Sunday, August 12, 2007
In the midst of exam angst, a friend asked me if I had any movies I could give or lend her. I had a couple DVDs on hand so I offered those. She asked me if I had any on my computer that I've downloaded. This caught me by surprise, or amusement rather, since she is one of the very few people I know who makes it a point to say that she doesn't download music, she buys it from iTunes because she says "I just think it's right to only buy them, y'know?"

Sure, I know. Not only is file sharing of copyrighted material is illegal, the morality of taking another's creative work without compensation is a big issue for many people. But this girl was perfectly okay with downloading movies from torrent files, Limewire and other sources (she had told me she'd been searching/downloading some last week) and asking others for the same.

How is a movie any different from a song!? Same concept, different medium! My "WTF?" expression didn't have any effect because she seemed to not see the connection between her request for downloaded movie and her previous holier-than-thou speech about always buying her songs. When asked to explain her phenomenal distinction and policy, even she had no idea why - "yeah I know, it's weird. But y'know....so do you have any?"

WTF?!

What are your opinions on downloading/file-sharing?

p.s. FYI - if you live in Spain, by any slim chance, I'd comment anonymously if you have a pro-downloading opinion since it's a civil (and possibly criminal) offense to file-share copyrighted material now that the legislation has been passed :)
8 Comments:
Blogger Bre said...
I've never done it, largely because I probably won't be able to figure out how! But really, why not just buy it?

Blogger ZenDenizen said...
I follow a hybrid approach now where I buy songs from iTunes that I absolutely can't find on LimeWire. Kazaa killed my old pc so I'm a little weary of the whole concept now.

Blogger Humz said...
To each there own - I don’t really think it does any harm to artists like Madonna or Spielberg who are living it up in their LA mansions. There are bigger battles to be fought if you ask me.

Blogger Miss Specs said...
I think its because songs are soo much more affordable than movies. Its easier to pay $0.99 than $9.00, so we all and, speaking in literal terms, *afford* the holier-than-thou attitude when it comes to songs. Sure is wierd though...

Anonymous Anonymous said...
I used to DL songs waaay back in the napster days...but gave it up. I had stoppeed downloading anything, just go to blockbuster and RENT. But recently I started downloading movies. Since I'm only gonna watch it once, at most twice. I still don't download music, since I hardly listen to anything mainstream.

Blogger mezba said...
I hardly listen to English music, so nothing much worth downloading that should make the general record companies unhappy!

Blogger echez said...
I live in Malaysia...nuf said

Blogger Sarah said...
I don't have the time or the energy to figure out how to download movies off the Internet...but I know people who actually pay for them off of iTunes when they're just not in the mood to wait for netflix (or in the case of those I know and love, wait for the DVDs to come off the hold list at the library).