then I can easily see how all of this would account for more than music.

    You also have to wonder if the "1 and 4" really meant "illegally downloaded movies." Some might consider downloading the Paris Hilton video, the Star Wars Kid, the Lightning Bolt! video, the Mario Bros perfect game, the new Red Vs. Blue or that Stryper Parking Lot video "downloading a movie."

    And, yes, anyone who's been around since the days of Napster has a 100GB library of every song every published by now. Or could, if they wanted to. I wouldn't be surprised if mp3 downloading was slowing down...

  73. My excuse for avoiding the theater... by Trikenstein · · Score: 1
    Its not the kids, or the talkers, or the big hair in front of me.

    It's the guy or gal who wallows in colone or perfume.
    It's the sensory assult that keeps me out of the theater.

  74. Statistics by coopaq · · Score: 0
    99.9% of all "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters." websites post stories about dumbass statistics to start lame flaming posts of MPAA, RIAA or Microsoft.

    Yeah... Netcraft confirms: News for Nerds is dying.

  75. It's simple. I've already downloaded all the music by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The RIAA has not come out with anything worth downloading, so it's obvious why the practise is slowing. On the other hand doing a apt-get update && apt-get upgrade regularly is common for me.

  76. 1 in 4 has downloaded a movie by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hello. "A movie" doesn't necessarily mean "Hollywood blockbuster." A two minute home movie of your kid's birthday is . . . a movie. Not to mention Nick Berg's beheading was widely available for download, but not available from any media outlet.

    1 in 4? I'm surprised the numbers are that low.

  77. Re:It's simple. I've already downloaded all the mu by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I heard that. I've got a few dozen gigs of mp3's and there're not much else I actually want - I think I've downloaded maybe a dozen "new" pop tunes in the past two years, and those only for novelty value.

    The exception may be classical music - there's always more to sample.

  78. The industry should deal with the risk by y3t39 · · Score: 1

    The majority of the movies people download are DVD-rips, thus no longer in theaters. Movies make the vast majority of their money while in theater. Arguing that downloading movies harms the box office is total nonsense. Afterall, the theater offers a service that a heavily-compressed file played on a monitor through some little Altec-Lansing speakers cannot match.

    This is not so much the case with home video. The service offered by the industry is the mass replication and distribution of the product. This service can be easily matched by a broadband connection and a good p2p-client.

    To expect such high profits from such an insignificant service is ridiculous. Getting the government to form an internet gestapo to protect high profits on such a weak product shows how excessive a pull the industry has with government officials.

    If the movie industry was actually threatened by people downloading movies, they would cut distribution of DVD's and VHS's.

    You should try to imagine what the movie industry is really trying to accomplish here.

    1. Re:The industry should deal with the risk by Tojosan · · Score: 1

      Just a thought...
      Some movies will do way more in DVD and VHS sales than they ever did in the theatre. I know the Matrix movies have set records in DVD sales. That is just one among many that really cleaned up in that department.

      Not saying your wrong, just there is more truth.
      Be well,
      Tojosan

  79. End result of legal music downloads? by TheDarkman · · Score: 1

    Has anyone considered that the reason that movie downloads have overtaken music downloads is because it is now possible to cheaply download legal music? I don't think it will ever be possible to offer inexpensive software and therefore its piracy would have to be curbed in a different manner, but if the movie industry offered cheap downloads in high definition (say at $2 a pop), software piracy would eventually overtake movie piracy, and the movie industry has yet another revenue stream.

    Everybody wins. Bottom line: it pays to NOT treat all your customers as criminals.


    Are you a Gadget Whore?

  80. How much Movie video vs TV vs Pr0n? by sokoban · · Score: 1

    Video files on the sharing services are generally one of these 3 types. I wonder what percent of the "pirated" video falls into each category. I personally have never downloaded any feature films with Aquisition (my pirating SW of choice), but download the hell out of some tv shows. Chappelle's Show, Aqua Teen HF, and Sealab are my personal favs with a few comedy specials thrown up in the mix. I also wonder how illegal my downloading shows is. I could just watch these shows on TV when they come on and tape them, but I would rather have them on my computer for simple ease of access.

