Blogs
Steal your music
- 29 Jan 2007 08:45
There are a few exceptions when downloading a CD or a DVD is not justified. For example, if it is unusually cheap or it is a struggling or a local band. However if it is at all possible you should download all your films and music. There are many reasons for this not least the facts that if everyone downloaded the only people making films and music would be the people who do it because they enjoyed it and that the vast majority of the money from CDs goes to the music industry which simply ensures that censorship and mediocrity is recycled within the modern music scene. However, I think it is reason enough to download simply to spite the anti-piracy adverts.
The anti-piracy adverts (much like the Coke Zero adverts) are an insult to your intelligence. This one of those terms of phrases that have lost some of its meaning through over usage, but I really should emphasise that the people that made these adverts are taking the piss out of you.
Anyone remember the Train spotting piracy ad? The whole tone of it is that the pirates are out to get you and that piracy affects us all. I always found this a bit strange since I was always under the impression that the pirates were only out to get the big faceless corporations. And even if the pirates were just out to get us, as the advert implies, it seems a bit odd that the film industry would spend vast amounts off its money warning us of a problem that doesn't affect them. It would be a bit like McDonalds launching an advert, out of the kindness of their hearts, to warn us of the dangers of eating too much salt or sugar. With a couple of seconds thought it becomes obvious that the pirates are not out to get us, they are out to offer us a much cheaper (if not free) version of what the film and music industries have been overcharging us for the last ten years.
However, it gets worse; and this is where the piss is well and truly taken. They tell us that piracy funds organised crime and terrorism. So now not only is terrorism used to fight wars of dubious legality and to bring in draconian laws that tread all over civil liberties it is also now being used to keep us shopping. How exactly does downloading stuff off the internet fund terrorism? Do they explain that? Of course they don't, any elaboration in defense of their point would only lead to a lot of predictable and deserved ridicule. It is on the strength of and in spite of these obvious lies that we should all download music and films from large companies. Actually I use the term 'we' loosely, if you believe that Osama Bin Laden funded his September 11th attacks by selling replica CDs of Peter Andre or that FARC buy their automatic weapons with money made from flogging pirate Beyonce albums, then you should be paying something called 'mug tax'. This is the extra amount of money you pay for original CDs of big label bands when you don't agree with piracy because you believe the kind of nonsense they show on scaremongering adverts. The sooner those eligible for 'mug tax' realise they're being robbed the sooner they'll have more passionate musicians, more sincere actors, more colourful music tastes and more healthy bank balances.
Pete Swan