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[URL]http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7522334.stm[/URL]
I think this has been coming for some time. I'm actually suprised it's taken this long for the broadband companies to bow to the pressure and start cracking down on filesharing but i'm wondering to what extent. Will they be targeting just the uploaders or everyone?
What i'm really interested in though is the effect on the music industry. Now there seems to be two views on this. The music industry is of the opinion that if downloading stops, everyone will go out and buy more cd's. Everyone else i've spoken to has pointed out that without being able to listen to albums beforehand, they're actually less likely to go out and buy an album based on the strength of 1 track. I can look at pretty much every album i've bought over the last 3 years and know i'd previewed it before i spent money.
Opinions then? False dawn or start of the end. Good for the music industry or are they shooting themselves in the foot?
I think this has been coming for some time. I'm actually suprised it's taken this long for the broadband companies to bow to the pressure and start cracking down on filesharing but i'm wondering to what extent. Will they be targeting just the uploaders or everyone?
What i'm really interested in though is the effect on the music industry. Now there seems to be two views on this. The music industry is of the opinion that if downloading stops, everyone will go out and buy more cd's. Everyone else i've spoken to has pointed out that without being able to listen to albums beforehand, they're actually less likely to go out and buy an album based on the strength of 1 track. I can look at pretty much every album i've bought over the last 3 years and know i'd previewed it before i spent money.
Opinions then? False dawn or start of the end. Good for the music industry or are they shooting themselves in the foot?
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I dont download music and movies anymore but I do download TV shows and watch them on sites like YouTube. Though everything I have watched I do/will end up buying on DVD eventually. I guess I'm terrible at waiting.
I agree with Timmargh that if they are caught downloading something that you should be fined for the actual price and not some made up figure. "okay you downloaded this song for yourself but you swopped bits of it with 200,000 other people, so we're suing you for $20 million dollars" *places little finger by lips*
I've lost a lot of respect to the music and movie industry because of this practice which probably earns them more money than the sale of their music/dvds
I agree with Timmargh that if they are caught downloading something that you should be fined for the actual price and not some made up figure. "okay you downloaded this song for yourself but you swopped bits of it with 200,000 other people, so we're suing you for $20 million dollars" *places little finger by lips*
I've lost a lot of respect to the music and movie industry because of this practice which probably earns them more money than the sale of their music/dvds
You don't see Freeola's name on that list do you?
Not that I'm suggesting we would condone Illegal downloads however, naughty naughty.
Not that I'm suggesting we would condone Illegal downloads however, naughty naughty.
Does Freeola throttle heavy users? Fat guy strangling is also illegal you know.
Well I thought it was funny :(
How about a genuine try before you buy system? Why can't they concentrate more on that?
Download an album, it lasts 24/48 hours maybe, then it'll be unplayable unless you pay for it. Obviously there'll be workarounds for the more literate, but surely if that was the only system available, it'll cut a lot of piracy.
I'll take it pretty easy anyway, not exactly downloading tons of albums. There's always places like last.fm for investigating new music.
Download an album, it lasts 24/48 hours maybe, then it'll be unplayable unless you pay for it. Obviously there'll be workarounds for the more literate, but surely if that was the only system available, it'll cut a lot of piracy.
I'll take it pretty easy anyway, not exactly downloading tons of albums. There's always places like last.fm for investigating new music.
Woolies used to have listening booths back in the 60's/70's, that was try-before-you-buy and a great idea. I think some Solo stores do it now for certain albums. But streaming audio to try it does lead to problems in itself, as streams can be copied too. Maybe a 'watermark', ie: talking during 5 seconds of each song, would be the best idea.
Streams can be easily recorded, the best idea would be to use low-quality ones, as those sound terrible when recorded, and even worse when put on CD; but at 24/32 Kb/s, are a decent enough quality sample.
There's a site I've occasionally used when sitting around using my laptop which allows you to stream cult Metal albums, which I've found has led to me buying quite a few albums.
There's a site I've occasionally used when sitting around using my laptop which allows you to stream cult Metal albums, which I've found has led to me buying quite a few albums.
I tried legal music download once. I used Napster to download a couple of tracks by different artists - I didn't want the whole albums. It was a few years ago and I had a car with only a tape deck in. I had an mp3 player with one of those tape converter things so I could listen to mp3s in the car.
So, I paid for and downloaded the tracks, and copied them onto my player to listen to on the way home. Only, they didn't work. DRM meant that I could only listen to them on the PC I had downloaded them to. This happened to be my work PC, with no speakers. Great.
So I went back to getting the odd track illegally.
When I buy an album, I own it. I can do what I want with it. I can play it in the car (I've got a CD player now). I can play it at home. I can put it on the PC to make compilation CDs. I can put it on my MP3 player. I can do what I want with it. When I buy a digital download, why can't I do the same? I've paid for it. I own it.
It's easier, and you get more flexibility, when you download illegally. Until that changes, people will stay illegal.
If record companies think that once illegal downloading is wiped out, CD sales will shoot up, they are wrong, I feel. If someone can't d/l an album, they may well not bother with it at all. If companies think that every album downloaded is a lost sale, I think they are in for a shock.
I say all of the above for music. Personally I can't see the point in downloading films. The file sizes must be so big surely it would be quicker to go to the video shop and rent it, or even buy it?
What about TV programmes? I pay my TV licence, as I'm sure you all do. So, because I've paid for programmes by the BBC, does that make it alright for me to download them and keep them? It's just the same as recording them off the telly, right?
What about programmes on other free-to-air channels. ITV? C4 etc? Ok, if you download them, they've had the adverts stripped out. But if you recorded it, you'd skip through the ads anyway, so what's the difference?
