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Sony, I download your music

Fred Oliveira on November 10, 2005 Comments (113)

Sony And the funny thing is you still wonder why. Here’s the lowdown:

  • I download your music because you manipulate your prices and people still can’t afford your overpriced CDs and DVDs.
  • I download your music because I prefer to pay the artists by going to their concerts (they get far better shares that way).
  • I download your music because it’s easier.
  • I download your music because I’m not forced into your EULAs.
  • I download your music because I don’t respect companies that don’t respect their customers.
  • I download your music because even though I run Mac and Linux boxes, I don’t want to give money to a company that installs windows rootkits on other people’s PCs.
  • I download your music because your music business model is wrong.
  • I download your music because you don’t listen to the buyer.
  • I download your music because I don’t want to go through 2 forms and a crap page to uninstall the spyware you install on my PC
  • Truth is, I don’t download all your music because it’s not really that good most of the times.

Do you want to know the ironic bits? I produce music, I used to run a small label and I buy everything I really like from an artist – in fact, most my money is spent on things that are related to music (even if for you and the sake of this post I’m “just a computer addict” and “a blogger”). But I won’t buy more of your music because I just don’t like you. You won’t see more “music” money from me, and I will risk saying: ever.

Post-digg Update:

Apparently someone submitted this story to Digg and it’s been on the top of the homepage for a while, which explains the slow response times – let’s hope the host handles it. Now, some people have been commenting and emailing about whether it’s wrong to “steal music” or not. Yes, it is wrong to steal music. This is not about how right or wrong it is to download.

This is about the disrespect that a company like Sony shows for its consumers, by disregarding their privacy, installing spyware on their machines and imposing EULAs that say that, for example, should you go bankrupt, all your rights over your music are lost. This isn’t really the kind of people or policy I want to have releasing albums from my favorite artists.

Luckily, my favorite artists belong to Indie labels.

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Comments on this post

Michael Arrington

Fred, You taught me the “try before you buy” method of sampling music. Great post.

Tom Tostanoski.com » Blog Archive » WeBreakStuff » Sony, I download your music

[...] WeBreakStuff » Sony, I download your music [...]

PELF

nice, i’m with you guys ;) http://deubode.blogspot.com/ maybe it becomes a trend…

Garri

Fred, I run a small label too. Which label did you used to run? Just curious.

Martin

great post, I don´t agree with all that has been said but with most ;)

My article on the subject, How to live without the Music Industry: http://www.ghacks.net/2005/11/10/how-to-live-without-the-music-industry/

Michael Herman

We are a society built on laws. Breaking those laws because we don’t like them is not a valid reason to do so. If you don’t like the restriction imposed by the record companies then don’t purchase their products and the marketplace will force the change. Stealing will only make the record companies harden their resolve to control the content and will drive initiatives such as the broadcast flag where the media companies not only control the media but also can control the devices on which you use it.

Anonymouse

The U$ goverment/congress have become a sh|t of the people, by the people, for the people who own big money. That’s why Mark may already violate DMCA just to discover all these. Talking about laws.

nick

i hate you sony, i really do.

Tristan

Anytime I go to a concert and I have the extra money, I just give one of the members of the band the cost of the cd that they’re selling at the show. Since I like obscure music, it’s always really easy to talk to the bands. And every single band I’ve done this with has been fine when I told them I downloaded their cd.

Oli Young

Great minds etc :D
http://oliyoung.com/archives/2005/11/08/my-letter-to-sonybmg-australia/568/

ackbar

They will make everyone lawbreakers , even when ripping their own CD’s .
and when everone is breaking the law , NO ONE will care about the law anymore , because it will be irrelevant

thomasv1

Totally agree.

Dugg.

digg user

digg+!

LameZone

Sony, I download your music…

Great post, and I do mean great post from Frederico Oliveira. It pretty much sums up how most of us feel about Sony’s DRM rootkit.

I’m not advocating theft, but a message needs to be sent to these clowns.

…

red

digg+

Skull Stomper

We are a society built on money. Breaking laws that treat you unfairly is called civil disobedience and there are many valid reasons to do so. If you don’t like the restriction imposed by the record companies then don’t purchase their products and the marketplace will force the change. Stealing is not possible in the absence of scarcity. Refusing to empower a company by withholding your money will make the record companies less able to purchase laws. Buying hardware without DRM will force companies like apple to join in the argument and make content more qualitative and readily available.

Don’t believe the hype – PE

Mark

“I download your music because even though I run Mac and Linux boxes, I don’t want to give money to a company that installs windows rootkits on other people’s PCs.”

The SONY EULA/DRM thing installs crap on OS X as well, so ya’ll Mac users aren’t even safe either.

Big thumbs up – I totally agree with this. Sony will not get my custom.

