Peer to peer should be marked as illegal?
By squeezeme
@squeezeme (135)
Italy
May 9, 2009 11:53am CST
Borrowing a cd to a friend is, of course not illegal, even if you are actually sharing some copyrighted content to someone else. People that support P2P thinks that it is quite the same, as the content go from an user to another without any mediation.
On the other hand, copyright holders think that it's not really the same but just an abuse and the recent process to 'the pirate bay' website, that supports P2P, told they are apparently right.
What do you think?
7 responses
@SpikeTheLobster (6403)
•
9 May 09
P2P is not illegal. Sharing copyrighted content over P2P is.
The analogy of passing a CD to a friend just doesn't cut it, I'm afraid. You're comparing apples and oranges. When I pass a CD to a friend, they listen to it and maybe make a copy. If I share that CD over P2P, MILLIONS of people may well copy it. It's like spending your whole life running around with CDs and lending them to everyone you meet.
Unfortunately, as long as we have money, people will worry about possession. If they took their lead from the likes of David Bowie and Trent Reznor, they'd make their album available free anyway. Earn money from concerts, studio work, T-shirts and other material goods that won't go down a broadband line. "The times, they are a-changin'," the song says. Maybe it's time we started changing with them.
On the other hand, I can understand the annoyance at something that took a lot of time and money to make being passed around anonymously for free. If I ever finish this book I'm writing, I know it would be painful to see it appear on P2P for free - at the same time as wanting it to happen so that loads of people got pleasure from reading it.
It's a very, very difficult line to draw, both personally and in law. Especially since the entire world is absolutely obsessed with money.
1 person likes this
@squeezeme (135)
• Italy
9 May 09
You got the point, it's money. And it is also hard to draw a line, and even if you do then how would you control p2p traffic? I think that the increasing number of copyright violations (as in music copyrights) should be a warning sign. Unfortunately very few ones are taking it into serious consideration, apart from embracing legal causes to prevent it to happen.
But should P2P be charged for the whole of this?
@squeezeme (135)
• Italy
10 May 09
So what I get out of this reply is that as long as big website, starting from the now old napster to the last pirate bay, promotes P2P illegal sharing that becames a problem. But legally you have a problem here (and that's why millions go to waste). They are just 'promoting' not sharing; the trick is: I don't host any content, what I show is just a documentations about what theorically is around on p2p. It is not my business what you do with my hints.
Something smart enough until the last process to 'Pirate Bay' whose founders are now really risking a severe sentence.
This 'promotion' made the sharing things a really big deal and denaturated its early goal to spread free tools (I'm thinking about the fact that is one of the main sharing way of open sources) and easy private sharing.
So in the end? Who do you blame? I think that is quite tricky...
@Chewii (3)
• United States
10 May 09
I don't think P2P should be illegal. It simply a way for files to get around. I don't believe that piracy should be illegal either. The scene (The share'ers that get leaked to the p2p,file sharing, ect) actually supports buying the material."If you like it buy it" is a common phrase on NFO. Most companies argue that they are losing profit. Well, If you weren't going to buy it in the first place it is not a lost profit... Now they want us to buy low quality,DRM'd music on iTunes when you can just head down to What.cd or others that im not namin and get a FLAC for free.
@squeezeme (135)
• Italy
10 May 09
This 'if you like it you buy it' is something I've been hearing around a lot. The point is that I'm not really sure that all the ones that downloaded some content will buy it afterwards. On the good side, you have the fact that, even if illegally, spreading is always good for an artist. There are a lot of example of pre-released content (like single track or tracklists of a coming album) that owe this illegal spreading a good amount of their success.
So... does the celebrity out of illigal spreading pays out the potential loss(because as you said people may buy eventually) in selling contents legally?
@squeezeme (135)
• Italy
10 May 09
Donating the autor is something that could make the difference for sure. But I'm afraid that big music producers won't easily drop their leading position in music distribution.
Take the Artic Monkeys, a band that, by the way, I really like. Their success came out of internet and, as their music was freely shared on the net, they became really popular without making a single album. Even them in the end they signed a contract with a music producer too.
@modstar (9605)
• Philippines
11 May 09
P2p is already illegal but i don't think it's the same as borrowing a CD because the CD is still genuine and for as long as i won't duplicate the content of the cd, then i am not doing something illegal. P2P is illegal in a sense that the copyrighted content of the cd was converted into music files on the computer then shared them to the world. That is unfair competition and that is illegal. Because of that, people don't buy cds anymore because they already have a copy of the cd.
@cbhomework (545)
• Malta
10 May 09
I don't think P2P should be illegal. I do think that people exaggerate when sharing things online. But this thing happened also before with copying of music cassettes and photocopies of books and other material!!
As you said before, it all boils down to money. I mean if the companies don't pay millions to the actors, they can reduce the cost of a dvd or a movie ticket, then maybe people would not copy a dvd but buy the original one. I would prefer to have a reduced entrance to a cinema that to hear about some star who has done a 'good' deed by adopting some child from somewhere or who has given money to this or that institution...
@dianmelydia (2269)
• Indonesia
10 May 09
Illegal shouldn't be marked on p2p. P2P is just a technology for file sharing. The problem come when people use it for sharing copyrighted materials and files. Later it become popular on the internet users to use p2p for downloading copyrighted files and it made the authority mark the p2p as illegal activities. Some p2p service charge their users, but i doubt if that charge is use to pay the copyright's owner. Have a nice day and happy mylotting.
@prinzechristian (152)
• Philippines
21 Jun 09
P2P programs is not illegal. Downloading from a P2P is not illegal. The only thing that is illegal, is continously sharing it. Downloads from P2P should be used personally.
@BishounenNerd (373)
• United States
9 May 09
Here's my view on P2P filesharing... I wouldn't liken it to letting a friend borrow a CD. It's more like making a copy of the CD and sending it to a friend. You see, it all has to do with who pays for it. Musical artists make a living off of the royalties that people pay when they buy their CDs, so if people get them for free illegitimately, then the artist doesn't get the money they earned from their work. So basically, it's ripping them off. And I know some people are going to complain that they get all these luxuries, but I say they earned it, so they are entitled to it.