So, I paid for and downloaded the tracks, and copied them onto my player to listen to on the way home. Only, they didn't work. DRM meant that I could only listen to them on the PC I had downloaded them to. This happened to be my work PC, with no speakers. Great.
So I went back to getting the odd track illegally.
When I buy an album, I own it. I can do what I want with it. I can play it in the car (I've got a CD player now). I can play it at home. I can put it on the PC to make compilation CDs. I can put it on my MP3 player. I can do what I want with it. When I buy a digital download, why can't I do the same? I've paid for it. I own it.
It's easier, and you get more flexibility, when you download illegally. Until that changes, people will stay illegal.
If record companies think that once illegal downloading is wiped out, CD sales will shoot up, they are wrong, I feel. If someone can't d/l an album, they may well not bother with it at all. If companies think that every album downloaded is a lost sale, I think they are in for a shock.
I say all of the above for music. Personally I can't see the point in downloading films. The file sizes must be so big surely it would be quicker to go to the video shop and rent it, or even buy it?
What about TV programmes? I pay my TV licence, as I'm sure you all do. So, because I've paid for programmes by the BBC, does that make it alright for me to download them and keep them? It's just the same as recording them off the telly, right?
What about programmes on other free-to-air channels. ITV? C4 etc? Ok, if you download them, they've had the adverts stripped out. But if you recorded it, you'd skip through the ads anyway, so what's the difference?
Well with Freeola you get download tariffs so instead of throttling accounts you actually have a set amount that you are free to use as fast as you possilby can :)
Personally at home I find this system preferable as you can monitor your usage and you know you won't be throttled for your usage.
Personally at home I find this system preferable as you can monitor your usage and you know you won't be throttled for your usage.
YH wrote:
>
> When I buy an album, I own it. I can do what I want with it. I
> can play it in the car (I've got a CD player now). I can play it
> at home. I can put it on the PC to make compilation CDs. I can
> put it on my MP3 player. I can do what I want with it. When I buy
> a digital download, why can't I do the same? I've paid for it. I
> own it.
I think you'll find things have changed an awful lot in the last few years and a lot of DRM security has been stopped on most of the big download sites. It's actually easier to download legally now as labels are flooding torrent sites with dodgy versions of tracks and you know what you're getting with legal downloads.
>
> If record companies think that once illegal downloading is wiped
> out, CD sales will shoot up, they are wrong, I feel. If someone
> can't d/l an album, they may well not bother with it at all. If
> companies think that every album downloaded is a lost sale, I
> think they are in for a shock.
Legal downloads have already outstripped physical albums, so plenty of people from youngsters to grandads are downloading legally now. Why do you think the singles charts are now based on Downloads as well as single sales?
>
> I say all of the above for music. Personally I can't see the
> point in downloading films. The file sizes must be so big surely
> it would be quicker to go to the video shop and rent it, or even
> buy it?
couple of hours for most, even on a 2mb connection if it's a legal site like Lovefilm.
>
> What about TV programmes? I pay my TV licence, as I'm sure you
> all do. So, because I've paid for programmes by the BBC, does
> that make it alright for me to download them and keep them? It's
> just the same as recording them off the telly, right?
The law isn't clear, even on recording to video/DVD from TV. The current thinking among general households is that it's legal to keep for 2 weeks, but that's not really written in stone.
>
> What about programmes on other free-to-air channels. ITV? C4
> etc? Ok, if you download them, they've had the adverts stripped
> out. But if you recorded it, you'd skip through the ads anyway,
> so what's the difference?
No-one is really going after people who download TV programmes at the moment, so it's a mute point. Films are a different matter as they tend to come out to illegally download when the film hits the cinema, thereby killing revenue from cinema tickets, which hits the cinemas as well as the film companies.
>
> When I buy an album, I own it. I can do what I want with it. I
> can play it in the car (I've got a CD player now). I can play it
> at home. I can put it on the PC to make compilation CDs. I can
> put it on my MP3 player. I can do what I want with it. When I buy
> a digital download, why can't I do the same? I've paid for it. I
> own it.
I think you'll find things have changed an awful lot in the last few years and a lot of DRM security has been stopped on most of the big download sites. It's actually easier to download legally now as labels are flooding torrent sites with dodgy versions of tracks and you know what you're getting with legal downloads.
>
> If record companies think that once illegal downloading is wiped
> out, CD sales will shoot up, they are wrong, I feel. If someone
> can't d/l an album, they may well not bother with it at all. If
> companies think that every album downloaded is a lost sale, I
> think they are in for a shock.
Legal downloads have already outstripped physical albums, so plenty of people from youngsters to grandads are downloading legally now. Why do you think the singles charts are now based on Downloads as well as single sales?
>
> I say all of the above for music. Personally I can't see the
> point in downloading films. The file sizes must be so big surely
> it would be quicker to go to the video shop and rent it, or even
> buy it?
couple of hours for most, even on a 2mb connection if it's a legal site like Lovefilm.
>
> What about TV programmes? I pay my TV licence, as I'm sure you
> all do. So, because I've paid for programmes by the BBC, does
> that make it alright for me to download them and keep them? It's
> just the same as recording them off the telly, right?
The law isn't clear, even on recording to video/DVD from TV. The current thinking among general households is that it's legal to keep for 2 weeks, but that's not really written in stone.
>
> What about programmes on other free-to-air channels. ITV? C4
> etc? Ok, if you download them, they've had the adverts stripped
> out. But if you recorded it, you'd skip through the ads anyway,
> so what's the difference?
No-one is really going after people who download TV programmes at the moment, so it's a mute point. Films are a different matter as they tend to come out to illegally download when the film hits the cinema, thereby killing revenue from cinema tickets, which hits the cinemas as well as the film companies.
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