Bob

Yeah, don’t give Sony money

http://www.givebobadollar.com

Tony

Cool post!

+digg!!!

thanks albertpacino, your with no doubt the king of digg!

Jason Ross

I find it very interesting that the posts (thus far) have all assumed that “I download your music” meant “from an illegal source” and not from one of the legal music download sites (iTunes, Rhapsody, heck, even Wal Mart for that matter.)

Seems to me that as long as we (presumably net savvy folks) keep equating “downloading music” to “breaking the law” it’s a bit hypocritical to expect our government officals and legal systems to be able to tell the difference between the two.

Strom Thurmond

“it’s a bit hypocritical to expect our government officals and legal systems to be able to tell the difference between the two.”

No it isn’t. We’re now following THEIR example, plain and simple. The crookedness of the present system is manifest in all aspects of that system and to expect all of us “little people” to continue to be good little boys and girls while the upper strata continue in their ways of graft, corruption, and wanton disregard of the most elementary concepts honesty and decency is to expect too much. These fucks have made their own bed and shall now lie upon it even as it begins burn.

Chris Moore

AMEN!!! They just don’t realize that they are spending more in litigation costs and developement of copy protection technologies than they are losing by people just downloading their music. If they want to compete how about competing with PRICE??? The record companies are just mad because we won’t pay whatever they ask of us.

Mark Munz

THE LEGAL PATH IS NOT ALWAYS THE RIGHT PATH.

Our Congressmen, Senators, and probably many judges are in the pockets of big, multinational businesses like Sony and Disney.

We, the constituents, have become nothing more than a source of revenue. Monetary slaves to companies that do not wish to actually participate in this society, but rather simply take what it can.

Fair Use dictates that I have the RIGHT to copy works for my own use. Sony and Disney (and TimeWarner, etc) wish to take that right away. They wish to control how, when, and at what price I can listen to music that IS ALREADY PURCHASED. And music is only the beginning. DVDs are a close second and Television, along with Radio, are being targeted by these companies to insure that they can decide how long we can keep our (paid) content.

We already pay an extra tax for EVERY BLANK CD (and I believe blank DVD) sold to cover the “unauthorized” copying of copyrighted content, whether you use that CD for music or not. And, finally, the ability to copy the music is the reason we are unable to return CDs. How many more ways will we allow Sony and others to dictate how we take in our content.

Sony has no regard for the law. It seems pretty clear that they broke several laws in the process, I’m glad their being sued and I hope they get lose big. I also hope they face criminal charges for some of their actions.

The Community At Large » This guy downloads Sony’s music

[...] Full blog post. Previously. [...]

Haider

dugg

I totally agree, Sony did what no other respected company will do, they owe it to themself.

Nice post Fred, yet another cool digg from Albertpacino

Jeff Jefferson

Untill corporations and thier charters are revoked, they will run roughshod over the rights of humans.

It’s time to revoke all corporate charters and return goverance to people, not souless corporations.

dragoonz

awesome

+digg

Jtrade’s Blog » Blog Archive » Sony tracking music users play on their PC’s????

[...] Sony I download your music. (Why download Sony’s music?? Some good points.) [...]

Joseoh Haddon

“We are a society built on laws. Breaking those laws because we don’t like them is not a valid reason to do so.”

We are a society built on breaking the rules, and fighting tyranny. To me, this is tyranny (in the “extreme harshness or severity” sense.) It is not only our right to disregard this “law”, it is our duty.

Laws are only words written on paper, words that change on society’s whim and are interpreted differently daily by politicians, lawyers, judges, and policemen. Anyone who believes that all laws should always be obeyed would have made a fine slave catcher. Anyone who believes that all laws are applied equally, despite race, religion, or economic status, is a fool. ~John J. Miller, And Hope to Die

We cannot, by total reliance on law, escape the duty to judge right and wrong…. There are good laws and there are occasionally bad laws, and it conforms to the highest traditions of a free society to offer resistance to bad laws, and to disobey them. ~Alexander Bickel

Every actual state is corrupt. Good men must not obey laws too well. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

sconad

yeah, we DO break laws we don’t like… laws that treat us unfairly. ever heard of anyone named Rosa Parks? Martin Luther King, Jr?

Jared

I wish all bands just sold there music on there personal website.

Inside Stretch

[...] Sony has screwed themselves over with their Rootkit game. Most people hate the RIAA, and now more than ever are starting to fight back. Sony, I download your music. And the funny thing is you still wonder why. Here’s the lowdown: [...]

thewebguy

dear everyone,

if you want to really support your favorite artists, go to their show and buy one of their shirts. bands make more money on the sale of a shirt or other non-music merch than anything else.

medium sized but non mainstream bands might not make more money from your concert ticket, they will make a guaranteed ammount. smaller bands that are not headlining will surely not see more money from your ticket.

