Illegal downloading!

[Yonsan]

Yo ho Yo ho a pirate's life for me.

I use piracy to sample things. If they are good things that I feel are worth spending the money on to encourage more good things in the future, then I buy after illegal download (which makes the information I downloaded legal by the way). If not then I delete it anyway and am glad I didn't waste money on whatever the product was.
First thing I ever pirated was a copy of Shadow of the Colossus for PS2. It was so good I went out and bought it the next day.  

[Nyarona]

I pirate a lot of things, and personally I do not see any wrong in doing so. Adobe is not out of business, and neither are any of the other businesses that make the software, music, or movies I download.

I usually download movies first because I'd like to see it before I waste money on it. If it's a good movie and I have money in my pocket, I'll go and actually buy the movie. Also, there are some really rare and hard to find movies that sometimes do not even have an American release.

Someone already mentioned about music and recording off of the radio, and that brings a good point as well. Back in the day, when VHS was still around, people used to record from movies and give to other people who wanted to see them. Doing that certainly didn't hurt the movie industry, and neither is illegal downloading.  

[Dafthank]

My thoughts about illegal downloading are the same as my thoughts on marijuana:

If you really want to cut down on the influence of marijuana, make the pariphinallia illegal. That way, it's hard to find and hard to smoke.

If you really want to cut down on the influence of illegal downloading, the government shouldn't be going after those that are downloading, they should be going after those that are...
a) Uploading illegally
b) Making devices that play the illegal music

Take out the paraphanalia, and the rest will naturally take its course.  

[Nyarona]

Dafthank

My thoughts about illegal downloading are the same as my thoughts on marijuana:

If you really want to cut down on the influence of marijuana, make the pariphinallia illegal. That way, it's hard to find and hard to smoke.

If you really want to cut down on the influence of illegal downloading, the government shouldn't be going after those that are downloading, they should be going after those that are...
a) Uploading illegally
b) Making devices that play the illegal music

Take out the paraphanalia, and the rest will naturally take its course.

1. That will not, I repeat, will NOT cut down on marijuana usage. If the paraphernalia is made illegal....people will just get it illegally. : That ought to be a no brainer.

2. They are going after those uploading illegally.

3. ...are you suggesting making winamp and stuff illegal? You know they play non-pirated music as well...what about that?  

[Sheboygan Milad]

Nyarona

I pirate a lot of things, and personally I do not see any wrong in doing so. Adobe is not out of business, and neither are any of the other businesses that make the software, music, or movies I download.

I usually download movies first because I'd like to see it before I waste money on it. If it's a good movie and I have money in my pocket, I'll go and actually buy the movie. Also, there are some really rare and hard to find movies that sometimes do not even have an American release.

Someone already mentioned about music and recording off of the radio, and that brings a good point as well. Back in the day, when VHS was still around, people used to record from movies and give to other people who wanted to see them. Doing that certainly didn't hurt the movie industry, and neither is illegal downloading.

The objections that are generally raised are not about industries being put out of business because of illegal downloading, they are about artists not getting paid for their work. I believe that a talented artist working in any medium should be able to make a living off of their work. If the illegal downloading serves mainly to provide widespread advertising and word of mouth for them and their work, and ultimately benefits them, then sure, it can be a good thing.