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
271 Responses (Add yours or TrackBack)
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[quote comment="192079"][quote comment="192077"]
You are an idiot and probably work for Mediadefender or the RIAA.
Only a complete moron would beleive that everyone who downloads a song for free would have purchased it if they could not download it.[/quote]
No, I’m just a musician who knows right from wrong. Just because you CAN do something doesn’t mean you SHOULD. There are these things called morals, you know.
Okay, pretend the internet didn’t exist. Imagine you heard a song you like on the radio and want to procure a copy for repeated, high quality listening. Do you:
a) walk into a store and buy it
b) walk into a store, decide the price is too high for you to pay, and leave empty handed
c) walk into a store, decide the price is too high, then shove it in your pocket and walk out
If you can’t afford to buy music, then you don’t have the privilege of enjoying it.[/quote]
…or you went home, waited for it to play on the radio and pushed record so you’d have it on tape. Same went for movies, when I was little my aunt showed me Snow White, I liked it. Mom told me that if I wanted it I had to wait for my birthday which was several months away. It was on TV a week later so I hit record. I still have the movie on tape.
Frankly, I agree with Greg(USA)’s ideas. I download a variety of music then purchase the CD’s I like. Some of the music I listen to can’t even be bought in North America with out paying exuberant shipping fees.
Secondly, I used to dance. I’m not sure if you’re aware but dancers are payed next to nothing yet require music to dance to. This gets expensive. So while I have no problems shelling out 20+ dollars for an independent artists CD, I also have no issue’s with downloading JT’s album when I need a minute and a half of a single song.
Thirdly, as a former dancer, I’m actually quite flattered when I see one of my old video’s floating around. I consider them free advertising. To get people to come to my schools events, myself and a bunch of the other dancers used to release little videos of our class. I found that they worked quite well and helped us quite a bit with ticket sales.
So you want to make money as an artist Mos Def? Concerts! Everyone knows that’s where musicians, especially the Pop Tarts make the vast majority of their money.
The kid has the wrong mindset, piracy is stealing stop f*king rationalizing it. It is stealing and yes it’s wrong, but it’s just a matter of how are they going to stop me especially when they don’t have jurisdiction over me nor can they find me as easily because I don’t download only from one source (eg: torrents are 1 thing, and p2p apps another, but there’s a very active http and ftp scene that remains a mystery to them - let’s keep it that way).
[quote comment="192523"]So… she steals music because she can’t figure out how to rip a CD and make her own MP3’s?
Sounds like this little problem could be solved by just showing her how Nero works.[/quote]
yea or just showing her the simple rip function on windows media player.
man that was a funny interview.
[quote comment="191587"]You would never get some of those awnsers if you were tlaking to an adult or even a teenger. this ones especially good:
‘Why would they put it [music] on the internet and invent mp3 players if it was against the law?’[/quote]
Actually, I got the exact same response from an educated adult: ‘Movies would not be available via BitTorrent if it was illegal. “They” would shut it down or take them off.’
[quote comment="192093"]I call bullshit.[/quote]
I’ll see your bullshit and raise you a moron.
Interesting! :)
Welcome to the legal pirates world, the girl’s copying music, but someone gotta tell her that if she only downloads the music she already got on CDs just to be able to play em on the mp3, that means she’s not stealing music, she already paid to listen to it, she’s like backing up her data(music) on whatever sort of media she wants to, & that’s quite legal, it’s like downloading a torrent and finding a text file in it telling you that you got these files only because you had the original ones before, that’s your legal right to keep your media, the girl’s not a pirate,, yet :)
[quote comment="192592"][quote comment="192523"]So… she steals music because she can’t figure out how to rip a CD and make her own MP3’s?
Sounds like this little problem could be solved by just showing her how Nero works.[/quote]
yea or just showing her the simple rip function on windows media player.
man that was a funny interview.[/quote]
[quote comment="192749"]Welcome to the legal pirates world, the girl’s copying music, but someone gotta tell her that if she only downloads the music she already got on CDs just to be able to play em on the mp3, that means she’s not stealing music, she already paid to listen to it, she’s like backing up her data(music) on whatever sort of media she wants to, & that’s quite legal, it’s like downloading a torrent and finding a text file in it telling you that you got these files only because you had the original ones before, that’s your legal right to keep your media, the girl’s not a pirate,, yet :)[/quote]
FAKE
but with a good message, xD
This is so funny.-.- She’s a dumbass though at the age of 9 and unable to convert audio cd into mp3 format-.- Totally failure at the age of 9 already. She’s doomed to be dumb in life.
frosty, i know people that are like 40 and doesn’t know how to do that… Not because they’re dumb, but because they don’t h4x teh puter 24/7
‘Sharing’ or ’stealing’? It reminds me of what happened with the invention of the printing press. That was another great leap forward in information sharing.
Some countries outlawed it because it made it that much harder to control their population with their own exlusive ideas. And guess what? The countries that embraced the printing press blossomed. It began the whole scientific revolution. The countries that outlawed it stagnated for hundreds of years..
What about the cost of_not_file sharing? Has anyone ever looked at that? People listen to music because it makes them feel good -hopefully. How much does this_save_the community in mental health issues? I know last year listening to uplifting music may have saved my life…how many others? What is this worth?
If we can come closer to approaching a utopia through the digital age, whereby everyone has equal access to everything, why wouldn’t we? The main idea behind copyright law is to encourage the creator of something decent to create more, isn’t it? So they get ‘enough’ to continue creating what others enjoy. Or am I wrong?
Interesting debate nevertheless.
see this is what’s wrong with the world today… children are being taught that crime is ok. Children are being raised up thinkin that they can break the copyright laws. This is the same world which tells our kids that having sex with everybody is ok. This is the same world which tells our kids that doing drugs is ok. This is the same world which tells our kids that only money and sex matter. I’m saddened by the fact that the world is like this. I dont like this kind of world and dont want to be any part of it.
I was downloading from Napster at seven and eight (before it was illegal). So?
I used DC++ and IRC when I was 7 ;)
[quote comment="193275"]What about the cost of_not_file sharing? Has anyone ever looked at that? People listen to music because it makes them feel good -hopefully. How much does this_save_the community in mental health issues? I know last year listening to uplifting music may have saved my life…how many others? What is this worth?
[/quote]
The effect on people’s health is negated by whiney emo music.
lol. jeez 9 what a badass, i remember napster,LAWLS,
Damn, kids are dumb. Kind of sad to think that in 2007, 9 year old kids have grown up watching MTV and using computers for nothing more than downloading crap and playing “dress up games”.
It wasn’t that many years prior that we didn’t grow up with cable and we used the computer to discover things. Every network or connection was a new experience. It wasn’t just a boob-tube with more channels to vegetate in.
WTF? Shaun Kingstone?? His name is Shaun Kingston…
personally, i find sean kingston just another talentless obese stupid black man. that fuckin song annoys the living fuck out of me
HATE TO TELL YOU GUYS BUT THAT DUDE SEAN KINGSTON SUCKETH ASSHOLETH BIG TIME
Okay - she’s pretty naive, part of the Bebo Generation (as opposed to those on Facebook and MySpace who are 16+ at the moment)
She doesn’t understand law and why should she? Her cousin is to blame here.
[quote comment="191672"]This doesnt sound like a 9 year old, I call bullshit[/quote]
agreed. doesnt sound like a real kid. i think this is interesting. but i think you made up the girl.
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