    --
    09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 is the magic number.
  81. Isn't that entrapment? by IcEMaN252 · · Score: 2, Interesting
    it wouldn't take the MPAA more than 30 seconds to start another one and start nabbing people IN THE ACT
    If a copyright holder provides a service to make it easy for you to download their content, wouldn't they be implictly condoning it? Thus, it wouldn't be piracy.

    It's not illegal to download a file, or swap it amongst people. It's only illegal if you don't have permission to do it..
    --
    CitrusTV (http://www.citrustv.net): the Nation's Oldest & Largest Entirely Student-Run Television Station
    1. Re:Isn't that entrapment? by CaptKilljoy · · Score: 2, Informative

      Um, no. Entrapment

      A) only applies to agents of the government
      B) only applies if the person wasn't inclined to commit the act anyway.

      Aside from that, in an ironic twist, they can actually use the defense used by most torrent sites use: they're not hosting the content so they're not directly condoning the copying.

    2. Re:Isn't that entrapment? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't think it's technically entrapment, since law enforcement isn't involved. After all, copyright infringement is a *civil* matter.

      However, by joining a .torrent, the MPAA would be simultaneously distributing the file themselves, thereby given implicit permission to copy (in fact, they would be facilitating the copying). Moreover, I suspect the terms of use for most torrent site registrations require you to consent to the activities there.

      MPAA: Your Honor, this wicked 8-year-old was sharing Spider-man with other Internet users!

      JUDGE: How can you be sure?

      MPAA: Because I was helping him download and distribute it! Uhh... I mean, some guy I know was helping him...

    3. Re:Isn't that entrapment? by i23098 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      However, by joining a .torrent, the MPAA would be simultaneously distributing the file themselves, thereby given implicit permission to copy (in fact, they would be facilitating the copying). Moreover, I suspect the terms of use for most torrent site registrations require you to consent to the activities there.
      You mean that DEA can't infiltrate with drug dealers, sell/buy some drugs to catch the dealers? It's the same MPAA can infiltrate, maybe help a little just for not being recognized and identify who is sharing...

  82. 1000 files? by Lehk228 · · Score: 1

    ....more like 7000 files, under music alone

    --
    Snowden and Manning are heroes.
  83. You mean that... by IcEMaN252 · · Score: 1

    ...you actually read the article?

    --
    CitrusTV (http://www.citrustv.net): the Nation's Oldest & Largest Entirely Student-Run Television Station
  84. good ol days by E5Qk6XRwBm · · Score: 1

    Remember when it was just song lyrics they were worried about stealing?

  85. But... by IcEMaN252 · · Score: 1

    ...downloading a TV show is still illegal because you don't have permission to distribute the content. On the other hand, its perfectly legal to record it off the air yourself and timeshift it.

    Yet another legal quirk that makes absolutely no common sense.

    --
    CitrusTV (http://www.citrustv.net): the Nation's Oldest & Largest Entirely Student-Run Television Station
  86. legal mp3 downloads vs P2P by kiwipeso · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Well what about places like new zealand where the legal places don't do good music like the pixies Bam Thwok ?
    I had to get that by Limewire P2P because iTMS isn't coming here for years.

    --
    - Kaos games and encryption systems developer
    1. Re:legal mp3 downloads vs P2P by Donny+Smith · · Score: 1

      >I had to get that by Limewire P2P

      You _had_ to... Couldn't buy an MP3 player and convert your CD-ROMs to MP3s... You had to steal them over P2P.

      Poor guy! In this time and age, people ought to have choices!

    2. Re:legal mp3 downloads vs P2P by 1arkhaine · · Score: 3, Interesting

      He didn't *Have* to, but I can understand where he is coming from. As an Australian, I have *no way* of getting the Pixies latest song, other than by illegal downloading. While I haven't done so, there is hardly any reason for me not to now, is there?

