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Old 2004-11-23, 17:31   Link #10
Lord Raiden
Uber Coffee for da win!
 
 
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Middle of insanity
Well, that's certainly one way to look at it. Too bad they'll have to learn the hard way that if you make something like downloading music illegal, everyone will want to do it. Make it legal, and the interest will quickly die off or wane considerably. It's been proven before in numerous situations. Prohibition is a good example of this. There was more alcohol bought during prohibition and the couple of years proceeding it than after it because it was illegal and it was cool to do illegal things. It's human nature. Take away the incentives to download music and you take away the interests to do it.

Here's another example. A hotel down in florida (name escapes me right now) used to have a sign in their hotel rooms that read "Don't fish from the balcony" because their east side windows were all directly above either the ocean, or some lake nearby. Either way, the reason behind it was because of a restaurant they had on the first floor (you've seen pictures of it in hurricane footage where the waves bust through the windows of the restaurant) had glass windows that were close to the waterline. IF someone tossed in a line it was very likely that the sinker would smack the window and break it. Well, this never happened before they put up the sign but happened none stop after they put up the signs. Once they took them down, the problem went away.

RIAA and MPAA can't seem to get it through their thick skulls that sure, you go after the people actually pirating and making money off your stuff, but DON'T go after the customers because they're downloading music or movies. Where are they profiteering? They're not. The true pirates of music and movies are the ones costing the industry money by taking away sales. Downloaders of music and movies interestingly enough fall into two catagores.

1. They would never, ever, ever for any reason buy the movie on DVD or pay to watch it in the theaters. SO since they'd never pay money to see the movie anyways (heck, a lot of these people will wait for it to come on TV for free even or copy it from a friend) the industry is not loosing money because these people will never be customers, so since there is nothing to gain, there can be no loss.
2. These people who make up the vast majority of downloaders actually download movies and music to preview it. Then if they like what they heard, they DO go out and buy the music and movies. The industry should be courting these potential customers simply because these are the same people who WOULD NOT have bought the same music or movies had they not downloaded them and previewed them first.

I'm not saying that we should make everything free on the net, but we should definately encourage people to buy the products after they download them. IF you look at the leachers here at AS. About 70% (this is my guess because I don't have any hard facts, so take it with a grain of salt) of the people here who download anime from AS actually buy the anime series after they've downloaded it. I know I certainly have. Same with manga. I've honestly bought about 4-5x's more anime and manga since fansubbing and scanslating came around than before.

Another one of the bigger problems with the media industry as a whole (not just riaa and the mpaa) is that with the exception of some in the industry, the big players would prefer to keep using the same tired, worn out, beaten to death things going and reuse them over and over and over and over again until they're beyond dead before moving to something newer. People want new and fresh. The industry prefers to move along like a rock. IE only move when you're forced to. Then when you can stop, just stay there as long as you can till you have to move again. It's stupid. Problem is, these guys have heads thicker than a granite mountain. *sigh*

Anywho, until the industry is ready to move in sync with their customers rather than attack them frequently and extort them for ludicrious amounts of cash, then they will continue to be stuck in the same situation they are now and no amount of lawsuits or legislation will stop it.

(EDIT: Damn I'm long winded. o_0;;)
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