GraphicArtist2k5

Well, all I gotta say is, I read online that Switchfoot, whose new album Nothing Is Sound said themselves that they don’t care if people download their music off the internet, and I know of a few other musical artists that feel that way too, so this is CLEARLY Sony’s bullshit response to people not buying their crappy ass music. For the record, I saw a short list of artists whom Sony put their DRM crap onto their CDs, and Switchfoot’s CD is the ONLY one I would want to actually own. The rest of them looked pointless to me, not saying that they’re not talented as well, but I prefer to listen to the music I listen to because that’s what I like to listen to. Besides, NOTHING beats oldies, especially not most of the shit that all these record labels are pumping out in mass quantities. I used to like Sony, because I liked how they always came up with stuff that was designed really well, but nowadays, I’m not that interested in them anymore. I think the reason why Sony has the attitude about its consumers “not having to worry about their small DRM program” is because they assume that consumers are all stupid ass idiots that don’t have a clue what anything is. They think that all they gotta do is put out a bunch of crap that looks all shiny on the outside, and consumers will FLOCK to their products like a bunch of drooling twelve year olds on Christmas eve, all the while those same shiny products have their DRM crap all over them, and we, the consumers, are just gonna overlook it, and say to one another, “It’s OK, Sony made this stereo system, so it’s gotta be the best one made.” If that were only true.

Rob v3

Dugg- Who makes the laws? Who breaks the laws? US. Anyway, give it a few months and Google will no doubt offer some resolution to the music distribution issues… Google Music anyone? ;)

Richard

Oh the Irony! Do you know why Hollywood studios are based on the west coast? Originally Hollywood was formed on the west coast to escape copyright laws, and harsh jurisdictions imposed on by the east coast when the country was forming.

The true irony is that all these studios have been profiting from ripping off public domain for years, and now they have the gaul to want to climb to the top and then “pull up the ladder” so to speak.

What a load of bullocks!

-Richard

Coolhands

The DMCA was written more or less at the birth of the digital age. It was written without full comprehension of what was to come and is there for full of vague holes that allow those with the greater financial resources to take advantage of situation. In my opinion the DMCA needs to be thrown out and re-written by people who understand how the technology works and not by 60 year men who don’t even know how to use a mouse. If I have bought a DVD, CD, or any other type of media I have the right to make as many copies as I want for personal use and any company that infringes on that is breaking the law as it stands in the DMCA.

Mia

The thing is, all these chains the RIAA and MPAA put on us, all it does is stop the average Joe. It does NOTHING to stop tech-savvy “hackers” or even just the average teenager. All these **AA chains, they make it illegal to put a dvd on your laptop to save battery life during playback, to make a backup of a dvd your kid is about to ruin, but it does NOTHING to stop the dishonest people. So who gets punished? The honest customers who just want ‘fair use’ rights to do reasonable things with the product, making the average Joe into a criminal, creating an entire society of law-breakers. P*sses me off. (copy/pasted from my digg.com comment)

Googler

Sony, the new Microsoft?

King Hoe

Your are so cool let me tell you. Part of the Leet fleet.

Grablife1965

“We are a society built on money. Breaking laws that treat you unfairly is called civil disobedience and there are many valid reasons to do so.”

That is against a government NOT a private business entity.

You can try and justify stealing as much as you want…but it is stealing. I think that the price of Jaguars is high and that the people who make them do not get paid fairly, but I don’t steal them because of it. Just because downloaded music is not ‘tactile’ does not make it a product that should not be paid for.

If you don’t like what Sony or any other record company is doing don’t but their product but there is no justification for stealing it. It may make you feel better about your crime but that is all it does.

Sony or any commercial company is not a social welfare plan if they don’t meet the market needs then they will perish. Music is not a civil right and not a staple. The thought that you are doing a noble thing for the artists by stealing their music is a joke, they are more than equipped to take care of that themselves in contract negotiations.

So really you and others both have a problem with reality and really believe what you say or you try and use the factors listed and more to make you feel better. “We are crusaders for what is right!”

You should admit the real reason that you do it, it is easy, has fewer words and is not bullshit…try one or all of these:

“I download music because I am too poor to pay for it” or “I don’t want to pay for it” or “because I can”

One or all of the three are the truth, they don’t justify the stealing but at least they don’t imply false activism and ritcheousness.

