Mp3 Free Music- Iriver U10

[Jay-qu]

Ok Drip, just say you wrote a song, a great song and it becomes a hit, people are willing to pay for your music. Then some little smart arse gets a copy of your song rips it to mp3 format and splashes it accross the internet making it easy to access by all. You have put yourself in debt buying new equiptment and can barely pay the rent because you dont have a job because you have spent all you time pouring your heart and soul into the music. Now you get nothing back for it. How would you feel?

 

Yes this would be an extreme case, but thats the reality of it. And yes I do see it from you point of view, if I wanted my ideal music collection i would have to go out and spend thousands of dollars to collect up all the songs I want, but I just cant afford to do that (not even on a small scale). Borrowing CD's from a mate is a good way to get some fresh tracks :doh:

[Drip Curl Magic]

Then some little smart arse gets a copy of your song rips it to mp3 format and splashes it accross the internet making it easy to access by all.

 

The most important thing would be people hearing my energy.

 

And enjoying it enough to steal it? I'd be flattered!

 

 

 

You have put yourself in debt buying new equiptment and can barely pay the rent because you dont have a job because you have spent all you time pouring your heart and soul into the music.

 

haha, sounds familiar. Kind of like... everday life.

 

 

Now you get nothing back for it. How would you feel?

 

Start dumpster diving. pop in a beck album and sing along.

 

*today has been a ****ed up dayyyy*

[C1ay]

Copyright law was created so that record label owners can have 5 mansions instead of 2.

No it wasn't. Feel free to point out that fact in the actual copyright law if you can though. Why don't you actually try learning about the real history of Copyright Law. It was here long before records were.

[Tormod]

As I said before, musicians make their money by touring.

 

Utter bullshit, if you pardon my French. Almost all the musicians I know, who make a living from it, are studio musicians ar sell their tracks online. Very few of them tour, and it is not something they can make a living from.

 

If artists want their music to be free, fine. If they don't, why do you even bother? Should comic books be free as well? Or any book for that matter? Can I walk into a store and grap a movie simply because I think movies should be free?

 

Copyright is there to protect the rights of the creator, the performer, AND the publisher. There would be no music industry without either of these.

[Edella]

But putting a price on art is something that I've never agreed with. Art is such a beautiful thing. And it's so good for your soul. It should be shared. Not sold.

And then:

You know how musicians make money? Touring.

An artists wealth depends almost entirely on tours.

And you agree with this? Why is putting a price on the perfomance ok but not on the music itself? To be consistent it seems you should let anyone who wants to see a live perfomance do so for free. Surley the perfomance is just as much an art as the music.Next time you go on tour, consider letting in people for free,because hey,Art is such a beautiful thing. And it's so good for your soul. It should be shared. Not sold.

[CraigD]

… the actual copyright law if you can though. Why don't you actually try learning about the real history of Copyright Law. It was here long before records were.

While the history link seems an interesting and concise list of important milestones in US copyright law, it an the actual code are, I think, hard for even legal professionals to understand. For a somewhat long but, I think, very present-day-relevant interpretation by a well-qualified expert (Lessig, an academic lawer, has argued a major copyright case before the SCOTUS), I recommend “Free Culture” (which, appropriately enough, can be purchased in paper, electronically, or legally read online or downloaded for free).

 

Copyright violations are legally peculiar crimes, because, unlike ordinary property crimes like burglary, they don’t directly deprive owners of their property. No copyright holder, artist, inventor, or publisher has less because someone pirates a copy of their intellectual property rather than not purchasing it. Individuals nonetheless may suffer when copyright law is violated – though, in my experience, the greatest damage results from violations by publisher seeking to and avoid contracted or automatic royalty payments to patent holding creators, not violations by consumers.

 

As Lessig discusses in his book, copyright law is so complicated that it is often more concerned with the relative expense of following the law, violating the law, or even knowing if you are or are not violating it. For example, consider the following scenarios involving “fair use”:

1. I purchase an audio CD from a store such as Border Books. Using my PC, I copy (rip) all of the tracks on the CD to my computer disk drive, from which I play them when at home, and copy them to my portable MP3 player, from which I play them when walking, sitting, etc. outside.
   
2. My wife and 2 college-age children also copy the CD to their PCs and MP3 players
   
3. At different times, I loan the CD to 6 friends with whom I have face-to-face contact. 4 of them copy it to their PCs and MP3 players.
   
4. As #2, but my wife and children copy not from the CD, but from my MP3 player
   
5. As #3, from my MP3 player.
   
6. As #4, but I send the files (tracks) to my wife and children via email attachments
   
7. As #5, but via email
   
8. As #3, 5, and 7, but I have 30 friends, or 100.
   
9. I post the files on my website, with an invitation inviting all visitors to copy them for free.
   

While most people would agree that #1 is legal, and #9 not, different people, even different legal experts, disagree on the legality of #2-8.