    3. Re:legal mp3 downloads vs P2P by dave1212 · · Score: 1

      I've been using allofmp3.com for a while now, Pixies page here, and when a band comes through town, I'll always buy a shirt and usually the CD as well, just to make sure they get my support.

      However, I do hope to always have the opportunity to check out new albums before buying them, I usually buy more music that way.

    4. Re:legal mp3 downloads vs P2P by kiwipeso · · Score: 1

      no, you miss the point. Unless you are in the USA, UK, France or Germany there is no iTunes Music Store to buy these exclusive songs legally.
      P2P is the only way to go if you aren't in the few countries that let you buy music online. Maybe if NZ was part of Australia, we would have choices, but we don't get much for 4 million people.
      However, I would record off core-radio.net.nz if they didn't cross fade songs all the time.

      --
      - Kaos games and encryption systems developer
  87. reality check by binarybum · · Score: 1

    These "USA today" brand statistics really need to stop being propogated on slashdot. These numbers obviously consist of skewed garbage. I might be more specific, but how about a link to the actual report poster?

    1 out of 4 people reading this post have downloaded at least 350kb of non-mp3 data over the past 15min!

    --
    ôó
  88. only what is fair to them by zogger · · Score: 1

    They are predators. They would rather sue you for 12 thousand dollars and win in court, then get two movie tickets out of you.

    IMO anyway, going on what they do and say

    they do not care about customers, they care about maximum profits, they don't even care about who or what they represent, that's why you always see these lawsuits between the MAFFIA scammers and the artistes, they won't even play fair with the talen that makes them millions. They think greed is a virtue, suborning politicians is their birthright, and total control their destiny.

    in other words, they are *nuts*

  89. Reading has lazyboys by kiwipeso · · Score: 0

    In New Zealand and Australia, Reading cinemas has lazyboys if you want to pay the price, you even get unlimited softdrink and popcorn.

    And in case you haven't noticed, linux is gay. Check out the Gay Pervert License

    --
    - Kaos games and encryption systems developer
  90. Downloading is just plain wrong by cbr2702 · · Score: 2, Funny

    What I don't understand about all of this is how all these piracy apologists here justify downloading by claiming "it's ok because it is open source". It is immoral to copy someone else's work and this tecnical programmer's babble of "proprietary vs free" software is just bunk. When you download Linux you hurt the economy by taking money from Microsoft. When you download the Gimp you hurt Adobe. I'm sick of all these people who think that just because they can write programs they have the right to drive these US Industry Leaders out of business. As I learned in copyright school, downloading is just wrong.

    --


    This post written under Gentoo-linux with an SCO IP license.
  91. Here's Your Fahrenheit 9/11! by Master+of+Transhuman · · Score: 1

    1. Download Fahrenheit.911.CAM-POT(1).torrent from here on your desktop.

    2. Open it with your favorite BitTorrent client.

    3. Start the download and wait X hours for it to finish. My DSL line downloaded the 1.03GB file in around two hours plus.

    4. Unpack the file "pot.911a.rar" in the CD1 directory as well as the "pot.911b.rar" in the CD2 directory with your favorite RAR extraction program. Opening the RAR file will automatically identify all the segments and put them together. This will create "pot.911a" and "pot.911b" directories which each contain a .bin and a .cue file.

    7. Download the VideoLAN Client media player found here and install it.

    8. Use VLC to open "CD1.cue" from the "pot.911a" file.

    9. When that part of the movie finishes, open the "CD2.cue" file in the other directory.

    The quality is quite good for a camcorder effort. Only some of the subtitles are cut off at the bottom of the screen.

    --
    Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
  92. The OECD is tracking pop music...HUH? by Simonetta · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I have a seriously difficult time believing the numbers generated by the OECD on the subject of western young people's downloading pop music and comic book movies.

