One in Three Is A Music Pirate
Written by Ernesto on July 24, 2009A report just published by the market research firm Interpret has tapped into the downloading habits of a massive 64 million respondents. From this group, well over a third admitted to downloading music illegally through file-sharing networks and BitTorrent, but that doesn’t mean they don’t buy any music.
Studies on the prevalence of illegal downloading, especially those targeted at music downloads, are nothing new. However, a study with more than 60 million participants is quite unique and will come closer to the truth than the average online poll.
Interpret, a market research firm focused on entertainment, media and technology has just published the results of a massive survey on illegal music downloads, covering 64 million people. Of this group 24 million respondents (36%) admitted that they had downloaded music illegally in the past three months.
An impressive figure to say the least, indicating that the RIAA, BPI and IFPI will seriously have to reconsider their current handling of the ‘piracy’ problem. Spending millions of dollars on developing new business models instead of paying lawyers might be a good start. Interpret’s findings may be helpful in this.
The goal of the report was to find out if people who download from BitTorrent and other file-sharing networks are also paying to download music. And indeed, it turns out that some ‘pirates’ are also paying for downloads through iTunes or other web stores.
The results show that 9 percent of music pirates have bought a full album online in the past three months. Downloading individual songs is even more popular in this group, with 16 percent indicating that they paid to download an individual song recently.
What struck us at TorrentFreak was that nearly half (49%) of all music pirates said that downloading music should be cheaper than buying a disc. This means that 51% are fine with the current price point of legal downloads. This is an odd finding to say the least.
Unfortunately, Interpret’s report doesn’t provide any comparative data, so we can’t say anything about how the group of music pirates does compared to the rest of the public. However, it wouldn’t surprise us if on average this group is spending more on music than the average customer.
Previously: UK ISP Cuts Off Alleged Pirates
Next: Ireland’s Largest ISP Starts Throttling and Disconnections
92 Responses
Pirates rule!
buy nothing
how could they possibly have surveyed 64 million people. evryone knows the biggest market research companies base their projections on a tiny percentage of the given demographic. I say:shenanigans!
It dosent surprise me at all.
I agree with replayray. There’s no way they surveyed 64 million people.
6 billion people in the world…
so this would mean they surveyed a whole percent of the world population
if you then consider the fact that not everyone has access to the internet, that means they’ve surveyed in massive proportion of the internetusers
and I haven’t even heard of them
I agree with number 2
waaaaaaaaaay to big of a survey
We have to de-brand ourselves..
We are NOT pirates.
We should NOT let the RIAA, BPI ,IFPI ect.. Brand us as pirates.
They have said that we fund terroisism and orginised crime. They also say we “pirate”. THIS IS NOT TRUE.
We share. NOT copy and sell for profit.
Meh, if they do change they can spend as much money as they want on business models, i’ll still download for free thanks to the respect i’ve gained.
i absolutely spend more money on live music now that i don’t really pay for recorded music
After all they’ve done, I’m willing to see the majors suffer and die. I will certainly not buy any songs ir CDs anymore.
64 MILLION?!?! That’s double the population of Canada (2007 estimate).
I agree with 2, 4 and 5. 64 million people? That seems a little fishy to me…
Other studies have shown that two out of three people are liars ;)
In their eyes 1/3 of the people are criminals.
74% percent of all statistics are made up on the spot.
(There is a 74% chance that this one is made up too!)
The more you buy, the more money the industry has to then sue your ass. It’s like you’re paying for lawsuits against you.
The industry thanks you.
Indeed, buy nothing and strangle the RIAA, MPAA et al…. and create to compete. FLOSS software developers and users do just that.
I watch and listen to great stuff online by people like you and me all the time and it’s more often better than the dated industry stuff. Check out home made animations on You Tube for example, or sites like Kahvi.org or Archive.org.
“indicating that the RIAA, BPI and IFPI will seriously have to reconsider their current handling of the ‘piracy’ problem”
they should consider giving up
This stinks of old fish to me. I agree this is a rather far fetched number. I mean who’s ever heard of ‘interpret LLC’? A quick search on google gives very few clues. The only mention of the company in Wikipedia is in an article of their VP Michael Gartenberg (one of the few existing Microsoft fanboys). Further research shows that they started in 2006. For a company with very little public credentials it is very unconvincing. I have seen pinksheet companies with more credentials then interpret llc. They couldn’t of had the assets to coordinate such a large survey.
