First US trial over illegal music downloads opens

[KeilanS]

So? its their property, not anyone elses. you don't own those cd's or software. You are allowed to use them via eula agreement. Its not your property at all.

Exactly. Think of it in terms of something else. You have just come up with an amazing invention and you own all the rights to it. Now you are making a ton of money by selling the rights to use this invention to various companies who need it. So that's all good, but then you decide to make a bit more by making it available to everybody and selling it to private buyers (not just companies who want the rights to built it).

Now suddenly, people steal the plans and start building their own using your exact designs and you arn't getting anything out of it. I wouldn't be happy, and neither are the bands.

[Marnie]

I think most people know, or they should know, that that an artist is paid to produce a CD by the record company. He's already made his money before the CD hits the shelf. Much of their income does not come from the sales of CD's but from the tours that promote the CD. The only people getting rich off CD sales are the record companies themselves, not the artists.

I'm not encouraging the "stealing" of CD's by copying them, just noticing that the laws are ridiculous, and even many of the artists are now bypassing the old way of marketing. Talk about bailing out a sinking ship...

[KeilanS]

I think most people know, or they should know, that that an artist is paid to produce a CD by the record company. He's already made his money before the CD hits the shelf. Much of their income does not come from the sales of CD's but from the tours that promote the CD. The only people getting rich off CD sales are the record companies themselves, not the artists.

I'm not encouraging the "stealing" of CD's by copying them, just noticing that the laws are ridiculous, and even many of the artists are now bypassing the old way of marketing. Talk about bailing out a sinking ship...

Marnie, the idea of an artist being paid to produce a CD is new to me. I just googled it and came up with nothing, could you track down a link of some sort for me? Wikipedia's article on record labels does not mention it and instead says that the bands are paid on royalties from CD sales. Then again, that's wikipedia, so I take it with a grain of salt.

[LionOfZion]

if the labels dont make money then they cant record. if they cant record then the music cant be put to record/ cd. bands and labels both loose thousands if not millions of dollars from downloading free music. the only way they make money is to tour and sell merchandise. if i where a rock star i would be against downloading free music. that and it is stealing.

[Marnie]

Marnie, the idea of an artist being paid to produce a CD is new to me. I just googled it and came up with nothing, could you track down a link of some sort for me? Wikipedia's article on record labels does not mention it and instead says that the bands are paid on royalties from CD sales. Then again, that's wikipedia, so I take it with a grain of salt.

Many times, not always, though, an artist or band is under contract to a particular label, who pays the band to produce a product. You are right, they do make royalites, usually decreasing with time. Sometimes a project is produced independently then sold to a label.

As far as "sources," I can't give you any. It's just an industry practice.

The real money is in the tours to promote the CD. I'm sure if you were so inclined, you could Google that.

[Marnie]

if the labels dont make money then they cant record. if they cant record then the music cant be put to record/ cd. bands and labels both loose thousands if not millions of dollars from downloading free music. the only way they make money is to tour and sell merchandise. if i where a rock star i would be against downloading free music. that and it is stealing.

The first part of your statement just isn't true. These days, digital recording suites can be purchased for next to nothing. Blank CD's cost a penny a piece, and duplicating equipment is inexpensive. Our church just bought a CD duplicator and 2 slave units for under $1,500, which allows us to crank out 10 CD's every 5 to 7 minutes. We buy in bulk, print out own labels on the CD and so on. A "record label" is not needed any more, except for distribution to brick and mortar outlets. However, the Internet has pretty well rendered those obsolete, as well, since you can buy an independently produced CD online or download the tunes you want for a price, which goes directly to the artist (and the real cost to produce the CD).

Nobody is "for" downloading illegally. What most of us are against is paying $15.00 for a product that costs a few cents to make, with the bulk of the sale price going to the record companies and NOT the artist.