[wine]

If one seeks out the vibrations

from the king

The king must be flattered

(Even if the king isn't making A Million from the garbage that fell out of his mouth after he invested in a beat made by some pour soul who understands the basic rhythmic notation of the music business

which takes place on hammocks

with headphones

in Woodstock, NY)

 

 

So beautiful, all these opinions...

 

Music is free it's within you

and me

 

Buy a cd, Steal a cd.

 

You are aquiring soulful knowledge.

 

The way I see it,

as a sponge,

I must absorb as much as I possibly can

and anything that tries to get in my way

will be manipulated.

 

This argument could go on until cd's don't even exist anymore,

so let's just kick back,

relax

and Listen

 

Because the more we listen

the more we will be able to listen

and there are some people on this planet

who love music so damn much

and do not have the Money

to trade.

 

There's respect in their eyes, somewhere.

[TheBigDog]

Another complication comes with profiting from use of copywrited material. There is a group in Baltimore that made a 45 minutes Star Wars movie that was freely distributed on the net. But they could only do so if it was 100% non profit.

 

http://www.panicstruckpro.com/revelations/revelations_movie.html

 

It is pretty cool.

 

Bill

[Buffy]

Fantastic post Craig. It is messy and one of my clients is in the business of creating content and has to deal with this everyday. What's worst is that there are a bunch of people running around who believe that "Fair Use" even encompasses #9 as long as they are not making any money on it. They call it "sharing" and in this case are mostly extremely religious folks who believe that you'll go to hell for breaking any of the Ten Commandments--which oddly enough say that you sin for even *wanting* something--let alone *taking* something--that is your neighbor's.

 

This issue points at BD's example: you *can* get into trouble even if you *don't* make money on it. Check with your attorney before proceeding.

 

Stealing my soul,

Buffy

[C1ay]

The way it wa explained to me, and exercised at the university I worked for, was that it is like a hard copy book, a work cannot and should not be used in two places at the same time. It was legal for students to copy their etexts to a personal PC and a laptop as long as they weren't sharing it, i.e. using the copy on their laptop for class while a friend used the copy on their PC to take the same class at the same time. The school legal department even said it was OK for a student to loan their copy to someone else as long as they didn't retain a copy they could use concurrently. I think the Fair Use Doctrine states it pretty well though:

The distinction between “fair use” and infringement may be unclear and not easily defined. There is no specific number of words, lines, or notes that may safely be taken without permission. Acknowledging the source of the copyrighted material does not substitute for obtaining permission....

 

The safest course is always to get permission from the copyright owner before using copyrighted material. The Copyright Office cannot give this permission.

 

When it is impracticable to obtain permission, use of copyrighted material should be avoided unless the doctrine of “fair use” would clearly apply to the situation. The Copyright Office can neither determine if a certain use may be considered “fair” nor advise on possible copyright violations. If there is any doubt, it is advisable to consult an attorney.

As such I would see 2-9 as infringements.

[C1ay]

What's worst is that there are a bunch of people running around who believe that "Fair Use" even encompasses #9 as long as they are not making any money on it.

Consider this case, Worldwide Church OF God v Philadelphia Church Of God, one non-profit vs another non-profit.

 

Herbert Armstrong wrote "Mystery of the Ages" (MOA) and copyrighted it in the name of Worldwide Church of God (WCG). After Armstrong's died, WCG decided to stop distributing MOA (over nine million copies had been put into circulation

free of charge) because some of Armstrong's views had been discredited.

 

Some members of the WCG, that were devoted followers of Armstrong's work, decided to form their own church, Philadelphia Church Of God (PCG). When they ran out of copies of MOA they started making their own copies to give away. The WCG argued that this copyright violation robbed their church of potential members and the court agreed.

 

Non-profit is not an exemption for violating copyright law.

[Drip Curl Magic]

mmmmm.

 

Controlled by green.

 

You're all beautiful, but I can't stand any of you.

 

 

I'm gonna go sacrifice all my burned cd's now.

 

:wink:

[Edella]

mmmmm.Controlled by green.

 

 

I'll take that...As long as you agree not to make any money with your music.If you truly believe that art "should be shared [and] not sold," be prepared to be labeled a hypocrite if you profit from it.Touring or otherwise.

[Buffy]

Controlled by green.

 

You're all beautiful, but I can't stand any of you.