I’m very skeptical about this. Either I’ve been living under a rock or Interpret aren’t that big, because I’ve never heard of them. Who are they, and who made up the figure 64 million? There is no way that they could have surveyed that many people.
@13 Anonymous:
Actually, it’s around 114% of all statistics that are made up on the spot.
64 million people isn’t *completely* impossible if it was done over the internet, but that would mean the whole thing is biased somewhat…
The fact that piracy is so widespread only makes it that much clear the need for even more vigorous actions and legislative changes to fight copyright infringements. Before piracy becomes even more socially tolerated and the whole creative industry goes to the sewage.
Also, Interpret seems to be rather legit. They’re the second result on Google (the first being the definition of “interpret”). Their studies seem also focus mainly on technology.
To paraphrase Mark Twain:
There are lies, there are damned lies, and then there are MAFIAA piracy statistics.
I swear sometimes they just pull figures out of their ass.
well havent the riaa decided to go after isps instead of suing people?
@19 Jul 25, 2009 at 01:56 by BioShockerT81:
Please do pass all the medieval laws that you heart wants.
In the end I just won’t buy anything from you, your friends and whomever you socialize with.
ps: And I will use your own laws against you and the likes of you.
I used to spend thousands on media until 6 months ago but now because of MAFIAA tactics i will never buy their shit again!.Thats part of the reason they’re only gonna loose more and more money.Not through sharing but coz of their ass sucking attitude towards they’re best customers!!.
They know what they’re saying and doing is sooo wrong as is evidence from a article from afew days ago(Universal’s Fogelson said “even Twitter comments that seem critical can be good publicity because they show people are passionate about the movie and can spark discussion that increases attendance”.)So they know we provide free advertising too that increases attendance but they still insist that we loose them money,BULLSHIT!.
Canada at least is doing a window dressing on the whole thing.
http://copyright.econsultation.ca/
Those Canadians can tell the government what they want directly and people are doing so.
Why can’t the rest of the world do the same before passing such sensitive laws that affect every single citizen inside and outside its borders?
wait how many people download off bittorent daily approx?
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don’t know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Sara
http://pianotutorial.net
“If culture loses the copyright wars, the reason for copyright dies with it.”
Rest of enlightening piece:
– Cory Doctorow
http://www.locusmag.com/Features/2008/11/cory-doctorow-why-i-copyfight.html
let do a little math here ..
1/3 = 1 pirate
1/3 = 1 liar
2/3 = 1 riaa member is a liar .. the other is a pirate ….
i wonder .. hmmm …..
it’s even higher than that ,, my grand mother was checkin out the old tunes section ;P
I never buy through online stores, I would always buy the CD and put it on Itunes. Because with a CD you get something for your moneys worth instead of just a few files. Or if its a Band I really Like, like AC/DC
my riaa bosses were right!
1/3 of you pirate people are thieves!
sharing with your fellow man is evil!
pure evil i say, EVIL!!!!!!!!!
Why do you say ILLEGAL downloading in plenty of countries its legal
Of course downloading music should be cheaper than buying a disc. Who wouldn’t agree with that? Buying a disc you actually get something tangible… the disc, the cover art, booklet, etc… I personally would never pay to download music, I can download music for free, when I want to pay I buy a CD. I’m not going to pay for something that isn’t real.
“What struck us at TorrentFreak was that nearly half (49%) of all music pirates said that downloading music should be cheaper than buying a disc. This means that 51% are fine with the current price point of legal downloads.”
That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever read on torrentfreak ever. How does anyone draw that conclusion because they think downloading should be cheaper than buying a disc? Those two things are in no way related.
Piracy is nothing short of rampant. Internet piracy has become the dominant method of acquiring things. It has consumed people’s sense of morality and replaced it with greed.
Why do you say ILLEGAL downloading in plenty of countries its legal
Every country that was part of the Berne convention is bound to uphold copyright laws. This is over 170 countries.
hi neosuckle. sorry but its not illegal you are obviously very confused just like reasoned mind. unfair copyright is dumb and you know it.
