Inside the Mind of a 9 Year Old File-Sharer
Written by enigmax on October 21, 2007Everyone knows that a significant number of file-sharers are teenagers and young adults and they get their share of press. But what about the true kids - the under 10’s ? TorrentFreak makes itself feel old trying to keep up with the agile mind of a 9 year old file-sharer.
Like most publications, here at TorrentFreak we regularly interview adults. However, when a recent conversation with a child turned to file-sharing, we took the opportunity to give the P2P kids a voice. We had a little chat with a 9 year old girl who wants to be called “Hannah” (after Hannah Montana) and she talks to us about LimeWire, BEBO, YouTube and her perception of the rights and wrongs of copying - even her frustrations with DRM.
“Never work with children or animals” said WC Fields. TorrentFreak takes a chance:
TF. Hi Hannah! How old are you?
- I’m 10 in 12 days
TF. What sort of music are you listening to right now?
Sean Kingstone, Shayne Ward and High School Musical 2
TF. Where did you first get into music?
- On the music channels, on MTV.
TF. When did you get a PC?
- People had computers but I couldn’t go on them but my Dad bought me one last year. I have internet.
TF. What do you do on the internet?
- MSN, talking to friends and cousins, games and dressing-up games [dolls]
TF. When did you first start using the internet to get music?
- My cousin showed me YouTube and then LimeWire and I was like “whoa cool!”
TF. What was cool about it?
- Because you can put anything in and it will come up and you don’t actually pay for it. Well you have to pay for the internet and LimeWire comes with the internet but you have to pay for that so LimeWire isn’t really free.
TF. Ok…I see….Do you get music from anywhere else?
- My cousin gets it from BEBO. She copies it from other people’s pages and puts it on her own.
TF. Do you think it’s ok to copy the music?
- Yes it’s ok because she only does it to make her page better.
TF. So you’re sure that it’s ok to copy it? What do you think about copying?
- I suppose it’s not ok to copy but people copied it off her site so she just copies theirs. It’s like, you’re copying my t-shirt so i’m copying you on shoes.
TF. Ok, so a bit like copying school work?….Hmm….ok, let’s talk about copying on the computer again. When you started using LimeWire, did anyone ever mention that if you did certain things you might be breaking some laws?
- Why would they put it [music] on the internet and invent mp3 players if it was against the law?
TF. Confusing isn’t it?….You mentioned you like Sean Kingstone - what if I told you that Sean Kingstone’s boss might send you a letter asking for money because you shared his album on LimeWire? What would you say to him?
- W.E! [whatever!]
TF. Come on, play along with me. What would you say if he did?
- I’d say “tooooo strict!” and anyway he can’t make me do anything. He’s not the boss of me, he’s the boss of Sean Kingstone.
TF. What do you think might happen if you didn’t pay him?
- Nothing. I’m too young to be charged by the government so he can’t charge me.
TF. Would you carry on using LimeWire after he sent the letter?
- Yeah!
TF. Why?
- Because you can get good albums off there. Duh!! My CD’s don’t work in my mp3 player so LimeWire is the only way to do it. I bought High School Musical 2 on CD but it won’t go on my mp3 [player]
TF. How would you make LimeWire better?
- To speak to the person sending the music to make sure they send the right one, sometimes they send stuff that doesn’t even play.
TF. Do you know what a pirate is?
- They have parrots [effects 'arrrrr']
TF. Do you think its legal or illegal to copy a CD or DVD?
- Some men right, they sell you a DVD at the market but when you get home it doesn’t play, that’s illegal.
TF. Why is it illegal?
- Duh!! Because they tell you it works and when you get it home it’s rubbish and jumps in the middle and its a waste of money!
TF. Do you think you should be paying for stuff off LimeWire? You have to buy CD’s from the shop…
- You have to pay for CD’s because they’re actually on a disc not on the computer. My cousin, right, she uses LimeWire when she doesn’t have any money for CDs.
TF. Did you ever download anything by anybody and then go to see them?
- I got stuff by Lee Ryan and Simon Webbe and then I went to see Blue. Why don’t you ask me what my favorite hobby is?
TF. Ok, what’s your favorite hobby?
- Dancing to music, it’s fun!!
Thankyou, Hannah. That’s it! Have a nice birthday!
