Just read this morning's newspaper and the Grokster file sharing site was officially shut down and has to pay like a $50 million settlement to the Recording Industry of America and the Motion Picture Industry of America.
This is good and bad.
For Artists who lose royalties to illiegal file sharing it's great.
For artists who love it because they gain exposure and more money in the long run, because they have an avenue of getting noticed, people liking their music, end then the artists DOES get signed to a record label or an independent fillmaker gets major studio backing because of buzz from traders, it sucks.
And. lately..alot of artists and filmmakers have gotten exposure and signed, just from the buzz off file sharing.
I do NOT file share...but I do understand its pros and cons.
While this may be a shame. They cant win them all. There will be more sites that will spring up and as technology gets better , there will be better ways to stop users from even being detected by proper authority. If you ask me, while they say this is Illegal and maybe they see it this way because you dont know the other person your getting the file from. The only part of this I agree with are the motion pictures. Movies that are still in theaters have no buisness being on a file sharing server. On the other side of the coin you have music, this should be allowed for the simple reason of "Hey dude check out this new cd I got , yeah its the new one by Queen." "Whoa really isnt that the new one with Paul Rodgers?" "Ya." "Wow thats cool you think when your done listening I can borrow it?" "Sure I don't mind at all , better yet do you have a cd burner?" "Yeah." "Well I already ripped the cd into mp3's why dont ya just let me send the files over to you if you want them and you can have a copy for yourself." Even if you don't know the person your getting these files from , the people who ripped them and put them on the server own the original copy of this and its basically just like lending a cd out and letting them record this to a cassette. Taking this away then word about artists dont spread to quickly. Somewhere down the line the cd had to be bought somewhere so it could be put on these servers. In other cases even though the record companys deny this , the record companys themselves have leaked out copys of albums as well, such as the case of Fiona Apple..a group of unreleased tracks or different mixes mind you of an album she thought was shelved because she thought the record company didnt like it leaked out over the internet this was done by the record company . When her fans found out , they had a public demand to release this album , Fiona wanted to re record this record anyhow and Epic / Sony music granted her the money to go back into the studio and re record this in the way that she wanted to in the first place. I read this in Entertainment Weekly so you can go there to even find the proof of this. How else could those Fiona tracks got out in the first place without the record company tampering with them. If you ask me Record company execs are the hypocrits of the entire thing cause its equally their fault as pointed out here.
Ron
OgreBattleField1980 wrote: I thought I might also say please dont hate me for my opinion on this topic I wouldnt have found out about alot of great bands without this format.
That is one of the PROS that I stated. many bands such as Phantom Planet and even stars like Courtney Love have vocalized that they are FOR file sharing, as it gets them exposure that radio and record stores won't give them.
And I may HATE 50 Cent, but on street mix tapes, which are bootleg tapes sold on the street, made him the superstar he is and he has OPENLY said that.
No one would give him a record deal, but when the record industry heard buzz on the streets that fans were trading tons of his tapes, well then..he must be HOT...so he got signed to a multi-million dollar recording contract, SOLELY on the basis of mix tapes, and many other artists are having the SAME suucess with File Sharing.
Indeed that was his ticket. But there is sooo much more evidence that the record companys are fraudlent and contributing even more to the problem or if you wanna call it a problem. They are just making fools out of themselves because they are equally as guilty as anyone else in this entire thing.
OgreBattleField1980 wrote: Indeed that was his ticket. But there is sooo much more evidence that the record companys are fraudlent and contributing even more to the problem or if you wanna call it a problem. They are just making fools out of themselves because they are equally as guilty as anyone else in this entire thing.
How about the multi-million dollar scandal with Sony Records/Music using Payola to get records played..or NOT played by artists on radio?
Sony was fined multi-millions by a Grand Jury.
And Payola is prevalent throughout the record industry.
You're darn right the record industry people are hypocrites.
I just re read the fiona apple article today at Wal Mart .. did anyone know that her producer for her 1999 album When the pawn... was Jon Brion ...didnt he make an appearance on the Killer Queen Queen Tribute album?