Wait a minute #37. Your saying that people had a sense of morality and weren’t greedy? Wow. Just wow.
I CAN GET ANYTHING ONLINE, AND I NEVER PY 4 ANYTHING I GET ONLINE.
THAT’S THE CODE
I download all the cd’s i want.
I do however purchase comp. albums from labels and buy MFSL record
@21 Jul 25, 2009 at 01:58 by Widget
Your right they seem fairly legit. My point of them not being well known seems to be moot when reading this: . This looks pretty cool. But I am still a bit skeptical since it was done in such a short period of time. Oh and just because they are listed fifth on google doesn’t give them street cred. It’s the amount of relating articles that does that.
LOL
Why do pirates insist on declaring that a “new business model” is the solution? What possible business model could create profits for the copyright holder in a world where no one wants to pay for anything anymore because the internet provides them a convenient opportunity not to? Are people even thinking about the welfare of the copyright holders? Or does that not matter anymore either, now that people have an easy way of getting what they want and indulging their own entitlement with zero concept of self sacrifice?
Okay everyone stop listening to the babbling baboon. At first I thought he was cool now I am having second thoughts.
Haven’t seen a new TorrentFreak TV Episode in a while…
They should have done a segment on this article.
neodickhead,you still dont get it do you,its not immoral or greedy to share freely.
wake up and smell the horse shit your shovelling pole smoker.
First off about the 64 million surveyed. That is very easily done and cheap by using the internet as someone who downloads music off the internet would have access to the internet. Take those numbers and compare it to how many people have internet access, and you have a pretty accurate survey.
About the illegal downloads. I understand that it is very legal in many countries, however, in the US it is illegal. Unfortunately the RIAA, MPAA, etc are based in America and have been applying political pressure to the rest of the countries.
So, though it may not be illegal in your country, your country is receiving pressure to crack down on it as if it was illegal.
And yea, I know the world doesn’t revolve around the states, but in this case it does.
Interestigly enough after a Whois search, It appears Interpret is associated with “Abovenet” & “MarkMonitor Inc”
64.124.0.0 – 64.125.255.255 Abovenet MarkMonitor Inc
217.68.151.0 – 217.68.151.255 Abovenet MarkMonitor Inc
202.167.224.0 – 202.167.255.255 Abovenet MarkMonitor Inc
216.39.48.0 – 216.39.63.255 Interpretllc AltaVista Company
@46
[laugh]lol[/laugh]
Poor .neo.tard
I hate to tell you this buddy…
Thinking you’ve won the argument is like winning the Special Olympics.
You might think you’ve won, but in the end you’re still retarded.
neo.styles is a troll.
don’t feed the troll. ever.
Oh hell no, more like 2/3 are pirates.
Who told you that RIAA, BPI and IFPI want to “handle the ‘piracy’ problem” ? They’re just after the money!… even if it costs them arms and legs!
probably wasn’t the best idea to quote mark twain here. he was well known defender of extending copyright’s reach.
When I appeared before that committee of the House of Lords the chairman asked me what limit I would propose (on copyright). I said, “Perpetuity.” – mark twain
if you really believe they surveyed 64 million people, don’t stay next to the chimney, otherwise santa won’t come.
besides, such large numbers will just give them the evidence they need :
“look, 33% of 64 million people are infringers. WE NEED automated processes to punish them”. And next, all their lobbyists forcing “3 strikes”-like nonsense on people.
I CAN HAS TOTOL INTERWUBS CONTROL ? kthbai
@.neo.styles|nvDX
Piracy is nothing short of rampant. Internet piracy has become the dominant method of acquiring things. It has consumed people’s sense of morality and replaced it with greed.
On the contrary, material wealth has consumed people’s sense of morality and replaced it with greed.
“The results show that 9 percent of music pirates have bought a full album online”
What about other digital media?
I don’t buy music, but I buy yearly like 4 games on steam.
It makes me sad that most of my money go to copyright holders; not directly to developers.
But I still buy…
Boys and Girls
If a MARKET RESEARCH company asks you ANYTHING, particularly about your internet habits, DO NOT RESPOND!
