Should copying of copyrighted files be allowed without charge or penalty?

Should copyrighted files be allowed to be freely copied?

  • Yes this should be allowed without charge or penalty

    Votes: 9 81.8%

  • No this is wrong

    Votes: 2 18.2%
  • Total voters
    11
W

wonderboy1953

banned
There are certain websites that allow you to copy copyrighted files without charge (e.g. music or movies). For years the lawyers for RIAA have been pursuing offenders in court with heavy fines to the users (I haven't been current on following this so I don't know what RIAA's policy is now).

Some say that by allowing free copying of files has helped business for the companies whose files has been copied. I think that's a side issue which doesn't have a bearing in this matter (another issue is often you can't tell whether certain files are copyrighted or not).

I want to poll members to find out if we should allow files to be copied for free or if that needs to be restricted. So what do you have to say about this?
 
Digital only yes so long as it's not being used for profit. Copying something doesn't reduce it's value, the RIAA and MPAA are a god damn joke. It's not the artists complaining about copyrights, it's the lawyers and people who get a cut of someone else's work. The majority of artists don't give a damn about the money, they just care that people are enjoying their work.
 
FuryRosewood said:
If its something you would have to pay for legally, its theft.
Click to expand...

No victim, no crime. If there is no loss of profit there is no victim.

Take DVDs for example. Lots of them now come with a digital copy as well. If I buy a DVD and give the digital copy to a friend who I know won't buy the DVD should it be illegal?

Everyone involved with the selling of the DVD profits and there is nothing loss. There is no negative side in giving away the digital copy.

Netflix works as well. If I record from Netflix streaming, no one is losing anything. No payment is lost, I simply get a backup copy for whenever that movie is removed from Netflix streaming.
 
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It's kind of like someone making an exact copy of all your furniture and then keeping it for themselves, where's the hurt in that exactly?
 
I actually wrote a paper on this in my college english class. Wish I could find it.

But Radiohead already proved that you can still make money if you give away your music for free.
 
One more thought

The US Supreme Court allows copying of dvds and the like for personal home use which means you can even borrow your friends dvd, copy it and then return it.

I suppose what's important in the court's view is that the original dvd is paid for, regardless of who paid for it. It can be reasoned from this is that the online files, at some point, was paid for with the initial file so maybe it would be okay to permit copying of the online files.

I'm up in the air myself on this issue as there are obvious pros and cons. I would like to see further discussion on this as this issue just won't go away.
 
well, it should be OK, as long as it's not on some huge scale so that the original person who bought one copy of the DVD, can make tons of money selling pirated copies.

Home sharing should be OK.
 
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