Seven Crimes That Will Get You a Smaller Fine Than File Sharing

Um.. except, most of those other crimes are accompanied with a hefty jail sentence as well. While it may seem like all money to you, loss of freedom imo, is never a good thing.

The problem with the music industry is the cost,

Here in the UK a new single can cost £4.99 for one song its crazy.

I agree though that those who profit from file sharing should feel the full extent of the law, This goes back to Sony trying to stop people from copying tapes and passing them on (all be it on a bigger scale) The only thing Sony was worried about was money, exactly the same as what the music industry is interested in now.

They need to think of a new business model and stop being so greedy theres nothing wrong with profit but when it comes at the cost of growth and advancement then its wrong to think of the short term gains from suing non profit file sharers.

[edit on 23-8-2009 by jpmail]

File sharing is illegal and should come with a fine.

But, you are right in the magnitude of the penalty that goes along with it.

Lets say there is proof I leaked a song to 1000 people. The penalty should be the price of the song (.99) times a number, like 5, plus any court costs yada yada.

Be right back,

I'm going to stalk my neighbor, steal his CDs, burn down his house, and start a abducted childfighting ring (with my neighbor's children).

[edit on 8/23/2009 by die_another_day]

Originally posted by Moodle
pay for your music losers! it's worth it. i know some of you dorks go out and spend 4 thousand dollars on a computer so you can play crysis and WoW so quit being retarded and buy a friggin cd.

or they can at least buy some of the band's merchandise.

reply to post by Karlhungis


15 years in prison for murder?I don't believe thats right.Might want to check those statistics again.

Either way...comparing a fine to 15 years in prison AND a fine is preety bad

-Kyo

Originally posted by Karlhungis
www.prefixmag.com...

1. Child abduction: the fine is only like $25000.

7. Murder someone: The maximum penalty is only $25,000 and 15 years in jail, and depending on your yearly salary, would probably be far slighter a penalty than $2 million

Not laughing at you but laughing at the source.

1. Maximum penalty is death.
7. Maximum penalty is death.

Looks like they just made stuff up and posted it. Children perhaps

From my experience in the muso world of bands, instruments (real or digital) and now promoting our own shows with a business partner, laser shows and other production work.. And who very successfully promoted, organised and ran their first entire show on the weekend....

I can tell you that an artist makes their money getting a crowd - not selling music. If you want the sound out there, to get the people in, put it online and keep it free. We pulled one of the biggest crowds to a local rock/metal venue for a long time in our first try, during a 'recession'. If selling CDs for those that want them (they have a good cd player hifi gear/collector/prefer cds etc) make them cost as much as an affordable ticket for a local gig ($10-15nzd), if they have the nice print and packaging design to go with it.

Cd's here started at $20-25nzd for popular big brand 'played a million times on the radio' new stuff. They have now somehow got much much more expensive to produce with modern technology, costing a minimum of $25-35 dollars in most cases, $29 at a norm for new ultra mainstream pop stuff.

It's just like when the movie execs whine about sales drop... perhaps if you made something we'd not seen before, re-iterated 20 different times, we'd be there more often. Ticket prices have also gone up without any additional benefits to the moviegoer....


The silly recording industry execs who don't realise this, need to use their brain and change their pig headed strategies - you can only take the peoples money so much...


reply to post by drsmooth23


Drsmooth - I agree about records being superior, problem is that some are just digital copies from CD however of course there are many that are not. I'm going away from transistor amps into 'old tech' valve amps now as a hifi lover for the same reason... digital cannot truely capture 'life', nothing will but we can get close.

[edit on 23/8/09 by GhostR1der]

Originally posted by Moodle
as far as the fines go, who cares. most of the stuff on your list is insurable therefore fines aren't that big of a deal. for instance, if i staged burning down my own house and pinned it on someone else then i could get paid twice for that. simple enough. the govt. is just getting the point across and making examples of people before they crack down harder on this.

when someone is convicted of a crime and they are given a fine as part of the sentence that money that is paid for that fine does not go to the victim, instead it goes into the government coffers

the only time the victim gets any money is if the criminal is ordered to pay restitution by the criminal court, other than that if you want to recoup any monies lost if you are a victim of a crime you (or your insurance company) have to file a civil suit to get any money paid to you...so no you will not get paid twice for that because if you do get restitution from the criminal court or an award in a civil court the insurance company is only going to pay you for their estimated value of said property less any money you recover from the criminal through the court system

reply to post by Karlhungis


WELL KARL, I understand the absurdity that you are pointing out, I do...