P.S. I have downloaded music like you have, not much but one is still wrong. I did it because 1. I could and 2. I didn’t want to pay for it.

the alchemist

Yeah, slavery, cocaine and heroin were legal once too. When laws don’t make sense, we change them accordingly. Fair use is going to shit in this country and all DRM does is make criminals out of honest people. Hackers who regularly download music were never going to purchase it to begin with. But when an honest person encounters DRM that prevents them from putting their SONY CD on their music player, they soon discover the world of free music downloads, bittorrent, and other sharing networks. Ironic, huh?

The truth is, no one can eliminate media piracy. But media companies can make it less appealing to the casual downloader by adjusting prices downward to something fair and affordable, and making all their music easily purchased online, and of good quality. One day the asswipes may actually “get it.”

Until then, buy your music from half.com or some other site that has a good selection of used CD’s. That’s what I do. RIAA member companies don’t get a dime of my money.

TheRuss

Aman

Drorel

“yeah, we DO break laws we don’t like… laws that treat us unfairly. ever heard of anyone named Rosa Parks? Martin Luther King, Jr?”
Sconad
Did you just compare the fight for equality of blacks with stealing music? Unbelievable!

Illegally downloading music isn’t the way to make changes. All you are going to do is convince the record companies AND Congress that things like this really are needed. The RIAA and the MPAA can point to posts like this and say that everything they’ve said all along are true.

If you want to affect change, head over to eff.org, organize a boycott, do SOMETHING constructive.

Lawsy

In response to the comment that sony are the new microsoft, I disagree in many ways. I will not state them all, but one glaring one is Microsoft wouldn’t install spyware on the users PC, fair enough they install updates, but you can decline to recive them.

Great article by the way, lets all boycot Sony!

Jak

Dugg!

mike

I am totally agreeing with you. No way should sony be able to install a rootkit that would allow others to secretly install and run malicious software as well as burning up my precious processor power WITHOUT my consent!

russel

don’t confuse SCEA with Sony BMG. punish the child who did it, not all the siblings.

LukeW

I download your music because your spyware has opened a door for virus writers to infect my computer:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051111/ap_on_hi_te/sony_copy_protection

” A controversial copy-protection program that automatically installs when some Sony BMG audio CDs are played on personal computers is now being exploited by malicious software that takes advantage of the antipiracy technology’s ability to hide files.”

Mark

This is so true

bret

I also don’t like the policies Sony is practicing.
I also don’t like those who steal music ostensibly to ‘get back’ at Sony.
Just don’t buy their products. How hard is that? If your favotie artist is on the label, you need to stand up for what you believe in and NOT buy the product. If it isn’t yours, you have no right to it.

d3

Lawsy, you are way too trusting.

http://slashdot.org/articles/02/06/29/1254230.shtml?tid=109

Anonymous

“Apparently someone submitted this story to Digg”

It wasn’t just someone, it’s Albertpacino! He submits most of the Digg stories.

Fezzik

“…You can try and justify stealing as much as you want…but it is stealing. I think that the price of Jaguars is high and that the people who make them do not get paid fairly, but I don’t steal them because of it…”

Absolutly wonderful post. Thank you.

Jakman

So if I think the business practices of BestBuy are wrong, that means I can just go in and loot the place?

I hate people that try to justify why they steal from others.

Fred

Jakman, I think you should re-read the post. This is not about stealing. It’s about Sony ignoring your rights, screwing with your personal computers and generally fucking with you with their end user license agreements.

mikeschramm.com

[...] download your music permalink daily archives info This entry is called WeBreakStuff » Sony, I download your music, and is part of mikeschramm.com, a collection of writings and errata by Mike Schramm. The previousentry is New West Network | Can Somebody Call a Wildlife Biologist AND an Electrician?, and the next entry is . pinged! If any other sites have linked to this entry, they’ll be listed here. Probably. I think it’s broken right now. schrammiest That’s what we call our most popular writings, according to links and views. [...]

Joshy

Sony, the empire you seek will die at the hands of our rebelli0n!

Thomas Chai

Hey, let’s not forget EMI too. They are the first one to use “Copy Protected” bullshit first. And no matter how much I like Coldplay, I refuse d to buy it.

miscblogger

i do not agree with illegally downloading music. even though sony commits so many “atrocities” and with the reasons outlined above. it is still not right to steal. thats just like saying, since a dealership is charging enormous prices and giving customers bad treatment it is alright to steal from him. it doesn’t make sense how people can rationalize stealing music!

dave

here’s an idea: don’t listen to music on sony labels. most of it sucks anyway.

easy breezy. no moral dilemmas here.

(it’s true: as much as i dislike sony and the majors in general, your argument for why you steal from them doesn’t hold up. it’s a slippery slope…)

Robert

I agree with the article. Very nice read. digg+ also.

Sony, I download your music.

Rob v3

Stealing a Jag vs stealing music… hmmm… right. How about REPRODUCING a Jag vs REPRODUCING music??

