Downloading: For or against it?

[kayutori_sama]

Out of my own personal curiosity, I just wanted to see how people feel about this topic. Do you support downloading anime? I know an overwhelming majority does, but I want to hear other opnions too.Personally, I wouldn't download unless I had the intention of buying that series later. Downloading and not buying the series can have bad side effects on the anime industry. Taking an idea for an anime, and actually making the idea an anime is not cheap. Production cost can and will cost thousands of dollars. Not to mention payment for voice actors and things like that. So downloading anime for free, isn't exactly helping them recoop their loses, but what do you think about downloading. For or against it?

[Boba Fett]

[color=green]Illegal acquisition of other people's intellectual property (downloading music/movies/copyrighted text) without proper payment is wrong any way you look at it. Stricter measures need to be created, and enforced on a broad scale, to protect the people who create the content - because without that protection there will be no incentive to produce new material. This result hurts everyone, honest and otherwise. In the short term, prices for movie tickets, CDs and other pirated media will rise as producers attempt to compensate for their losses, in the same manner as a store raising prices to cover shoplifting.

It'll be interesting to see how, if at all, goverments crack down on decentralized networks. Unlike Napster and its clones, you can't just shut down a few servers - every user on the network has to be stopped.[/color]

[Goodbye, Face]

[font=trebuchet ms]With anime, I usually download the first episode before I buy it. This is just to get a feel for the series and to see how good it is before I buy it. If I don't like it, I don't download any more of it, if I like it, I'll buy some or all of the series.

The same goes for music, if I get recommended a band, I check them out on PureVolume and download whatever songs they have availible. If I can't find them, I'll LimeWire them and limit myself to three songs or less. This way, if I don't like it, I'm not hurting anything, and if I do like it, I buy it, and tell my friends to buy it.

I don't support illegal downloading. However, I can offer a solution, many people download exactly as I do. So anime sites should have a download availible for the first episode, just for their customers to see how good or bad an anime really is, as opposed to simply telling a magazine or other websites that it's good and hoping we'll buy it.

I'd ask for more protection against pirates, but there's very little that can be done. There's programs that copy copyrighted DVD's, there's keygens for cracking serial numbers... If there's a way into the information, someone's going to find it. It's really sad, but it's true.[/font]

[Retribution]

[SIZE=1]Hm. I used to be all for it, but I decided to stop recently (two months ago).

I download a few songs here and there, like R@R, to get a feel for the band. After that step is completed, I go to a CD store and buy the CDs from which I sampled the songs.[/SIZE]

[maverickwarrior]

For music, I don't think it's right to download but I do it anyway... I mean... I only get paid $6 an hour, I can't afford to be buying $20 cd's with only 2 or 3 good songs on them o_O My personal rule is that if I download 4 songs from the same CD (or more) then I'll go buy the CD (like My Chemical Romance :D )

For movies, I don't download at all... I'm not sure why ^^;

For anime, I use it as a form of [I]preview[/I] system. For example; I downloaded the first 2 episodes of FullMetal Alchemist... I liked those episodes a LOT so I decided to buy the dvd, thus I deleted the files. If I don't like the anime then I delete the file and don't buy the anime. If I ever like a series I'll never download the whole thing (unless it's something that's not released yet, like Naruto)

[Gavin]

[SIZE=1]Interesting, most interesting.[/SIZE]

[QUOTE=Boba Fett][color=green]Illegal acquisition of other people's intellectual property (downloading music/movies/copyrighted text) without proper payment is wrong any way you look at it. Stricter measures need to be created, and enforced on a broad scale, to protect the people who create the content - because without that protection there will be no incentive to produce new material. This result hurts everyone, honest and otherwise. In the short term, prices for movie tickets, CDs and other pirated media will rise as producers attempt to compensate for their losses, in the same manner as a store raising prices to cover shoplifting.

It'll be interesting to see how, if at all, goverments crack down on decentralized networks. Unlike Napster and its clones, you can't just shut down a few servers - every user on the network has to be stopped.[/color][/QUOTE]

[SIZE=1]Dave basically covered everything I was going to say, downloading copyright content illegally is going to hit everyone who is willing to pursue acquisition legally. I don't download material for two simple reasons, one it's stealing and stealing is wrong, and two because my internet connection isn't fast enough to allow me to do it anywhere near efficiently. Downloading copyright content is the same as walking into a shop and stealing something, most people don't make the connection between the two, or at least not to the scale it is but it is stealing.