There is no noble purpose in proving a PRIVATE CORPORATION with information that they can use to SQUEEZE MORE MONEY out of you, or those who are stupider than you.
The part of the internet that you care about will have the stuff that you need anyway (will, power of people + long tail phenomenon).
Giving info to market research is BAD and counterproductive.
Don’t do it.
If you must speak with market researchers, always give them FALSE information.
Why support EVIL CORPORATIONS’ attempt to MANIPULATE and rob you, by mapping the preferences of you and your friends?
This is disgusting capitalism of the Big Brother variety. In their DREAM WORLD, all this information about you would stored in a chip on your body, that they can scan or upload info from.
Perfect dumb consumer!
Don’t be one!
Btw,
The RTM Windows 7 DVD (guaranteed Micro$oft) is avaialble on D******d.
You can become a LEGIT ;-) (well almost) Win 7 user right now, with no risk of disabling etc.
It’s the real deal, so if you are interested, hurry while stock lasts!
hehe!
Hi,
Nice blog. A lot of great stuff here. Would you like to share your posts at: ArticlePinger.com?
I do have a different opinion. I do think that everyone should tell the truth about “internet piracy” so they have a very, very real sense of the size of the tsunami that is coming their way.
Intelectual Property is the evil of this world.
I have an idea, why not make a website, with all the politicians and have a history of their votes through out their career so people can see what each one of them do for real with a meter to see how much people like it or disliked his decision and this will be very visible to anyone who wants to vote.
My question is this: 49% of respondents thought that downloads should be cheaper than a retail CD, but that’s at a current price point, e.g. £12 for a (new, non-reduced-in-a-supermarket) CD single in the UK. How many thought that downloads should be more expensive than a CD, because a £9.99 album from itunes is still far in excess of what a CD album should cost?
what they meant to say is
1 in 3 people one or both of the following:
a pc, an ipod
The car industry wiped out the horse and buggy industry. Old industries died. New industries arose and adapted to the new technology, i.e., cars.
So, the internet. A new technology often causes change to the current business models (read “old technology”). But so what? Adapt to the new tech!
Hell, Boldrin and Levine have demonstrated rather convincingly that society *can* benefit without our current copyright laws!
http://www.micheleboldrin.com/research/aim/anew.all.pdf
And yes, naysayers, that without giving up your precious capitalism!
Governments are hierarchies one should be abble to map those and show it in a graphic.
If you put on the top a “theme” one should see very clearly if the government is or is not in favor of something and if you clicked on the photo of your representative there should be a list of what he did vote and not vote for where you could put “I agree” or “do not agree” and in the end it should tell you how much that person works in your interests LoL
Politicians can do a lot but we can put them out off the job if we can show the people what is going on.
Ya right we have to pay for imaterial things now, like the guys who bought the George Orwell book “1984″ and had the data deleted from their ebook readers because the publisher said so.
Yeap I will give you money so you can tell me that the time is up and I have to buy a new one, and I can’t make a physical copy, stream it to my friends, god forbide share with family and have my house bugged so people can track how I use things and start charging me for streaming music to the bathroom while I brush my teeth.
I’m going to accept all of that and do nothing about it and just donate all my salary to the entertaiment industry because they are so nice and do sooooooooooooooo much for me on a personal level yes I will do that.
@neostyles/BioShockerT1
“Internet piracy has become the dominant method of acquiring things. It has consumed people’s sense of morality and replaced it with greed.”
Sorry, but sharing is widely considered to be a moral act. And It’s impetus is hardly greed.
Try again.
By the way, I find it amusing that despite the fact that you think filesharing has become the dominant method of acquiring things(which it hasn’t, but that’s neither here nor there), you still advocate abolishing it.
Tell me, how does it feel to hate democracy?
I’m curious.
@neostyles/BioShockerT1
“Every country that was part of the Berne convention is bound to uphold copyright laws.”
ROFL.
You bring up the Berne Convention quite often, but you seem to be utterly clueless as to what it actually is.
The entire point of the Berne Convention is to grant copyright to the author of a creative work. However, authors are seldom the copyright holders of their own works as a large number of them sign away their rights to movie studios, music labels, and publishers. Attempting to hold up the Berne Convention in defense of the RIAA, MPAA, IFPI, BPI, etc. is hilarious.
