Tag: illegal downloading

Breaking Bad Creator : “Piracy Is A Problem… We All Need To Eat and Get Paid”

In a recent BBC interview Breaking Bad’s creator Vince Gilligan has been quoted talking about the effect of internet piracy on the show.

Piracy is “ultimately a problem and will continue to be a problem going forward,” Gilligan said. “Because we all need to eat. We all need to get paid.”

It’s been reported that the show’s final episode was illegally downloaded over 500,000 times in 12 hours of the first pirated copy turning up on piracy and torrent sites. Many have seized on Gilligan’s remark that piracy helped the popularity of the show.  That’s highly unlikely as those seeking the illegal copies, were seeking them as demand for the show grew from conventional marketing. These people were opposed to paying for the show from the many outlets where the episodes were legally available like Netflix and Itunes. Gilligan clearly understand the impact…

“The downside is a lot of folks who worked on the show would have made more money, myself included, if all those downloads had been legal.”

Many piracy apologists and proponents are quick to suggest (incorrectly) that not every illegal download represent a lost sale, but we disagree and here’s why. Looking at the links below you can quickly see that the piracy sites are monetizing the access and availability of the illegal downloads with advertising. Additionally some sites even charge greatly discounted transactional fees via dubious payment processors.

Simply put, piracy is about infringement as a business model. Every illegal download generates revenue for the pirate sites and ad tech companies, none of which is “shared” with the creators.

Zero Dark Thirty, Best Picture Academy Award Nominee, Exploited by AT&T, Verizon, MetroPCS, Nissan, H&R Block, British Airways, Progresso, and more…

by trichordist

Franz Ferdinand call on David Cameron for Help | The Independnet UK

Franz Ferdinand’s 2004 debut album sold 3.6 million copies worldwide, including 1.27 million in the UK alone. Their fourth release, Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action, although critically well-received entered the charts at number 6, selling fewer than 10,000 copies. The decline is in line with a global slump in album sales over the past seven years, which has particularly afflicted guitar bands.

Kapranos added: “I saw an old photograph where all the women were working in a factory pressing up copies of Rubber Soul and putting them into sleeves. (The image of workers producing The Beatles’ album was taken at EMI’s Hayes pressing plaint in 1965). This music industry in the UK in the past has supported so many people’s careers and livelihoods. Nowadays it feels like people don’t give a s***. That’s not cool.”

READ THE FULL STORY AT:
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/do-you-want-to-save-the-music-industry-franz-ferdinand-call-on-david-cameron-for-help-8809231.html

by trichordist

ALICE IN CHAINS : Illegal Music Downloaders Are ‘Sticking It To Themselves’

“People think they’re sticking it to ‘the man’ by not paying for a record, BitTorrenting and all this stuff. They’re not [sticking it to ‘the man’]. They’re sticking it to their favorite band, they’re sticking it to their favorite artist, and ultimately, they’re sticking it to themselves. Because eventually, those [artists] won’t be able to tour so readily. A lot of bands are gonna break up. A lot of bands already have broken up.
READ THE WHOLE INTERVIEW AT:
by trichordist

Why are Internet Freedom Fighters always fighting against the Internet Freedom of Artists?

We’re always a little amazed when site like Hypebot takes up the fight for internet freedom, as long as that freedom does not include artists rights. Recently the site has confused the difference between a $20 settlement for illegal downloading, versus a $9,250 per song judgement for copyright infringement.

It seems to us, that getting off the hook for $20 per song is a pretty good deal. Should a person downloading also be found to be uploading and distributing (you know, infringing copyright) than they might want to think twice before pushing back too hard or they could end up like Joel Tenenbaum and Jammie Thomas. Both of whom were found guilty of copyright infringement by a Jury of their peers and awarded damages upheld by the courts.

It’s troubling when sites that state they are trying to help musicians are actually making arguments to support the people who exploit artists and rip them off, but not the artists themselves.

by trichordist