I know some people will say "[I]Well these guys make huge amounts of money so they can afford to lose a bit to downloads[/I]." It's probably true that they can take a bit of a hit to the pocket, at least many of the bigger artists and companies but smaller groups starting out do require the revenue to be able to get further up the ladder and they're the guys that'll really be hit. As Dave said if it continues it may get to the point where financially it's not worth it to make new content and genres start to decline because of illegal downloads.[/SIZE]

[Charon]

[QUOTE=Gavin]
I know some people will say "[I]Well these guys make huge amounts of money so they can afford to lose a bit to downloads[/I].".[/SIZE][/QUOTE]

But what these people don't understand is that it takes a lot more people than the artist to make a CD. An album is a big investment, and I figure, regardless of the artist's financial status, I should make sure everyone gets a full paycheck.

People should use iTunes or some other subscription program.
It really isn't that much.

[Lafleur]

[COLOR=DarkRed]Ya, downloading is wrong. Ya, it's going to eventually send the world of the media down the drain. And ya, I'm addicted to free stuff. I'm so addicted that not even my 44.4k internet connection can stop me from downloading illegal stuff. It's like crack. You can't sniff just one! Or was that Lays? Bah, the point stands. Where I live you cant just go out and buy a new CD or Anime or any of that stuff, the only alternative is to download illegally or go without. I, unfortunatly, cannot go without. [/COLOR]

[Ikillion]

Of course downloading is wrong, but everyone cant say that they havent even done it atleast once? I mean I only download if i cant find the series out where i can buy alot of it, or if the series hasnt even been released yet. However, if for example, the first season of an anime is available containing aroud...like 16 episodes. whats the point of leaving your computer on for who knows hom many days to be able to download it if you could just go out and buy it and be able to watch it in under half an hour? to me dowloading is just a waste of time but im not judging anyone who does. My best friend downloads all the time and i still dont judge him at all. So basicly downloading is for people who either dont, or cant go out and buy there own anime.

[Zeta]

I myself am not going to go into a rant about it being wrong, one because it has been done, and two because I download things all the time. I am surprised that there are actually people out there who don't download things, not even a little. *shrug*

I download music, all the time, Three fourths of my i-pod was full of downloaded songs. But usually, usually I will also own the CD that the songs have come from. It is like the anime preview thing earlier, I usually download a few songs and see if I like. I just don't take the time to delete the files after buying, lol. Can I still get in trouble even if I legally own the CD? o0

And things like iTunes are no different than buying a CD if you look at it. What, it costs 99 cents right? You download 15-20 songs you just paid for a CD anyways.


Movies...guilty as charged. I've got movies that include Episode 3 and [i]Batman Begins[/i], to older movies such as[i] A Beautiful Mind[/i] and [i]Gangs of New York[/i]. The same thing applies here. I own[i] A Beautiful Mind[/i] and [i]Gangs of New York[/i]. And when Episode 3 and BB comes out, I will own them as well. But they are both such good movies I couldn't live without. :p

[gwynva]

[quote name='RiflesAtRecess][font=trebuchet ms']With anime, I usually download the first episode before I buy it. This is just to get a feel for the series and to see how good it is before I buy it. If I don't like it, I don't download any more of it, if I like it, I'll buy some or all of the series. [/font][/quote]
Exactly! what i do is also this, buying dvd s require a good deal of money, so i want to make sure that i spend it the best way possible. But for example, some also download manga scans, for that i prefer buying the first volume of the book, nothing can replace the touch and smell of paper. Besides it feels good everytime i check my library :)
And for the anime music: there is a site in which i can listen to most of the anime musics without actually downloading and the site also provides critiques of the cds and again if i like it, i go and buy it. ([url]http://www.animeillusion.com/ecouter/[/url])

[AzureWolf]

[COLOR=blue]I'm all for downloading. I think people make the wrong assumptions about people who download. They see them as leecherous, uncaring, and unforgiving hoards who are being dicks. Well, a new survey has shown that people who download music have a great propensity to buy music, digital or otherwise.