Ever hear of the IBM PC Compatible? You think IBM gave up their original BIOS code? Not a chance, so third parties stepped in and reproduced the BIOS without IBMs support.

If you are using a x86 box, odds are you have the “theft” or rather the “copying” of intellectual work to thank. (Granted it was a white-room approach to the ‘reproduction’ of a compatible BIOS, the concept is the same …and if you want to get technical, the original BIOS and the copied BIOS were different in how they went about doing the same things, but technically my MP3 reproduces the same audio as the CD in a different way too).

Sorry about my bad English, I’m tired ;)

sony, i download your music at jimboy-dot-net

[...] sony, i download your music. i have to agree with the points he makes. [...]

Thomas

So let me get this straight, if I don’t like a companies business practices I can just steal from them?

Chris Mugur

“Apparently someone submitted this story to Digg”
That someone is called albertpacino, the #1 digger in the world, the digg king, the digg god, the greatest digger thats some of his nicks diggers have gave him, you couldnt get a better combination albertpacino+sony,i download your music, the guy is a legend and his name on your post makes it immortal…check his profile http://digg.com/users/Albertpacino

i wonder what digg would have been without him..

+digg

lilbunnyfoofoo

“…You can try and justify stealing as much as you want…but it is stealing. I think that the price of Jaguars is high and that the people who make them do not get paid fairly, but I don’t steal them because of it…”

I am amazed at the massive number of citizens who fail to understand the concept “steal”. When you walk into a store and steal something, the store loses inventory, it loses the money invested in the product and the opportunity to sell the product to a consumer. The stolen item is gone, the store no longer has it, the item cannot be sold. Understand? An item once in possession by one entity is now in possession of another. This is stealing.

Downloaded music is a COPY of a digital music file, usually at a lower quality than the CD version, sans physical packaging, liner notes etc. The ‘original’ CD produced by the company still exists, in stores, in warehouses, it is not gone, it still may be sold. Please note that devices and networks used to copy music files are funded by the individuals who are using them, thus benefitting the economy. Also note that the tools used by the ‘pirates’ to copy music are designed, marketed and sold by the same companies who are claiming damages.

In the 80s, I and probably millions of other people made tape recordings of records, later of CDs, and copies of those tapes. We traded them back and forth ad nauseum. I do not recall such activity leading to the end of the recording industry, or laws, or America.

Sony, the RIAA and so forth spend money to lobby our government to create laws that directly contradict earlier precedents so that they may fine and INCARCERATE so-called thieves. The laws apply not just to profiteering bootleggers, but to anyone who has ever downloaded or duplicated anything the corporations deem protected. The most recent proposed laws (plugging the ‘analog hole’) would possibly make even the aforementioned cassette duplicates retroactively illegal.

In the future it will be possible, through various at-home fabrication technologies, to duplicate books, music, art and yes, objects. Don’t laugh, it is true. If I were to see a lamp you created while I was visiting your home and then used digital technology to duplicate it, have I ’stolen’ from you?

Learn what it means to steal. Understand that laws are being created that could be used to ARBITRARILY punish American citizens at the whim of corporations. Wake up.

Kenton Good » Sony Rootkit Fallout

[...] We Break Stuff has the post Sony, I Download Your Music where he presents 10 reasons why he downloads Sony music [...]

Drorel

Theft is not solely something physical. The taking of intellectual property is also theft. Just because there is still a CD in a warehouse some where, doesn’t mean that the owner of the copyright hasn’t deprived compensation. Copyright laws, first composed long before this debate, give the EXCLSUIVE right of copy to the owner of the copyright. If they choose to give that right away, letting othter people copy their material, that’s their right. Fair use does massage the copyright laws a little, allowing us to change mediums and whatnot.

These laws were first enacted to protect “the little guy.” It’s truly a shame that organizations like the RIAA/MPAA are screwing the content producers.

Sony, I download your music - Brokekid.net

[...] (via webreakstuff.com) [...]

Mind Booster Noori

On related news, it seems that Sony is retreating… for now.

Beeba

Actually, I don’t even download Sony music, because most of it is fairly crappy, but I applaud the gesture anyhow.

demonstrative

Sony, I download your music

I don’t download music, simply because there are so many other people who do, I just get whatever I need off them, and at the moment were having a little musical drought anyway. However, I have no problem whatsoever with downloading music, in fact I t…

Jizzbit

Valid point on not wanting to buy Sony Products. But what if the Playstation3 comes with some sort of spying software that logs your activity and sent to a database while you’re connected to the net? There are many people anticipating this console more so than the Xbox 360. Just remember kids, “Sony is Sony.”

Electron

I don’t download… However it is good example of what is going to happen soon.