Furthermore, Article 5 paragraph 3 of the Convention states that “protection in the country of origin is governed by domestic law”.
Or in otherwords, the Berne Convention doesn’t override domestic laws. If a union member deems it legal to fileshare, that’s perfectly fine.
On top of that, violating the Berne Convention is only illegal if it’s domestically legislated to be so.
So let me reiterate eliteghost’s question. Why do you say “ILLEGAL downloading” when in plenty of countries its legal?
@neostyles/BioShockerT1
“What possible business model could create profits for the copyright holder in a world where no one wants to pay for anything anymore because the internet provides them a convenient opportunity not to?”
It’s called the iTunes business model.
As far your festering pile of bullshit about a “world where no one wants to pay for anything anymore” goes, despite having it explained to you numerous times that filesharers buy more than average consumers do, you seem quite adamant at refusing to acknowledge reality.
So I’m going to make it a little tougher for you.
Less popular artists profit from filesharing(but, but, but… You always say the less popular artists suffer the MOST from it! How could this be!?!?!?):
http://torrentfreak.com/less-popular-artists-profit-from-filesharing/
Piracy boosts CD sales in Canada:
http://torrentfreak.com/piracy-boosts-cd-sales-071103/
And finally my personal favourite, study finds pirates 10 times more likely to buy music:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/apr/21/study-finds-pirates-buy-more-music
If you’re wondering what that sound is, it’s the noise of you being pwnt as the kids say. :D
@neostyles/BioShockerT1
“Are people even thinking about the welfare of the copyright holders?”
The copyright holders?
I want those useless, parasitic freeloaders to fucking choke.
Does that count as thinking about their welfare?
We have to de-brand ourselves..
[/QUOTE] We are NOT pirates.
We should NOT let the RIAA, BPI ,IFPI ect.. Brand us as pirates.
They have said that we fund terroisism and orginised crime. They also say we “pirate”. THIS IS NOT TRUE.
We share. NOT copy and sell for profit. [/QUOTE]
I’m quite happy with being called a pirate :).
Arrr!
f.u.c.k that. I’d rather download bluray and dvdrips of movies. mp3 is a waste of time. When the scene starts releasing music in a lossless format, i’ll be interested again. In the meantime, I’m sticking with my audio CDs. oh yeah, f.u.c.k apple & ipod too!!
Agree with previous poster:
Perhaps we should focus on RE-BRANDING the word “pirate”.
(As corporations and politicians do).
I.e. make a cute, funny logo that people can put on their facebook, blog, print onto a t-shirt or do whatever they want with.
I might well make one myself and see if it can be spread via this and similar sites.
If even the Chinese web censors can make people think that their logo is cute and funny, just imagine the scope for a legitimate cause such as this.
——————
[CUTE FIGURE]
slogan: proud ‘pirate’ (or something like that but better.. )
——————
on 50 million homepages…!
Even the American copyright lobby might get the message…
1/3 is a music pirate
2/3 is a copyright bastard
64 million wtf?
6000m = world pop
6000m-2600m (I bet they haven’t surveyed in China / India)=3400m
if every family has 4 members there are 850m families. No one takes one internet connection for every member of family. one connection per family.
now they claim to have surveyed 64m out of ~850m = 8% of (rest of) worlds families.
Have they got any idea of how much time it will take to make such a survey and how much money it will take to conduct such a study given that it was NOT online poll.
I’m waiting to see them say that we fumbled in our calculations and made the data higher by order of 100?
really
WOW
because that same industry that spews stats said this of Canada
2005 September 5.4 million p2p users.
2006 march 9.8 million
THATS 1 /3RD THE POPULATION OF CANADA
and if correct we are 17% of all piracy COME ON.
take world net divide by 3 and thats the pirates yo want to disconnect
at 23 billion a year isp revenue say good bye to 7-8 billion as they are the folks who more often pay for the higher speeds.
GREAT NEWS ECONOMY, world leaders are getting more stupid bye the minute
imagine the growth rate there that in a year of the 20 million net accounts , it could well be more then half of Canada is using p2p eight now!!!
so 30-40% might be a more realistic figure, now think 800 mill internet accounts.
