The beginning of the end for P2Ps/Torrent Sites?

[potatobroth]

Originally Posted by 34958hq439-qjw9v5jq298v5j

Well I'm sorry for being 'stunningly naive" but I'm sick of people saying that downloading = shoplifting. I know that some people will think that every download = one lost sale, but that's simply not true. A kid who has 10,000 albums and downloads 10,000 more that he never intends to listen to is not then causing the music industry $150,000 worth of damage. The actual figure would probably be about $0. If he shoplifted CDs then he is definitely hurting the music business.

And if no one ever paid for music again, is the net loss $0?

1. A guy who has never heard of your band is burned a copy of the CD by a friend, and then buys a ticket to a show. Giving a CD to a friend is fine, so long as that friend doesn't put said CD on the mass-market P2P sites.
2. Someone sneaks into a non-sold out concert, likes the music, and buys a T-shirt
3. Someone downloads a copy of a certain software, but likes it enough to buy the next version when it comes out.

1. No one ever argued for one-off situations. Mass-downloading/P2P is the problem, not face-to-face "check out this new band" copying.
2. Sneaking into a non-sold out concert is illegal. T-shirt or not, the venue didn't make the expected money off of you, the band didn't make the money off of you, and its a slap in the face to the concert-goers who shelled out their cash as well.
3. Stealing.