I'll be by to pick up your car and your guitar in the morning, Drip. Just like music and software, "they want to be free" right? :wink:

 

Physicality is an illusion,

Buffy

[Drip Curl Magic]

I'll take that...As long as you agree not to make any money with your music.If you truly believe that art "should be shared [and] not sold," be prepared to be labeled a hypocrite if you profit from it.Touring or otherwise.

 

pshhh. The chances of making money from your music are so remote.

 

Regular day jobs are fine by me. As long as I live near the mountains, and have a sunny meadow to sing to.

[Drip Curl Magic]

I'll be by to pick up your car and your guitar in the morning, Drip. Just like music and software, "they want to be free" right? :wink:

 

Physicality is an illusion,

Buffy

 

 

Everything is already free.

 

 

Which brings me back to my original point.

 

 

Sometimes I make love to my guitar's voice. It doesn't have a choice, being it's on a different plane. but it's not like it matters. She hasn't got a clue.

 

 

And I have a terrible fear of cars. Those things intimidate the hell out of me.

 

So god damn menacing.

 

and ewww, I have to be in one for an hour and a half tomorrow.

 

 

Today was a strange day.

 

but I love you all.

[Tormod]

I wonder where the whole idea of "art is free" comes from. I don't see these kids stealing paintings or books (well, maybe, e-books) under the same pretense. Do they really have NO idea how expensive it is to make a record?

 

Let's take a look. Another area where copyright violations happen (and people use the "But is should really be free" argument) is in the software industry. My case in point is the digital studio technology. About 3-4 years ago I was using a cracked version of a sequencer to make music. My justification was "well I'm not making money off it" so it's fine.

 

But after I while I realized that the publisher of this software was a tiny company with 8 employees. And there I was stealing their software. I paid $149 to get a FULL, LIFETIME license to their software.

 

Since then I have never put a cracked music application on my computer. I have spent perhaps $2000 on software over the past 4 years. But I am the *exception*, believe it or not.

 

Everyone who is into computer music has a copy of Ableton Live, Cubase, Reason, ProTools, Logic, Tracktion, eXT, FL Studio, n-track, Cool Edit Pro, Audition or whatever - and in *most* cases it is cracked. And in most cases there will be not one but two, three or even four sequencers on these machines.

 

The cheapest of these cost $40, the most expensive costs $1500. The "going rate" for a sequencer for home use is about $400, but it is extremely easy to find something cheaper (and legal). And there are FREE sequencers. There is *absolutely no reason* to steal one anymore.

 

But sequencers are only part of the story.

 

Then comes the VSTs - the Virtual Studio Technology - or more understandable, the instruments you use in the studio. These can be anything from virtual drum machines to pianos, synthesizers, sample players etc. We call these plugins, which are then used inside the sequencers.

 

And so much of it is simply cracked and stolen the day it is released. The really sad part about this is that again, most is made by very small developers, and often only one person.

 

The most hideous example I have seen so far is one person who makes a plugin that cost $10 - and it was hacked immediately! The guy is trying to make a living from making software and script kiddies break his income in seconds.

 

Today I own every single piece of software on my computer, from music tools to games. Granted, I have some MP3s ripped from my own collection, and a huge collection of MP3s from music-making friends online, but I have vowed not to put a single cracked piece of software on it.

 

Heck, I even rent my movies. But I am obviously the oddball. Because all my friends and neighbors download anything they can find and wonder why the hell I waste my money.

 

If you look at it this way, making a piece of music costs a lot of money. Factor in the costs of the PC, necessary audio hardware (pro audio card, audio monitors, mixer, preamp, guitar, keyboard), operating system, studio software, Internet access, file hosting costs etc, backups - I doubt any musician who sits at home making music can get down to less than, say, $50 per track. If they make 15 tracks and try to sell them online, they would need to sell at least 150-200 tracks at $10/piece to just break even. Now why would people buy their tracks for $10 when they can get a song on iTunes for $0.99?

 

There is absolutely no way to recover this cost for most hobby musicians (and honestly most of us have no adventurous idea that we ever will - hobbies cost money). I participated in a CD project last year - http://www.katrinareliefcd.com - and we sold some 300 CDs with a profit of about $15 per record. That was the extent of our market. It is *extremely* hard to make money off music unless you're a big player. There are some very interesting exceptions - people making money off their music site on MySpace etc - but they are few and far between.

 

The upshot is that the music from people like myself will usually be available free.

 

But those who go online to steal music aren't there to listen to my music. They are there to get what they hear on radio and what they remember from 10 years ago or just that one song they heard in a movie "that I can't find in stores anywhere".

 

And would you believe it - I have heard one of my own tracks used as background music on a *famous* TV series? But I never was asked if it was okay, much less paid for it. So even big time producers steal their ****.