However I just want to point out that technology will be the eventual death of career musicianship as we know it. My band spent a large sum of money to record a professional album, we worked at our craft for years... Point being, the day we released
our SELF PRODUCED, SELF FUNDED record, we found it available on ten + web distributors, torrents, we found it in EUROPE, JAPAN, AU, RUSSIA, SOUTH AMERICA...

So I want you to think about it from the little guys perspective. We did the work, spent countless hours, spent tens of thousands of dollars... Now we cannot even recoup for the record to make a new one. The record is very popular in some circles, been played
across the east cost, mid west, Europe, but sadly OUR music does not belong to us in any way, even though we own the rights and distribution.

This ='s NO NEW RECORD, even though we have a following, fans and a great collection of brand new songs. 20 years ago I would have a wonderful career,,, unfortunately
many of us can't keep at it forever on our own dime.

Just something to think about...



[edit on 23-8-2009 by mental modulator]

reply to post by Blaine91555


The maximum penalty is death for capital murder.
Not 2nd degree.

I don't even want to know how much I would get fined for file sharing....

I bet they spend more money on lawyers and snoopers trying to catch people than they actually lose to piracy.

I don't care though. I think it's criminal that they use the public airwaves to broadcast most of the trash you hear on the radio...

Originally posted by mental modulator

20 years ago I would have a wonderful career,,, unfortunately
many of us can't keep at it forever on our own dime.

[edit on 23-8-2009 by mental modulator]

And 200 years ago you could have had a wonderful career as a blacksmith. Sorry, but while we still need people to make musik, but no longer for the recording and distribution. That has become way too simple and way too cheap to justify giving money to anybody for it.

As a performing artist you will have to perform if you want to make money from it.

Besides did you know that printers of sheet music were proclaiming the end of culture when the first electric pianos and similiar devices appeared? If you look at the history of music "professional recording artists" where a pretty short phase. One that is about to end.

To my understanding, the "fines" that arise out of file sharing are tied to the supposed financial harm done to the poor RIAA, who is losing trillions of dollars every day to evil file sharing pirates. So, for example, the actual fine is something like a few thousand dollars, but the number of times a copy could be made is in the thousands or even millions, so you multiple the fine by the number of theoretical copies made. Something like that.

If you kidnapped that many thousands of children, your fine would also go up; but normally you have to kidnap actual children, not virtual ones. So they can only get you on one or two or whatever.

Does show how warped the whole system is, though, especially since so many of these companies rip people off so badly. But as long as we allow the laws to be so harsh and so prejudiced in favor of the companies, the fines will continue.

So whether or not that source was completely accurate...

That's still really, really funny.

I know things like vandalism, running over a neighbor's pet, those are all probably wayyy cheaper. It makes zero sense that they fine so much money to these kids.

I use iTunes for all my music-buying needs. But I know plenty of people who use Limewire.

well it's hard not to get pegged to one side or the other. let me say i'm happy to go with whichever way the musicians prefer. my point is that music SHOULD be expensive. .50 cents a song is nothing, neither is a dollar. unless it's rap music or some junk i guess that's about the right price. but talented musicians should get paid bigtime.

stealing from them is just slapping them in their face. you should be happy to pay a nice price for great music. i'm sure lots of you shell out 15 dollars a night for cigs and beer.

Originally posted by FritosBBQTwist

Lets say there is proof I leaked a song to 1000 people. The penalty should be the price of the song (.99) times a number, like 5, plus any court costs yada yada.

But here is the problem. Say someone buys a CD, and then decides to download the torrent of the CD too just to have a back up on the computer. THIS IS NOT ILLEGAL (same as roms). But say that person is not computer savvy and doesn't realize that if you don't remove that torrent from your downloads, it will be seeded out to anyone who is trying to download it. So while doing something legal, you unknowingly share a file with 1000s of people.

Should this person be charged as a criminal?

Absurd is the word I would choose to describe this.

Here's another dumb thing:- In Australia it is illegal to grow Tobacco or possess Tobacco not obtained through a shop. Home grown tobacco here is called "Chop-Chop" and comes without added poisons so that when you smoke it it is fresh, had no foul taste and no worry over the 200+ added toxins in normal cigarettes.

Here's the kick:- The penalties for growing or having chop-chop is far worse than for marijuana!! Go figure?

Comes down to Taxation Avoidance apparently, so you get hit hard.