[LChoy]

Originally Posted by Bring_Back_Shantz

2) To Seb C who said they weren't real damages, because the people probably wouldn't have bought the CD anyways. That's completely irrelevant. The fact is they are usuing the products without paying for them. If you steal my car, but I wasn't gonna drive it anyway, am I still entitled to damages? I'm not really missing anything that I was going to use, but that's irrelevant.

Technically, he's taking your car and cloning it so it was never stolen from you as you had the car the whole time. Companies aren't suing because you're stealing from them, but that they are losing potential money they could gain by selling it to other people. I'm assuming someone had to buy the cd, movie…etc, in the first place in order to upload it, but after that, it's just being copied to other people. Perhaps a better example is that you buy a brand new plant. After it had grown, you give one of its seeds away to your friend so he could grow his without going to the store and purchasing it himself. The problem for the big media companies is that instead of giving away 1 or 2 seeds, torrents can give out limitless copies and with very little time and effort. The companies are losing a chunk of their sales and they want that back. However, the only thing stolen from them is their sales potential, not the actual product

Personally, I think it's time for these companies to adapt. This isn't a new phenomenon as we had tape recorders and VCRs years ago. It's just faster and more efficient now. Bands have already started releasing their own records online, amateur ones as well since they realize it’s the exposure that they are seeking. Perhaps, focus more on touring and concerts where true fans would buy tickets and come out. Make a better product (I’m looking at Pop and other mass produced music genres) so that fans would choose to buy the album or the single off on Itunes. Batman Begins and other successful movies don’t seem to be effected by torrent sharing. If the industry is truly hurting, perhaps place a tariff on storage media and or licensing agreement with Ipod and MP3 players. The Pandora’s box of downloading has already been opened. It’s best if these companies learn to adapt to it as the consumers already have.