    These people are serious stuffed shirt economists. I don't think that they have the methodogy or the skills to track the semi-legit world of P2P and the various secretive subcultures asssociated with warez and big time file sharing. I suspect that they are simply repeating highly questionable numbers obtained from dubious sources that have clear political agendas (the RIAA, anyone?)
    You wouldn't smoke pot from any of these guys in the OCED, why trust their analysis of P2P usage? I suspect that this is just another example of economists getting bad data from journalists who got numbers from secret sources (the RIAA) who just pulled them out of their ass to get laws passed to make themselves rich.
    The OCED should stick to what they do best and tracking the P2P/warez underground is not it.

  93. Re:Sales down because of bad customers or bad musi by sparrow_hawk · · Score: 1

    Care to name some?

    I'm serious -- my music collection is becoming stale, and, hey, a random Slashdotter has as valid an opinion as anyone else I'd be liable to ask. :) So -- what are you listening to?

  94. Child care by tepples · · Score: 1

    How do parents see R-rated films? Babysitting costs money, and some families don't have local relatives willing to watch the kids for free. Why don't movie theaters that show R-rated films offer child care?

    1. Re:Child care by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      most parents I know consider the ratings a laugh and just bring their kids anyway...makes up for all the other shit the parents have to sit through for the kids at least. besides, it's not like the kiddies aren't going to make decisions about sex and violence relatively early in our society anyway. ^^

      the few super protective parents I know tend to have really odd children because of it, poor kids. perhaps I'm a younger generation than you, though. there are likely still a lot of old fogeys who like to bury their kid's heads in the sand.

    2. Re:Child care by jred · · Score: 2, Interesting

      One of our local theaters has a playroom for just that reason. Now, *I* wouldn't leave my kid with some strangers, but they *do* offer the service.

      --

      jred
      I'm not a mechanic but I play one in my garage...
  95. Bogus methodology (was Re:Global coverage) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I read a bit of this study and the one-in-four number is really misleading.

    First, they only picked internet users who had broadband (that's less than 50% of US users right now) and second, they only interviewed those who professed to be avid movie viewers.

    They did manage to get a good age distribution, 25% in each of four age brackets. I'm suprised they didn't just limit this to males, aged 18-24.

    Well, I don't know about you, but if I had broadband and really liked movies, well sure I might download some. The remaining 75% of us probably downloaded considerably fewer movies.

  96. Fine print in NZ High Speed and AOL 9.0 Optimized by tepples · · Score: 1

    Fine print: Optimized dial-up service does not increase the speed of music, video, or software downloads.

  97. How does independent music become legit? by tepples · · Score: 1

    How can the people who make their recorded music available for download prove that the songs they write and record aren't already copyrighted to someone else?

  98. F911 CAM-POT sucks by tepples · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Download Fahrenheit.911.CAM-POT

    Fahrenheit 911 CAM-POT sucks. Badly.

    1. Re:F911 CAM-POT sucks by Master+of+Transhuman · · Score: 1

      Unfortunately the fact of the matter is that the movie is quite VIEWABLE and that's what's important if you don't want to spend $9 seeing it at your local theater.

      The camcorder technigue may be poor compared to others, but this is not a collector's item, it's a way of viewing the movie without wasting money on a mediocre effort. I recently saw a camcorder video of a Corrs concert in Jakarta - now THAT was BAD. Compared to that, this camcorder effort deserves an Academy Award. The video was quite clear enough, the sound was quite good enough, and only the fact that some of the subtitles were cut off was at all a problem and not much of one.

      I downloaded it merely because I wanted to see how badly Moore did his job. While I agree with most of the points made in the movie, the fact of the matter is the movie offers little documentation that wasn't obvious to anyone following the Iraq situation over the last year - especially if you visited the www.iraqwar.ru site or www.antiwar.com or www.counterpunch.com.

      To anyone who has followed the Iraq war, this is NOT a "scorcher" of a movie.

      But if you're a typical ignorant US drone "citizen", it probably is an "eye-opener".

      --
      Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
  99. Not here because by Nybble's+Byte · · Score: 1

    you can't download vinyl LPs.