I advise all people to “ungeek” and take a distance from technology. Big corps are going take the power by controlling technology. Don’t buy new devices unless it’s vital. Refuse all tracking technology. Keep undentified….
Refuse any argument based on fear and security only, it has laways been the ground for war, destruction and fascism. And no patent on life (no DRM on ADN) !

Cheers. ;=)

NiKo

Culture should be free

Mark

Very good points i totally agree with you just like many many others out there. i hope sony is reading this and learn their lesson!

lol Frederico that “someone” is albertpacino he is diggs top man look here http://digg.com/users/AlbertPacino/profile him submitting the story means alot for diggers he is a cool dude that never sleeps

x_Silver, the BLOG » Archivio Blog » Sony, Yo descargo su música

[...] ORIGINAL: Sony, I download your music VIA: Sony, Yo descargo su música [...]

TechCrunch » Companies I’d like to Profile (but don’t exist)

[...] Limited edition cds and dvds. Concerts. Tshirts. Whatever. Face reality and do it sooner rather than later. [...]

Nathan Gillett » Sony, I Download Your Music

[...] And the funny thing is you still wonder why. read more [...]

llib.org

No More Sony

I’ve been planning on getting a new TV this year… my current Wega from Sony has served me well but…

Eric

Talk about theft all you like, this is the new distribution system. I have 2 options for getting Sony’s music:

1. Get my ass up, go down to a store. Spend $20 of my money on a physical product that I’m pretty much going to discard once it’s on my computer, because between my computer, my iPod, and my home network, I sure as hell don’t need a hunk of plastic sitting around. Spend 5 hours of my time figuring out what the hell Sony installed on my computer and why, and how to remove it. Spend another 3 hours reinstalling windows because removing said rootkit gimps windows. Spend another 3 hours figuring out why the hell I can’t get this music onto my iPod or anywhere else where it’s of any use to me. Get pissed at Sony, and then get pissed at the artist, because after all this, there’s 3 tracks out of 18 that were worth listening to on the whole goddamn CD.

2. Go download the album. Copy it to my iPod, listen to it on the way to work, enjoy. Even if it’s not 100% great, still be happy with my acquisition.

If you can figure out a good way for me to pay for #2, while keeping in mind that #2 eliminates 95% of the conventional overhead of the recording industry (Here’s a hint – Even $10 is too much for a copy of a CD that cost the company producing it absolutely zero in material, production, and distribution), and not crippling my computer in the process, I’ll pay for it.

The conventional recording industry is Dead.

Kaput.

Napster put the nail in that coffin, and it is no more. The record labels need to realize this – there’s not been a single successful DRM system that was not cracked within 3 days of release, nor a major album release that was not available online within 2 hours of release. Quite simply, there is not a way to prevent online file trading – if one person can figure out how to get it online, it’ll be there, and as long as it is still as phenomenally much easier and more convenient to download the music illegally than to wade through the bullsh*t Sony et al has decided we need to to do with our purchased music as we want, file sharing is going to continue to be the most popular way to get music.

It’s not about legality or theft, it’s about ease, convenience, and not paying a company to f*ck me.

Sony, I download your music -- HiFi Blog

[...] Sony, I download your music. [...]

alexbear

LOL! You download their music because you can, same as everyone else, same as me.

If Sony addressed every complaint you just listed, you would still download their music illegally because it’s free and easy and there’s no reason not to.

Your claims of noble protest are laughable.

Jeremy

How many of you own Playstations or are awating the Ps3?

Boycott both Sony and Microsoft, get a Nintendo Revolution. And for sure boycott Wal-mart!

It’s hard at first, but after a while it just becomes second nature.
Jeremy

kayla

I never use your website and I want to try it bcuz i don’t want to pay all that money for one download

unBlock theBlog » Trillion Dollar Matrix

[...] Limited edition cds and dvds. Concerts. Tshirts. Whatever. Face reality and do it sooner rather than later. [...]

Customer Centered Businesses » R-E-S-P-E-C-T…

[...] Volkher Hofmann is boycotting Sony BMG, Blue Note, and EMI. Why? Because he is sick and tired of paying to be disrespected by those labels and their intrusive Digital Rights Management (DRM) schemes. And he’s not alone. The audiophiles and film buffs who spend the most on music and movies are the ones who are most insulted and turned off by DRM. [...]

Kevin Hall

Eric: You’re right that the overhead for online distribution is reduced but it still costs a fair amount in storage and bandwidth to store and distribute music and more money for TV and movies. You assertion that it costs nothing to distribute online is just not correct.

On the other hand, it is still way cheaper than pressing, shipping, and selling CDs or DVDs so a price cut from the physicial media is certainly in order. $5-10 per album should cover distribution with plenty left over for the artist and label.

