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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?"

64 of 234 comments (clear)

  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 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."
    2. 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.

    3. 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.

    4. 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.

    5. 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.

    6. 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."

    7. 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.

  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 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.

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

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

      Real butter, too.

    4. 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.

    5. 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.

    6. 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 :)

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

    That way we can have more restrictive legislation.

    --
    ---- Booth was a patriot ----
  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

  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...

  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.

  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.

  10. 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.

  11. 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.

  12. 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.

  13. 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...

  14. 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.
  15. 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.

  16. 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.

  17. 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.

  18. 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...

  19. 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
  20. 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.

  21. 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

  22. 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 Hatta · · Score: 2, Insightful

      And since when does legality == morality?

      --
      Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
  23. 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.

  24. 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
  25. 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. :)

  26. 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.

  27. 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.
  28. 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
  29. 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!

  30. 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!

  31. 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.
  32. 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.
  33. 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.

  34. 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
  35. 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.

  36. 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

  37. 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 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...

  38. 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.
  39. 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.

  40. 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...
  41. 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?