Previously: ShareTV Evolves Into a TV Torrent Community
Next: How To Bypass Comcast’s BitTorrent Throttling
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It’s “Kingston” not “Kingstone”
Misspellings are annoying
What 10 year old American kid do you know that says ‘rubbish’. She’s English.
Kids of this generation are already downloading music. I think that’s the point of this article.
There again when I was her age I used to sit and listen to the radio and tape all the songs I liked or make copies of cassettes for friends.
The record industry really needs to change otherwise they’re never going to be able to keep up. Look at Radiohead’s new album for example. By offering it online for any amount of money it looks like they will have actually made more money from this album than any other they have made.
It’s a trap!
there’s not much that can be done by the music industry and such. most people would share music they got with their friends, but things like limewire let you give it to everyone.
there are some sites that let you get music for free, but you can’t copy or move the files, which would prevent this.
We are molding children’s minds to believe stealing music isn’t a crime because they are not getting in trouble from it. They believe it’s socially acceptable. No wonder Radiohead is giving away their music for any price you are willing to pay for it. Anyways these children will grow up used to downloading im sure some of them will never buy a CD in their lives. Such a sad world… God I can’t wait for my download to complete - 780 K/bps - it’s slowing down..
For you people who say it’s the parent’s job to keep better track of what their kids online, it’s simply not that easy.
I remember when I was slightly older than her, and my parents sat me down and told me to stop downloading music because it was illegal. I stopped for a while, but it wasn’t long before I was back at it. I wanted music as much as anyone, and with no source of income, what other options did I have? Even if I wasn’t downloading I wouldn’t have been paying for it.
My parents couldn’t stop me, they had no means of doing so. As is often the case these days I had far more knowledge of technology than my parents. They did all they could to inform me of what was legal, but in the end I was the only one who could keep me from downloading. As someone with an increasing interest in music I couldn’t afford I sure wasn’t going to stop.
[quote comment="191902"]It’s a trap![/quote]
I lol’d.
This seems a little weird…It doesn’t sound like a 10 year old at all.
Yeah, this is also why we dont let naive children vote or handle much responsibility. Sure, yeah, I dl stuff. But I know its wrong. And if I get caught, I sure as hell am not going to get legal advice from a child. It’s sweet sounding but this is an adults world, not a childs fantasy.
Ps. LimeWire is a pain in the ass. Its about torrents. Not LimeWire.
That sucked ass
Total fake…I have a nine-year-old, and my house is filled with 9-year-olds and that’s no nine-year-old, it’s how an adult who doesn’t know kids thinks a kid thinks…would be interesting to hear a real kid, though
what a load of errrr… nonsense
don’t patronize the people who come to torrentfreak to read the articles with made up drivel like this.
I fucking hate kids.
What a fucking dumb bitch.
“TF. Come on, play along with me.”
PEDO
Surely i can’t be the only one who thinks that is an obvious forgery, and written by some no-gooder trying to promote the virtues of theft
wherever you go and whatever you do. there will always be some uneducated person shouting “FAKE!” or some other bullshit on the internet.
uhh.. whats with people calling torrent freak pedos? if you dont like torrent freak then stop using it. im sure it dont take a brain surgeon to stop being retarded.
There is NOTHING lower, filthier, and less worthy of human life than someone who is hateful to children.
TF: Please, for the love of FSM, DELETE these insane hateful comments directed at a nine year-old little girl.
87 Oct 21, 2007 at 23:57 by Taylor Hewitt
Kill yourself now, please.
Wow, it took a ten year old to tell them the problem with CD’s is because they can’t put them on their MP3 players easily.
Want sales? Make things as easy for your customer and make things “just work” properly. That’s why things like TiVo and iPod’s have been so popular.
screw limewire why not just start going into the record stores and walking out with all the music we can carry…. whats the difference? oh ya… in real life its called stealing and you go to jail….. wake up
You can interview me. A 11 year old file-sharer. I know a lot about computing, and especially about how the torrent protocol works. I am a programmer. You can contact me via email and msn; fedorsinev @ gmail.com ( removed spaces because I don’t wanted freaking email collector bots spamming me )
[quote comment="191672"]This doesnt sound like a 9 year old, I call bullshit[/quote]
I concur
[quote comment="191974"][quote comment="191672"]This doesnt sound like a 9 year old, I call bullshit[/quote]
I concur[/quote]
Come on I seen a 5 year old on the internet who had the perfect grammar.
This article is fake.
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