The beginning of the end for P2Ps/Torrent Sites?

[IsiliRunite]

If only I could convince all the executives and lawyers in the world that me saving 3,000 dollars on music today will be good for society in the long run...

I guess thats not true, though, because I can't even buy most of the stuff I want to download. I would like to think filling my ears with illegal music is not the most un-artistic thing that happens in the music industry, though. Don't most musicians think executives are 'stealing'?

[Sean]

Originally Posted by IsiliRunite

Don't most musicians think executives are 'stealing'?

This is actually a strong, pertinent point to discuss. Music deals that many labels offer to musicians these days tend to be stacked so heavily in the label's favor that the artists often find themselves losing money despite the phenomenal success of a release, or only making the equivalent of the salary they could have made by working at a 7-11 or something. Honestly though, that's not stealing - it's up to the artist to be responsible enough to know what kind of deal they're signing, and what kind of label they're signing with. I went through the same thing when I started at Sony Pictures. I signed a lowball offer because I was naive and just happy to get my foot in the door of computer animation when all my previous experience had been in traditional, hand-drawn animation. That was my own fault, and I had to live with it for a couple years, watching some people doing lower quality work than me while getting paid more, unable to do anything about it. But I made up for it with my next contract, and have been very aware and informed ever since then before signing anything.

Anyway, this reality is exactly what's led so many artists to start up their own little labels so they can self-distribute, which makes them much more vulnerable to piracy. A big label can lose a few thousand bucks and not really be hurt, but if a little independent label started up by you or I loses a few thousand bucks, it can mean the end of the road. Hopefully, as time goes on, more consumers can understand that and try to change their ways to keep it from being too destructive.

How I think we should behave when it comes to the ways we obtain art, such as music, is summed up very well in the movie Contact:

DAVID DRUMLIN
I know you must think this is all very unfair.
Maybe that's an understatement. What you
don't know is I agree. I wish the world was a
place where fair was the bottom line, where
the kind of idealism you showed at the
hearing was rewarded, not taken advantage
of. Unfortunately, we don't live in that world.

ELLIE ARROWAY
Funny, I've always believed that the world is
what we make of it.

Screw the RIAA and big movie studios - it's up to us to be responsible for our own actions.

[Strangelet]

Which is where you and I were bound to meet on this issue, Sean.

The most important aspect of this debate for me is what is best for the artists.

Now that the distribution and manufacturing of physical media is no longer an excuse to fuck over the artists down to pennies on the dollar, and advertisement is as viral as a sock puppet video on youtube, there's actually more economic sense for labels and artists to work in agile, like minded collectives.

But that's dependent on the assumption that people will actually pay for their shit.

which is why people who wholesale download whatever the fuck they want, while smirking at Sony, is actually doing a great job of giving the RIAA/MPAA corporate model a new excuse to control everything. So that they can spend all their money on lawyers and more restrictive DRM technology. They can continue the mindset where the consumer's interests come before the artists. Because its all about the great unwashed birther dumb fuck consumer with the corporate model. And that's what we have and will continue to have if consumers act like artists exist for their whims.