It’s not about legality or theft, it’s about ease, convenience, and not paying a company to f*ck me.

Here you are correct. In the end the labels need to learn to repsect and work with consumers rather than against them.

Hamish MacPhunk

Sony – get it right up ye.

Allison

If downloading music is stealing then we are all guilty. We are guilty for those tapes we recorded off the radio back when we were 10 and 11. We are all guilty for letting our friends borrow our CD’s to listen to them. Shoot, for those of us who used to write down the words to the songs so we would REALLY know them, well I guess we are not only guilty for stealing but also plagiarism. People are still going to buy the CD’s, the rich are still going to get their money-they make it from commercials and concerts. What is the big deal about downloading music? People grow up-our friggin lawmakers use our tax money to go play golf and nobody raises hell about that?

Ganduri si idei » Sony, I download your music

[...] link [...]

h

It’s not stealing it’s copyright infringement.

kellybluebook

good site!

christmas

Creative christmas!

M473( 2007 (|_337) » Blog Archive » Sony, I download your music.

[...] Di seguito, la traduzione di una lettera aperta apparsa su Webrakestuff. “Cara Sony, io scarico la vostra musica. E la cosa più divertente è che voi ancora vi chiedete perché. [...]

Ryan Swaby

How can anyone justify stealing music off of the internet. Before we get into the excuses lets look at ethics. All you have to do is ask yourself the simple question. Is stealing wrong? If you answered no to this question then quit arguing and continue stealing music from the internet. Please don’t waste any educated persons time with excuses or justifications for this action. If you answered yes then how in the hell can you justify stealing music off of the internet. Lets first define stealing “to take (the property of another or others) without permission or right, esp. secretly or by force” (dictionary.com). Now that we have defined ’stealing’ is it not obvious that illegal music downloading fits this description? I won’t waste my time or yours going through all the supposed ‘excuses’ for STEALING music but here are a few laughable attempts. I can’t afford it. Ok there are lots of things we can’t afford in this world but that doesn’t justify us taking what we want. Some people think since they can’t get caught it is not wrong. Stealing is stealing period. Wrong is wrong period. Why are you trying to justify your actions? If you feel what you are doing is wrong you are correct. If you are gonna steal music then stop trying to justify your action. If you want to be a thief then go ahead. When you get caught accept responsibility for your action because I know and you know you were wrong.

lone wolf

To skull stomper: you say we shouldnt break laws just because we dont like them. but let me ask you this. who the hell gave anybody the rights to create laws that effect me without consulting me? if i want to listen to something or transfer something or keep a song at work. im going to because i want to and nobody is going to stand there and tell me different. and if sony had a gun to my head and told me not to do it. id take the gun from sony. point it at thier head and say “make me”. pulling the trigger thereafter of course. The point is these coorporate companies are doing thier damnest to make the most money the largest profit margin possible and are trying to monopolise everything they can get thier hands on. and now since technology is on the consumer side they decide to start putting restrictions and laws. BLOW ME SONY. BLOW ME ANY COMPANY THAT THINK THEY CAN DICTATE WHAT I CAN AND CANNOT DO IN MY LIFE. ILL RIP, BURN, DOWNLOAD, BORROW, AND TRANSFER WHATEVER I WISH WHENEVER I WANT. I havnt bought a cd in years and im not going to start now. conglomerate coorporations can burn to the ground. and here is a message to them. do something productive other then milk the public and destroy our environment. try securing our future as a race and invest all the money you milk of us into something usefull instead of time and money wasted in writing those laws. and to all those that read this… thank you for your time and your interest.

Jim

I work at a supermarket. Every weekend I get people who rationalize why they steal. The bottom line is the “me generation” thinks that if they want it, it’s there right to have it. How do you teach children not to steal when you’ve got a house full of ill gotten booty. Last year my store lost a quarter of a million dollars in theft and we all have to pay for it, higher prices and lower wages. Downloading songs is just a symptom of a much larger problem. It’s not your right to take a bottle of whiskey or make-up from our store. It’s not your right to take music that doesn’t belong to you. Record companies have always been unfair to both performers and their customers (at least since the 50’s) but because they are jerks, it doesn’t mean you can steal their product.

Shadus

Absolutely, except I can’t even say I would be stealing it… I’ve not downloaded anything of Sony’s… because it sucks. I used to have a Sony TV but that got traded in for a better model, and I won’t buy a PS3 since Sony treats their customers like trash. Oh well, their loss. No matter how many people tell them that, no matter how many people agree, they’re not able to open their eyes and see.

To Jim “I work at a supermarket”, riddle me this, riddle me that– If every time someone stole something from the supermarket the stock didn’t decrease and it caused a large majority of the people to come back and purchase other items made by the same company … would it still be theft?

