Us government closing down sites

[RedRumOnE]

Ill just leave this here.

http://torrentfreak.com/u-s-government-seizes-bittorrent-search-engine-domain-and-more-101126/

[RedRumOnE]

Well out of respect for you and those ppl i will take it down then and substitute another pic, Sorry to offend.

[Gemma]

Good.  I frankly think illegal torrents are BS.  Aside from bandwidth hogging, its killing independent music and movies, and its outright theft.  I think these guys complaining about 'government tyranny' have  a real straw-man argument.  Its not as if they are trying to 'ruin' the internet.  Most independent artists wouldn't have a pot to piss in, or a window to throw it out if not for their record sales. 

Its the same whiners that are complaining about TSA security at the airport.  They should just have two separate planes:
1, which is TSA secured. Yeah you might get patted down. Yeah, it might take a minute longer to board. Or you could ride in plane #2:  No security, no pat-down, unlimited carry-on, and you get to sit next to Muhammad Ahkmed!

Go ahead and start your flame-throwers.

*ducks out*   

[RedRumOnE]

See i agree with that, its theft and i don't use illegal downloading myself, But if you look at it from a broader perspective its just one step closer to the internet being controlled by the government and the government telling us what we can look at like the great firewall of china.

Its great and all to see things being kept under such close watch with copyright but what if they decide a site has unsuitable content or something and they take it down or what if they just start taking down sites for no just cause, Just because they can. Its not like any1 can stop them.

But if the American government tries to shut down european sites then im sure a ****storm will brew.

[Zoro]

i agree with gemma

[Pyrite[1up]]

... But if you look at it from a broader perspective its just one step closer to the internet being controlled by the government...

The U.S. gov has always controlled the Internet. Wake up!

[SnKQuaKe]

I <3 torrents. Don't we all know what the real internet bandwidth suck is?

[KD197]

Aside from bandwidth hogging, its killing independent music and movies, and its outright theft.

I agree with the theft/movie part, but I don't think it's killing independent music. I found this on an independent artist's site: (CRUDBUMP is the name of his band apparently)

Traditional record labels are too greedy and they're the ones killing independent music. A few torrents could help a band get a start in the industry. I think releasing music through online stores is the way forward. Not only does the artist get a better cut and pretty much anyone can release their music without signing away their rights to it after years of struggle to get noticed, think of all the plastic, paper and chemicals saved by not manufacturing a CD and all the packaging, not to mention the cost of transporting it out to all the retailers and customers.
As far as I'm concerned, if someone offers me a legal movie download that is proportionately cheaper than the physical product given the lack of incurred manufacturing and shipping costs, I'm all for it.

The U.S. gov has always controlled the Internet. Wake up!

I lol'd. Like Red said, I can't wait until they try to shut down sites outside of the USA. Many companies have tried to get The Pirate Bay shut down, and the only significant result is the lulz on this page: http://thepiratebay.org/legal
Although UK politicians are all pussies that will probably allow the USA to dictate to them what should be done, so I wouldn't be surprised if a few sites here get shut down.

[Gemma]

Yeah, the graph holds true, and thats true for most indie record labels, but its still a bummer for those artists that need record sales.  The only recording contract I've ever had a real first-hand look at it, is my brothers.  (I showed him to you KD)  His contract basically works like this:

We [state rights records] give [loan] you 50k upfront, and you produce

• # of albums for us.  25% [interest] of the money is returned to us by you in the form of record sales and the rest is yours. [given, you sell at least 50k worth of recordings within x number of years] You get to own the rights to your own material, but we own the physical recordings.  Once the full amount of the 50k has been paid back, you get to keep 70% of the proceeds of your own albums with the option to buy the physical recordings back from us.

What it basically amounts to, is that the first 50k is wisely used to tour, and promote yourself.  If everyone can get your stuff on a torrent, you blow the 50k and have to pay it back in full.  (un-wisely, its used for drugs and alcohol, and then paid/not paid back in full) Torrents and p2p's are definitely damaging to independent artists and labels.  To what extent depends on the label, but trust me, they really would prefer you to buy a hard-copy.  Thankfully, at least in my brother's case someone is keeping a close eye on these things and taking advantage of the online/mp3 thing:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/young-punks/id310959327

But on the same token, you may be right in regard to torrents actually helping the artist promote themselves.
This is apparently older, and un-protected material available for download via torrent: http://www.usniff.com/top/bad+weather+california

I guess it all depends.