Monday, October 12, 2009 by Joel
What is deemed a criminal act is done so to reflect the changing nature of society and the current structure that exists. What was a legal social function in previous years may become a crime as time passes and the need to regulate certain acts arises. With the change in the purchasing of media such as music, and the ability to attain songs and albums through downloads, it has become a criminal act for those who take part. Although it seems like policing illegal downloads must be extremely hard as the amount of people who do download music for free is phenomenal, those who are losing money because of it, are eager to retain the money that is owed to them.
In my opinion it seems like a losing battle for those who are searching for money when so many unknown people are downloading their music for free. I feel that those who have used more initiative to counter act the free downloads and refresh the ways that people obtain music online will be the winners in the long run.
A site of great interest to me is Bandcamp. Here artists can upload their music onto the site which acts then as an online shop where anyone can go on and download or stream entire albums for either a fixed price, a price that the purchaser wishes to pay for each track, or entirely free. Bandcamp takes no money in return but can be seen more as a powerful, respected medium where independant artists can sell their music to the world. All the rights belong to the artist, who normally miss out on such benefits through record companies and illegal downloads.
This is a great support to the ideas raised in this week’s reading The rhetorics and myths of anti-piracy campaigns and does recognise and reward the individuals involved in the creative process.
In my opinion it seems like a losing battle for those who are searching for money when so many unknown people are downloading their music for free. I feel that those who have used more initiative to counter act the free downloads and refresh the ways that people obtain music online will be the winners in the long run.
A site of great interest to me is Bandcamp. Here artists can upload their music onto the site which acts then as an online shop where anyone can go on and download or stream entire albums for either a fixed price, a price that the purchaser wishes to pay for each track, or entirely free. Bandcamp takes no money in return but can be seen more as a powerful, respected medium where independant artists can sell their music to the world. All the rights belong to the artist, who normally miss out on such benefits through record companies and illegal downloads.
This is a great support to the ideas raised in this week’s reading The rhetorics and myths of anti-piracy campaigns and does recognise and reward the individuals involved in the creative process.