“What struck us at TorrentFreak was that nearly half (49%) of all music pirates said that downloading music should be cheaper than buying a disc. This means that 51% are fine with the current price point of legal downloads. This is an odd finding to say the least.”
I actually took this survey, I believe. The way this particular part of the survey was worded was less than ideal. If one’s opinion was that downloading music should be free, and the wording of what followed seemed like “I think it should be cheaper but still cost money,” then people would still “Disagree” with the statement that it should be cheaper.
“What struck us at TorrentFreak was that nearly half (49%) of all music pirates said that downloading music should be cheaper than buying a disc. This means that 51% are fine with the current price point of legal downloads. This is an odd finding to say the least.”
sorry, but i’m calling BULLSHIT on this one. i agree that dling it should be cheaper than a disk, but i mean it should be cheaper than the cost of the disk – 5-15 cents per album
Actually, I have no idea what I’m saying, I just like playing the devil’s advocate! And getting you guys all riled up.
Whee, what fun!
Actually, it’s more likely you were so excited by your pathetic post that you 2 stroked her and were finished before your comment!lol
Far from 1 in 3 actually use the internet. This topic in invalid.
Is this our future?
…and 2/3 are lying
I WANNA B A PIRATE WOOOOOO
ARGGGG
@68. You just owned him. BIG time.
See this show exactly what most people think of the riaa/mpaa, they’ve lost control but just don’t realise it yet, when the governments do, game over for them.
Consumers won’t go back to them no matter what business model they come up with, they’ve been ripped off & deceived enough as it is.
First the consumers, now the artists & very soon the governments…
Sleep tight…
64 million people is not really that big of a stretch. With all the survey sites people join whether they pay or not, there is an estimated 100 million that actually do these surveys. Also, I do have to agree with a comment above. We are not Pirates, criminals, or terrorists. We share and sharing music, movies, games, etc. Is not a new thing really. Its just with the internet it has become a lot bigger. Most of the people I talk to that share music usually buy tickets for live shows, if not buy albums off Itunes or Zune or whatever. I buy games but I make sure to d/l them first and make sure they work on my computer. Because believe it or not the minimum system requirements does not mean its going to work. I would rather not waste my money. I listen to bands I never heard of from several of my friends (seeders mainly dont get out much.) and have purchased tickets to concerts or a few songs I have liked. Because I understand these people need to eat as well. But its not the artists that loose money from copyright material sharing. Its the record label. Even if the artist wrote and produced the music it is not that artists property. This is what pisses the artists off more than anything. The artists make all of their money off concerts and live shows. Unless they own their own record company. Really it equates to about ten to sixteen cents per album. one to five cents per time played on the radio, and downloaded legally. A small percent goes to zune, ITunes or whatever. The rest goes into the record labels pockets. They do no work at all yet still scoop up the money. Artists make money from live shows. I support the artists not the greed of the record labels. Besides with the internet how it is a band would be more successful using album authoring software and just putting an album on a torrent search engine. I.E. thepiratebay, isohunt, torrentreactor, etc. With that torrent have a read me that has a url on it that tells showtimes, dates, and location. That is what the record companies are truly afraid of happening. If you like the artist buy tickets to their performances don’t buy their songs. The entertainer makes more money through the best marketing tool; which, is word of mouth. Its funny that we are sharing much like the Liberal movement of the late 60’s early 70’s did. During those times they were called Hippies, Liberal Dissenters, Domestic Terrorists. Believe it or not that movement changed the US and the world. Our actions will change the internet and the world, good or bad we will not know in the near future. Powah to teh people.
Interesting how some people claim that the pirates buy more copyrighted products than the average customer.
I know that I wouldn’t buy something that I could alternatively download for free (even if it would be considered illegal) as I already have to pay for my internet connection. If I would buy a physical product (like a CD or a DVD) it would only mean that I needed to create a rip out of it.
I still don’t think it is realized, at least not widely enough, where things were before p2p file sharing really evolved into it’s current torrent-based form. This is not new. It has only just begun to approach critical mass…
I am now at the point where I have been actively boycotting the companies behind the RIAA and MPAA for two years now rather than just being a file sharer and occasional customer where I can afford to be. I may not have been a huge spender in the past by any means, but now I intend to spend nothing, with or without torrents or p2p. If I can still enjoy their media offerings without supporting them directly… I will. I will spread the word far and wide. I have already helped enlighten many of their customers, customers who once spent small fortunes on cassette tape collections, only to be relegated to buying them all again on CDs at horribly inflated, 9001% profit margins.