This fact goes back to my original idea of how most downloaders are (well, in the survey, they just had a greater tendency than non-downloaders, not necessarily the majority) a "try before you buy" type of people. They want to see if something is worth buying or not before grabbing it.[/COLOR]

P.S. I'll look for the article if anyone doesn't believe me. ^^

[Leofski]

It depends on context. For instance, having read the manga, I would be suprised if any TV stations here ( The UK) bought Naruto, since they only appear to pick-up pokemon, yu-gi-oh and their ilk, yet because of its length it isn't likely to be released on DVD either. In such a situation, one could advocate downloading ethically.

Also, in the case of the music industry, downloaders are being used as scapegoats for the industry's poor performance in recent years. Taping songs off the radio didn't make all the record companies shut down and to what extent really is this different from downloading. Add to this that it has repeatedly been found that people who download music also buy more CDs than those who don't, and it appears that the industry is actively trying to alienate its core consumers.

Please note that to an extent I am playing devil's advocate and I download very little, all of it unlicensed anime.

[Raiyuu]

[quote name='Ilium][color=DarkRed']Ya, downloading is wrong. Ya, it's going to eventually send the world of the media down the drain.[/quote] [color=black][font=Trebuchet MS]Piffle and poppycock. I'd give you the home-taping-didn't-kill-radio argument but Leofski's already put that one pretty succinctly. What's killing the media (the music industry is what I'm particularly addressing here) is the industry's failure to respond positively to downloaders. Instead of viewing the digital media as a logical progression from their current technology and adapting to accomodate users, they label the innovators criminals and start filing lawsuits against ten-year-olds. They're unable to accept that their current ways of thinking are fast becoming obsolete, and respond by lashing out at music lovers, the people they're supposed to be serving. They blame illegal downloading for a drop in record sales; I'd say they need to take into account the negative results of their lawsuits and such as well.

Having said all that, I rarely download music. I download [b]unlicensed [/b]anime, then delete it when it gets licensed for TV or DVD release.
[/font][/color][/color]

[Kamuro]

[SIZE=1]I'm not against downloading personally. I know few people who decide to download a band's entire CD and simply listen to it on the computer. I have hundreds of songs downloaded myself, but the most for a certain band is only around 10 songs, and only in special cases. Sometimes I'm unable to find a CD so I download the music, sometimes I want to hear the band before I go out and buy the CD, so I download it. Sometimes I hear one song I like, but don't want to invest my money in a CD containing only one attractive song, so I download a couple others.

No matter the reason, you'll see that all the motives for my own downloading is based on the CD itself. If I enjoy the band then I go out and purchase the CD. Several programs offer an alternative to free downloading and provide a certain songs for a certain amount of money per download. This leads to the whole iPod craze and the creation of mobile music. If musicians are so against the downloading of music then why have few if any protested the iPod? Which doesn't discriminate between free programs or programs you have to pay for to aquire the music?

Whether it's legal or not people will do it as long as they can, and no matter how many news reports they do on "we're catching people who download music, so don't do it!" people continue to do so. It would be impossible for them to track down each and every person involved with the downloading of music and a lot of the programs actually have protection for this very purpose. So it doesn't matter if you like it or not really, it's gonna happen.[/SIZE]

[Morpheus]

Is it really that hard to buy a song for 99 cents? I know some artists make large amounts of money, but what if you went to get your paycheck and found out that a large chunk was missing? Just missing. Never to return. Can't pay for rent or food? Who cares?

I've downloaded about 2 dozen songs ilegally in my life, and they were all deleted 2 years ago. I decided it was worthless. Why not just support a band and pay a frickin dollar for the song that cost them a lot of money to record?

Just because you will buy the DVD doesn't make it right. The box office is the main source of income for the motion picture industry. Saying you can't live without a movie for a few months is rediculous.

