Sunday, September 11, 2011

Support File Sharing

Tired of the entertainment industry treating you like a criminal for wanting to share music and movies online? The entertainment industry has threatened innovation in P2P systems and many other tools that help you get more from your media. And it could get even worse - the industry is pushing Governments all over the World to ratchet up civil and criminal sanctions for file sharing and to restrict innovation.

And there’s no end in sight; new lawsuits are filed monthly, and now they are supplemented by a flood of "pre-litigation" settlement letters designed to extract settlements without any need to enter a courtroom. 

The music industry initially responded to P2P file sharing as it has often responded to disruptive innovations in the past: it sent its lawyers after the innovators, hoping to smother the technology in its infancy. Beginning with the December 1999 lawsuit against Napster, the recording industry has sued major P2P technology companies one after the other: AudioGalaxy, Morpheus, Kazaa, LimeWire and Pirate Bay. In short, suing the technology has never worked.

Every time you download something for nothing a record company boss has to adjust his lifestyle; especially in these trying times where it has become increasingly difficult for music industry executives to maintain a truly opulent lifestyle. RIAA and MPIAA offices are piled high with cheap bottles of glue and bags of chips. In fact, word was out last week that a record company executive had to cook for himself; at least he had someone to do the dishes.

People talk about it being a crime– at least technically; but taking money from the pocket of someone like Simon Cowell is about as close to a victimless crime as it’s possible to get, surely?

How can I, in good conscience, pay money for some music when I know that some of that money might ultimately end up supporting someone like 50 cent or Fergie? It’s a risk I’m simply not prepared to take.



Given the choice between paying for something, or getting the same thing completely free, is not much of a choice at all. Is it? If you have a situation where 90% of your population is doing something that is deemed illegal, then it’s not really a very good law.

I'm never going to pay for music downloads; therefore they have lost nothing from me. What they gain though is my love for certain artists I’d never otherwise listen to if I had to pay for it.

Why stop with music? Everything from movies, PC games, books, software programs, TV series are applicable for file sharing.

What next? Ban Wikipedia for informing the world?

I’ll end the article with these quotes:
"Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it."
-John Lennon

“Since the dawn of time, human beings have felt the need to share – from food to art. Sharing is part of the human condition. A person who does not share is not only selfish, but bitter and alone.”
-Paulo Coelho, Brazilian novelist.

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