  100. How would they know? by vegaspctech · · Score: 1

    Why believe the report at all? How many people on the Internet now? How large a sample would be necessary to get an accurate picture of whatever average might be? How many countries would need to be covered? Assuming they did get an accurate picture of how people Brazil spend their time on the 'net, would it be reasonable to assume that that's how people in Japan spend their time on the 'net? Forget their answers, how did they pose the question? Volunteers? Surveys? Web logs? Wire taps? I can't think of any legal method for obtaining an adequate sample. Can you?

    --

    Making the world a better place, one psychotic episode at a time.

  101. W32.Beagle skews the numbers... by ktakki · · Score: 1
    The latest variations of the W32.Beagle virus might be skewing the numbers here. These variants place copies of themselves in any folder on a Windows system that contains the string "shar" (from Symantec:

    Attempts to spread across file-sharing networks, such as Kazaa and iMesh, by copying itself into folders that contain the string "shar" in their names. The worm uses the following file names:

    ACDSee 9.exe
    Adobe Photoshop 9 full.exe
    Ahead Nero 7.exe
    Matrix 3 Revolution English Subtitles.exe
    Microsoft Office 2003 Crack, Working!.exe
    Microsoft Office XP working Crack, Keygen.exe
    Microsoft Windows XP, WinXP Crack, working Keygen.exe
    Opera 8 New!.exe
    Porno Screensaver.scr
    Porno pics arhive, xxx.exe
    Porno, sex, oral, anal cool, awesome!!.exe
    Serials.txt.exe
    WinAmp 5 Pro Keygen Crack Update.exe
    WinAmp 6 New!.exe
    Windown Longhorn Beta Leak.exe
    Windows Sourcecode update.doc.exe
    XXX hardcore images.exe

    If you count all of these infected systems that drop copies of the virus in "Shared" folders (and if my Inbox is any indication there are thousands), then you're not going to get an accurate count of actual software that's being traded on P2P networks.

    k.
    --
    "In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart." - Anne Frank
  102. No mention of Theft in article by RubberChainsaw · · Score: 1

    One thing I noticed is that the article didn't mention the word 'Theft' anywhere. It referred to the practice as downloading, swapping, sharing, trading, piracy and copyright infringement multiple times. But it never once used the words theft or steal.

    I know that so many people get panties riled up when articles say theft instead of infringe, so I thought it was worth mentioning that this article didn't do that. I dislike using the words theft or steal for this purpose, and the article deserve a little bit of credit for not stooping to that.

    :)

    --
    I welcome our new 99% overlords.
  103. Growth of Online music stores by imbrokn · · Score: 1

    The article doesn't seem to mention the rise of internet based music stores. Thanks to iTunes, napster, ehum walmart, there is a place for people to download the music that they want online. This surely cuts into the amount of songs that a person can share. Once a person buy's an album online, there is no reason for them to share, especially since (at least with AAC) there is no way for listen to te song on more than a handful of devices.

  104. Dude by billybob · · Score: 1

    It was a joke. :)

    Did the sarcasm just fly right over your head??

    Anyone who believes AOL 9.0 Optimized will make the internet 5 times faster, even just browsing, is crazy.

    --
    Joseph?
    1. Re:Dude by tepples · · Score: 1

      Did the sarcasm just fly right over your head??

      Yes. My Asperger syndrome keeps me from consistently recognizing sarcasm not contained in a pair of <sarcasm>...</sarcasm> tags.

  105. Whoa! by koali · · Score: 1

    That Cameron Diaz video has made all the difference!

  106. dubbing supports downloading by akue · · Score: 1

    Another reason video downloads in Europe are more frequent than in the US is that some people dislike dubbed versions of movies and tv-series that are the only one available to them via the "legal way", if they don't want to wait for the dvd.

    Yet another point is that a lot of great US series (e.g. Sopranos, other HBO stuff, The Dead Zone) are simply not broadcasted in (at least some) European countries.

  107. IANAL But Illegal? by DeanFox · · Score: 1


    As far as I know all the laws deal with distribution not downloading. Why is downloading illegal? forget immoral, I'm talking illegal as in crime to download.

    There are laws about distribution, theater cams etc. Laws about breaking copy protection. Which one of these laws covers downloading?