Chuck

No matter how many excuses are thrown out to the contrary, stealing is still stealing. It’s easy to be a reactionary. It’s even easier when you’re anonymous on the internet. All the rants about crappy music and guns and the rest means nothing. You don’t have a right to steal. And if the music is all that crappy, you’re an idiot to steal it in the first place. It’s time for some people to grow up.

http://chuckbrown.com/music-file-sharing/index.html

Thodoris

“The thought that you are doing a noble thing for the artists by stealing their music is a joke, they are more than equipped to take care of that themselves in contract negotiations.”

First of all, music downloading makes it easier and faster for you and me to learn and listen to a new artist! You can’t imagine how many times a friend of mine told me “Hey, download that song from that artist”. I did downloaded it, I liked it and then I downloaded his discography. So now, I know who this guy is, I am not going to buy a CD and spend a 20 dollars for something that it really worths a 3-4 dollars, and if I really like him then believe me, I will buy his CDs. So, everyone that believes that piracy doesn’t help artists (especially new artists) is just an idiot!

Something else that I hate is that most times Sony and the other labels, release only 1-2 singles on the radio. Excuse me, but why should I buy a CD with 12 tracks without knowing if I like the rest of the songs?

Furthermore, I agree that it is stealing. The thing is that I cannot obey every law, that a few people pass to the parliament, without seriously questioning it. You’ll tell me that “That’s democracy. You vote your representatives and they will do the rest”, but what happens when companies such as Sony, Virgin “buy” politicians? We all know that most politicians in the U.S are corrupted, in the U.K the same (I am mentioning these two countries because the major music label companies come from on of these two), so how can you trust that some laws that are passed aren’t WRONG? Well, you don’t. You have to question it. To search whether is right or wrong. If you obey every law without questioning you will become a perfect slave, an idiot, a puppet! Few hundred years ago, the Pope said that the “THE WORLD IS FLAT” and they believed it because he was the Pope. That’s what you are all doing!

So, now it’s stealing, but if it is not in a few years, what will you say then?

sea-salt

sea salt

lewis

hey
yeah im in a band and hope to make it big one day and if i ever did, i would rather everyone have this point of view about sony and its music because its true.
however stealing is still stealing and if ur gonna id be happy for people to download my music to sample it.
at the end of the day sonys policys need to be changed
cause there bull shit

reversivo » sony, i download your music

[...] ripubblico qui quanto ho già pubblicato altrove. è la traduzione di una lettera aperta comparsa un po’ di tempo fa su webrakestuff. [...]

coreyvf

Bullsh*t.

I download your music because I’m too lazy and cheap to leave the house and buy it.

Otosan

I like your points, I run a website called Audiorascal which pays its artists 70% of all the revenue, with no forms to fill in, no user logins, no intrusive software, just good old pay for it-download it. In both instances, the end user and the artist are benefiting. Sony does what it does because the board do not see simplicity and respect for customers – they only see a very slight potential loss of money, so customer satisfaction, and most of all trust goes out the window.

furry

He ‘used’ to run a small label? Yes the majors are corrupt but wouldn’t it be better to represent bands in a different way rather than just advocate piracy.. it’s not the solution just another part of the probem. Plenty of bands and labels with the right imagination are selling their material and making a profit and more bands are heading into this thinking everyday. No point in attacking Sony really. If he is so anti-Sony then he will have to gut his PC, Tv and other products to take all their chips out.

Seba

Everything is like Sony. The big man riding our horseasses until we´re left without our own sh!t. From Sony, to Dunlap, every big company is about the same. Even companies that do not pay us, like Facebook. (watch this before your douchiness comes at me with the Facebook thing: go to Guba- the truth about facebook) which is linked with the IAO. So, what is new here? The perpetual cornholing by the few people that control this world? I think we should stop complaining.

Flounder

And start acting.

That Guy

To all of your tools that think that stealing music is the answer to corrupt business, you’re only magnifying the problem.
Because then you create a set circumstance where it’s alright to break a rule if it’s conveinient for you. What’s stopping you from stealing food from the local grocer, or a car from your neighbor if you feel it’s justified.

Laws are made to protect ourselves, and to regulate activity that enhances our well-being. If you disregard that because well, you fell like it, you’re just killing off any benevolence the world still contains.

andrew

I’m a musician and a music enthusiast, and I download all my music.

The truth is: why buy something when you can get it for free?

Call me a cheap ass, thief, lazy motherfucker if you will, but i choose not to let money get in the way of my musical experiences and influences. Many of my favorite artists I never would have discovered because I wouldn’t have wanted to throw down money for something I’ve never heard before.

I have no respect for large labels. The day of the large record company is over. Make way for the independent.

Sony, I download your music | FizzleChat.com

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