blobby

And I think the central point is that it is indeed stealing. As someone who has illegally downloaded hundreds of albums (though not off p2p sites or torrents), I fully recognize that my acts are criminal, and in fact are not really any different than shoplifting. The only reason I continue to do so is that the temptation for me is too great not to; though, in my defense, I now use the site lala.com to get a lot of music cheaply and legally, and I have never downloaded a band's entire catalog (if you like a band so damn much, support them instead of just exploiting their labor). Nonetheless, just because you don't like a law doesn't mean you don't have to obey it, and since no one has been able to explain to me why the laws against downloading are somehow immoral or harmful, I will continue to recognize the illegality of filesharing (referring, of course, to that which has not been authorized by the band or label). At the same time, I realize as long as I continue to illegally download music for free, I am being somewhat hypocritical. However, my unwillingness to obey the law does not mean that I think the law is immoral, but merely that I am a sucker for free music and don't bother to justify my illegal habits. What is truly hypocritical is the bullshit rationalization that supporting a band through buying merch and attending concerts makes up for stealing their music-- it doesn't, so stop pretending.

Glad I got that off my chest!

blobby

Beat that , suckers.

BlimpyMcFlah

An actual interview with someone who founded or helps run a high-traffic, music-sharing torrent community would be far more interesting. Maybe those crazy kids over at Dime A Dozen, or something, will talk to you, if the Powers That Be at Oink don't want to?

sparkletone

very interesting point, Mozfather

RepentTokyo

Lucas Jensen

Da_BitTerrorist: I don't really know. Asking why you don't feel guilty about something isn't really a question you know how to answer.

Is the stupidest moral excuse I've ever heard.

gregcoff

Silverfuture

As for the only interesting fact in the interview - Bitterrorist's guilt/the legality of the issue - WTF? Just because he/she FEELs that it's not wrong doesn't mean it isn't. Shouldn't our Idolator be pressing the person more on this issue? As music consumers, we claim to love music, but we are helping destroy the very industry we love. Is this a good/bad thing? Why? This is a question that so many people have such a knee-jerk reaction to, and I would have liked to have seen a more in-depth analysis.

The Mozfather

I don't need an interview with an iPod user, because we all know about that already.

Swankster

I sense jealousy that you weren't the downloader interviewed for the piece.

Seriously, I get what you're getting at, that it's small-scale stuff. But it was still an interesting read. What gets lost in all of wide-lens stories about "The Man" (RIAA, the majors) taking our music away, is the individual downloader perspective. We've gone through this massive perceptual shift in the past 7-8 years, whereby music is no longer a good to be purchased, but data that is grabbed out of the ether and discarded just as easily. Do you think dude really listened to all 1500 of those cds? Music is disposable now. What I'm becoming more and more interested in these days is the motivations of those who are behind the transformation of music into tapwater.

So, dude, I must say you are a douche.

MC

maybe tomorrow idolator can post an interview with that guy who sits beside you on the bus listening to his IPOD!

RepentTokyo

sure, this wasn't my cup of tea. but it's music related and it's fair game. now put some girl talk up so everyone can REALLY start hatin on technology.

sarahrose

King of Pants

Besides, it's invite only. How can someone shill for something that you need to find an Oink user to join?

rad_matter

You on the rag or something? Dude chill.

MC

Kate Richardson

To add insult to injury, you call this person a "big time file sharer" because they have been using the software for 3 years and have downloaded 1500 albums? That is beyond pathetic. Why not interview the people who are actually behind these peer to peer applications, or someone who really IS a "big time file sharer" and moves terabytes of data per month? Is Oink a sponsor? Is that why you are constantly flogging their service?

Personally, I find it bizarre that there are suckers out there who are still falling into the trap of ratio-based bit torrent sites when there are plenty of non-ratio filesharing programs that offer as much musical content. The user mentions that on Oink they could download 50 albums a month "easily". On a service like Soulseek you could do 50 albums a DAY. Easily. And without any ratio garbage or membership b.s.

But please, continue to shill for Oink and provide us with dazzling journalistic feats of wonder like this article, and see how long readers like me stick around.

RepentTokyo

Tenno