    As far as I know, at least in the USA downloading a movie or song may be immoral but still is not illegal. I don't think it can be charged with reciept of stolen property, isn't copyright civil rather than criminal?

    Maybe it can be argued it's illegal but is it really? Even the RIAA isn't going after the downloaders, even in the civil courts. So what's up with all the "illegal" stuff in the headlines?

  108. Seattle Spin? by 3vi1 · · Score: 1

    I could not find the OECD report being referred to in the article (maybe a searchspert can help us here), but couldn't this just as well be an indicator of increasing *legal* p2p use?

    It's easy to mentally throw in an [illegal] before movies and software in the context of p2p. Did the article author do this too?

    Think about it: What do YOU share?

    I'm sharing several hundred impossible-to-find/older drivers and freeware/shareware packages that I saved before the manufacturers went out of business and their websites disappeared forever.

    I specifically don't share freeware from companies like Adobe/Apple/etc, who's download terms were so all-encompassing that they made me wonder if it's legal to redistribute (unmodified).

    There are also quite a few funny/cool videos on my share list. People will line up to see a good Star Wars Kid take-off ALL DAY LONG.

    Just because there is more software and video sharing out there does not necessarily mean it's an increase in illegal trading of those types. It could just as well be an increase in legal P2P use, with the lack any real sampling data in the article.

    BTW, be smart and *DON'T* run anything (even stuff that looks legal) you download with p2p unless you get the hash from a reliable source (NOT THE SEARCH FEATURE). Think of it this way: You might *read* the sign that the crazy guy on the corner is wearing, but would you *drink* anything he handed you?

  109. Ever tried a University connection? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But still, I can't think of a week that I've *ever* downloaded 300 megs of music.

    I just wanted a bit of music, so I put some crap on download. Three days later, I got "Disk full" and I went "Huh?". Turns out there was some really huge directories in there, and with a fast line... well, to put it short I had downloaded 25gb of music. Of course, I still haven't listened to all of it.

    ACing since I sound like some kind of supervillain, downloading gigs and gigs. But this is not that uncommon... Friends of mine that lived there, used to watch movies live from other people's network shares etc., without actually downloading them. Just wait as more get broadband, more get internal networks.

    People that have had that kind of connection, kinda want to stick to it. So many young people ( below 30 ) want to have broadband today, it is silly. In 10 years, it'll be all under 40. It is simply a generational shift in progress.

  110. Or maybe, just maybe... by AugstWest · · Score: 1

    ...in the hazy morning after the last Napster orgy, many of us started to think about what we'd done, and went back to buying CDs again.

    Personally, I have downloaded a total of about 5 songs in the last 2 years, these days I just buy -> grip -> ipod everything.

    The whole downloading thing was a great way to introduce everyone to the idea of digitizing their music and better ways of bringing it into the car (how many CDs have you trashed in your car?), around the house (I use Netjuke to share all of my CDs throughout the house and at work), and pretty much everywhere we go.

    I think it's also got to do with the fact that the novelty has worn off.

  111. Re:Sales down because of bad customers or bad musi by biomekano · · Score: 1

    A few gems that were released this year.

    Architect - I Went Out Shopping To Get Some Noise
    Fennesz - Venice
    Forrest, Jason - The Unrelenting Songs of the...
    Kleine, Chritian - Real Ghosts
    Lali Puna - Faking The Books
    Lippok, Robert - Falling Into Komeit
    Manual With Jess Kahr - The North Shore
    McLusky - The Difference Between Me and...
    Mind Over Midi - Statement
    Molina, Jason - Pyramid Electric Co.
    Mr 76Ix - Hits Of 76Ix
    Pan Sonic - Kesto
    Scorn - Versions and More
    Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans
    To Rococo Rot - Hotel Morgen
    Tortoise - It's All Around You
    Trans Am - Liberation
    Valley of the Giants - st
    Vanderslice, John - Cellar Door
    Wharton, Donato - Trabanten
    Xela - Tangled Wool

    That should keep you busy.