So? Isn't it their money, and their right to do whatever they please with it? Don't you piss away your money for needless things? Look around your house, and I bet you could find thousands of dollars worth of things that you really don't need to live.

All of us, simply by living in the US/Canada/Europe, live in luxury. Maybe that's an extra million dollar luxury, or maybe that's an extra $10,000 in luxury, but we all could definitely be doing more. You can't call artists, producers, and executives greedy and rich (especially since many artists do work and donate charitably), all while you haven't given all that you can.



1. A lot of us don't need a lot of money either. 100k, even 70k is very nice to live off of. And I would say the same, that most of you wouldn't need the extra $10 you save from not buying a CD. Are you guys donating every $10 you don't spend on music by donating it?
2. It shows the greed of those who download. (I DON'T WANNA TO PAY YOU $10 BECAUSE I'M TOO CHEAP TOO!)
3. All the while, god knows that the excess wealth of millions of downloaders combined is enough to feed starving children for years and years, and yet they spend it on their own frivolous luxury items.

In any case, don't try to mask this argument in this frame; you're not downloading music so you can save the starving kids in third world countries, you're just downloading because you don't want to pay $10. Justifiable or not, that's the motive here, isn't it?



Just because poor people have had something for a long time, that means its a necessity to live? You can live without music (or actually, you can live paying for your music). And heck, even if it was a necessity, is that OK for us, in 1st world countries, to steal food? Is it even okay for a mob from a third world country, to raid a neighboring country to take their food? We live in a relatively wealthy country, and you wouldn't die if you couldn't listen to music, and surely you wouldn't die if you [GASP!] had to pay for it.

Stop acting like all downloaders are effing rich, because we most definitely are not. My mom makes less than 10k a year, she's the only income I have to depend on at the moment, and I sure as hell don't have a job. I'm lucky I got all my computer equipment when I was rich for a short period of time, because I won't have money to upgrade for quite a while now, hell until I get a job I won't even have a few cents to my name.

Not. It takes a real ******* to make fun of someone for handing out clothes to people. :p

Okay, Yoshi, maybe your particular case is different. But the vast majority of those who download music, the vast majority of those that live in the United States, and the vast majority of teenage and young adults (still dependents of their parents), have large amounts of disposable income. For them, I think the argument that "rich people" are greedy because they live in luxury rather than giving to the poor, is hypocritical.

And just because one doesn't have money - that still doesn't justify taking without paying an asked price.

Gotcha



Rakishi..My point was that although we have material things that we don't need.. We don't have MILLIONS. We've got a few thigns here and there because we felt like it and wanted to enjoy ourselves. It's not wrong atall to want to enjoy your hard-earned money. But if you've got millions of dollars.. You don't really need it all. If you do, it goes to show your greed.

What if you download the music and then give the $10 to charity?

Michael raises an interesting point.

[QUOTE=Dj Yoshi]Stop acting like all downloaders are effing rich, because we most definitely are not. My mom makes less than 10k a year, she's the only income I have to depend on at the moment, and I sure as hell don't have a job. I'm lucky I got all my computer equipment when I was rich for a short period of time, because I won't have money to upgrade for quite a while now, hell until I get a job I won't even have a few cents to my name.[/QUOTE]
Then...get...a...job??

Giving to the poor while not paying to the rich - a bit of a Robin Hood type vigilanteism... I suppose you could say that it was a good cause, and made with good intentions, but still, is that really fair, to sort of indirectly force them to donate to charity, by basically taking their profit and using it towards charity? Good intentions, maybe, but I still don't think it's exactly fair, not in a capitalist system anyway. It'd be like if we were all forced to donate money to a relief fund - good intentions, but not really fair to force people to do so. (But then again, that's taxes!)

In any case, I wouldn't accept that argument simply because people DON'T donate money to charity. People aren't downloading music so that they can spend their extra cash towards charity (not that downloaders don't donate, but it isn't a direct cause of their downloading).

As for your point, Temperamental's point, yeah.. i think I probably exagerrated and overgeneralized a bit in comparing wealthy people to middle-class... But I still think it's wrong, to sort of expect wealthy people to donate, just as it's wrong to expect regular middle-class people to donate.

[QUOTE=Raoul Duke]Then...get...a...job??[/QUOTE]

I definitely plan on it. But I did just move here a few months ago, and just got my license a week or so ago, so it'll take a bit of time. Even then I have 150-ish to pay for gas a month (30 miles to and from school) and insurance, so god only knows how much money I'm going to have left at the end of the month, if any.

agreed.

I also usually download music thats hard to find or expensive.

For example? My favorite band is Do as Infinity, unfortunately they're Japanese.
And in Japan, the albums are really expensive. 4000 - 6000 Ұ (Somewhere around $ 40 - 58)

Luckily however I found I can switch the country on iTunes, they're still lacking artists like TM Revolution (kind of surprising) and The Brilliant Green. But they still have a lot of DAI and Utada Hikaru and other really popular bands for much more reasonable prices. (1500 Ұ / $14)

Sure, you can get Hong kong pirated CDs. But how is that any different from downloading? If my only choice is to support pirates or get it for free, I'll take get it for free.

Usually for stuff like Daft punk, Dave matthews, etc. I try to buy.

I'd also really like to buy some Mr. Scruff, who is an indie artist in the UK I really like.

I also use downloading to get some individual soundtrack things and whatnot.
Mostly anything I can't find on iTunes, I download atleast some of.

(It'd be really nice if they'd put some anime soundtracks on iTunes. Cowboy bebop is a /wealth/ of excellent music.)

haha, I'm a pirate. YAR MATEES