[celestialcharm]

[quote name='Ilium][COLOR=DarkRed']Ya, downloading is wrong. Ya, it's going to eventually send the world of the media down the drain. And ya, I'm addicted to free stuff. I'm so addicted that not even my 44.4k internet connection can stop me from downloading illegal stuff. It's like crack. You can't sniff just one! Or was that Lays? Bah, the point stands. Where I live you cant just go out and buy a new CD or Anime or any of that stuff, the only alternative is to download illegally or go without. I, unfortunatly, cannot go without. [/COLOR][/quote]

I'm a freebie addict too!

I hate to admit, but I do download! Well, I used to. The only reason I don't download anything is because I've been usuing my sisters laptop for the last few months, and if she ever found out that I downloaded anything on it, she'll kill me.

I downloaded the whole 'Fruits Basket' series, because I couldn't afford it at the time. But, I am going to buy it! I don't really like watching any anime or tv series on the computer anymore because I would rather buy dvds.

But, I do think it is kind of wrong. But, when I get my new computer, the only songs I would download are songs that I already have on cds.

[Zidargh]

I like to look at it from this perspective; "If I was a musician and someone downloaded my stuff without paying for it, because of course, it is everyone's life goal to profit off of others, then I'd be totally against it. But I'm not, so I don't care."

Downloading anything could be considered as piracy, just as is downloading a PSP 9 free trial and then finding a crack for it. However, there's so many people on this planet that now have found a liking for it, that the authorities simply cannot put a stop to it. Once they close one program down, another pops up. The internet is simply growing with power every day.

It's like libraries. I bet you alot of money that within 20 years, the number of libraries out there will have significantly reduced because places like Amazon.com can simply send you books for cheaper and they're yours to keep. But then, in a longer period of time, who will need physical literature when you can just read it on the internet? It's ashame, but the internet grants access to pretty much anything.

I myself would never download a whole album for; 1.) It's taking advantage just a bit;and 2.) I couldn't be bothered to wait that long.

The situation is wrong, but then there's the other perspective. It's certainly increasing the rate of the change in how we listen to our music, watch our films, play our games and read our literature.

[Zeta]

[QUOTE=Morpheus]Is it really that hard to buy a song for 99 cents? I know some artists make large amounts of money, but what if you went to get your paycheck and found out that a large chunk was missing? Just missing. Never to return. Can't pay for rent or food? Who cares?

I've downloaded about 2 dozen songs ilegally in my life, and they were all deleted 2 years ago. I decided it was worthless. Why not just support a band and pay a frickin dollar for the song that cost them a lot of money to record?

Just because you will buy the DVD doesn't make it right. The box office is the main source of income for the motion picture industry. Saying you can't live without a movie for a few months is rediculous.[/QUOTE]

I get this is directed towards me, so I suggest you go back and read what I said.

No it isn't that hard to buy a song for 99 cents. But if you are going to do that, you might as well just go out and buy the cd if you decide to download 15-20 songs from a band. I will download the songs yes, but I will also go and buy the CD, which means I do support them ;). I just don't delete them, I am a lazy guy, so sue me. There is no difference than downloading 15-20 songs and just buying their cd is all that I said.

Why is it ridiculous? It is a movie I really like and which I would like to watch from the time it is taken out of theatres to the time it is released. I will download it yes, and then I will go and buy it when the time comes for it to be out. I don't download movies and never go and buy them. That is the only way I download things.

And I suggest you go back and read my post. I [i]never[/i] said it was right. It is just what I do. I even asked if my way of doing things would still get me in trouble. I never said it was right, don't assume. lol

[Panda]

I am all for LEGAL downloads. I have spent quite a few dollars on iTunes for songs. Many times there is just one song on an album I enjoy so being able to just buy the one I like for a dollar instead of the entire album that I don't want for $15 is something that works well for me. For instance I had this cheesy 80's song stuck in my head and wanted to buy it. I wasn't going to go out and buy the entire album for the one song, I just bought it on iTunes and life was good. This was a perfect system for me.

I have never downloaded movies or anime of line. I have many friends who make their living in the entertainment industry and know what a hit they are taking from illegal downloads. I am not going to put my friends out of work just so I can save a couple of dollars. I wait and buy all legally licensed R1 DVDs when they are released here in the States. Plus, I prefer to watch movies and anime on the bigger screen of my television than on my computer monitor.