Kazaa and Me
I remember when I used Kazaa and things like that for the first time. Napster was first, IMesh was next (terrible selection) and then Kazaa and its spyware invaded my computer. Now, finally, my favorite "file sharing" tool Limewire is available. The article I read deals with the makers of Kazaa, Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, and discussed their new joint-venture "The Venice Project". The file sharing network deals with video now, most likely television shows, and is expected to give iTunes a run for its money. I found myself asking doesn't iTunes already do the video thing? The answer, of course, is yea, iTunes does exactly this. Even better, in fact, that "The Venice Project" because those fortunate few with video ipods can take their Jack Bauers on the road or on the treadmill with them. So why create the Venice Project when there's already a very capable, if not better, system out there? Well, why not? It will only add billions more dollars on to the billionaire laps of Zennstrom and Friis, and the public might even benefit from it. Prices should go down so now we can watch Jack Bauer kick butt for $.98 instead of $1.06. A better question, I think, is why do people bother? Why don't people just do the right thing and tape that episode of 24? IS it because America is a nation based on impulse and consumers can't wait long enough for that episode to come back in the form of a rerun or syndication? That's fair enough, but then why not grab it off Limewire? Sure it's immoral but where were morals when Napster and .mp3 chatrooms in AOL ruled the world? Where were morals before that girl got sued for having something like 10,000 songs? Personally, I can say very few of the people I know buy music through iTunes anyway. I tried it, but paying didn't work for me. I know its wrong of me to take away that royalty a band would have made, but I think these artists can live with their millions of dollars anyway. Besides, it's well known that bands turn the most profit off concerts. So what's the alternative to buying a song? Getting it illegally. The cost for buying songs is time and money. The cost for downloading them is a fraction of a percent chance of getting caught, and a feeling a guilt that you cheated a millionaire out of his money. I think i'll take the guilt trip.
- Erik XXXX
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2 comments:
I am intrigued to see what everyone else feels about this...it seems to be such a generally accepted practice amongst teenagers and college students, most of whom have good values. Any thoughts?
I don't think that teenagers should think about downloading music from artists as just taking pennies away from millionares because at the end of the day, the musicians earned that money. Isn't that what capitalism is all about?
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