This is one of the many crucial flaws in the “P2P has ruined our sales” argument. At the same time p2p networks, and later torrent sites, were made known publicly(by them, the geniuses), their response was aggressively launching a massive campaign of lawsuits against people who do not sell anything, nor profit from sharing. They have hired shady investigators to gather evidence against sharers, with no regard to the targets’ privacy or even the laws which regulate such investigations. Many people who don’t even own computers or internet connections of any kind have become targets of this lunacy.
They are just too arrogant to realize that they have caused the lion’s share of their decreased sales, and indeed much deserved hatred, more than any amount of file sharing or even genuine piracy ever could have. A quick google of “RIAA MPAA boycott” proves I am not alone in my decision.
Fucking around with our tubes will only make their nightmare last that much longer and make that many more people aware of file sharing and the AAs’ overzealous intent to redefine the shape of the internet, and most certainly the world, in their never-ending search for profits by any means necessary. Their well-documented litigious attacks speak volumes of the extent to which they are willing to disrupt and potentially ruin lives to turn a buck and/or make examples of people they deem a threat to profits.
I suppose the American auto industry is in shambles because of piracy too… Right. Welcome to the beginning of the Second Great Depression, so glad you could join us. Now is the time for people to either economize or face starvation, and the vast majority of lower-to-middle income people giving the very few rich people the little bit of money they do have is simply not economical right now. It may never be again. It’s now time to figure out another stream to milk the revenue from or perish as so many of us wish they would.
I believe that this type of sharing has gone on in one form or another as long as there has been modern media to share and it will likely continue for at least 100 years until the time comes when we all evolve into mushrooms and none of this stupid bullshit is found to be amusing anymore.
Sharing is caring, Me Hearties…
“pirate” is an RIAA term — we don’t sell the music we share.
i’m surprised more people didn’t honestly admit to “downloading just one song” i’d be more surprised if everyone answered honestly — 99.9% of people should have said yes.
if anyone is a thief or malicious it’s the RIAA
Interesting stuff. I feel I must say something however:
I’m a big fan of torrentfreak in general, but I find it a tad irksome how you repeatedly try to imply that the vast majority of pirates would be very happy to hand their money over if only the business model was better, and it were thus simpler for us to do. You focus on this point, and rarely ever make even a cursory mention of the fact that a huge number of us aren’t really interested in paying for music when we can get it for free. I know it won’t help our image or cause to admit this fact, but it is true, and should thus be represented. I’m sure people can get what I’m saying, even if they don’t wholly agree with me (I can see some arguing, validly, that there’s no ‘constructive’ way to talk about it, and that it’s an overly complicated ethical question to be examined on a news blog).
Christ, I’m a miserable b**tard.
downloading countless gigabytes of songs while paying the artists nothing for their time and talent is most assuredly greedy. treating yourself to an all you can take buffet of entertainment while giving nothing back is most assuredly greedy.
i smell irony brewing…
…and there it is, your big wet ironic fart. first of all, very few authors of literature sign away their copyright. second of all, berne makes no distinction between original rights holders and acquisitional rights holders so just what you’re ROFL’ing about is anyone’s guess. artists, like anyone else, try to act in their own best interest so when they sign away their copyrights we can safely assume this is a calculated move that they think will benefit them. you may think you know better but that’s no less ridiculous than arm chair quarterbacking: you don’t.
this doesn’t mean a berne signatory country can just ignore copyright. it simply means they can use their own legislative wording and infrastructure to accomplish the same goal as everyone else: protect rights holders.
in article 9, paragraph 1 it states “(1) Authors of literary and artistic works protected by this Convention shall have the exclusive right of authorizing the reproduction of these works, in any manner or form.”
wrong. where are you getting this information?
the berne convention can override domestic laws if the domestic laws are found to fail the three step test at which point the signatory country in question would either have to change their laws or be removed from numerous treaties.
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