Thursday, September 8, 2011

And We Go Ahhhh!

Finally got some recording done tonight... Still looking for more music for this episode, but I'm getting some help with that. I'm so glad I know how to remote from one computer to another. Made my recording process very doable with using the closet as a vocal booth.

So, yeah Shining in Crimson Episode 4 coming soon for real this time. Now that everything's set up, I hope to be able to put out an episode every week until I'm done. We'll see how that works.

Bear with me here, I'm having what I call a "moment of stupid."

Oh, yeah, I remember what I wanted to talk about now! Pirates! Yes, pirates! But not the kind that sail the seven seas and such. No, INTERNET PIRATES or INTERNET PIRACY! Here goes:

A lot of people seem to think that internet piracy is taking money from musicians, bands, writers, movie stars, producers, pimps, and janitors, but I can't help but wonder...

If someone downloads a digital copy of something online would they have really ever bought it in the first place?

Or does that mean now that they've downloaded it that they will never buy it?

Or anything else from that rapper, coach, or beautician?

Is it also impossible that their downloading said file could spread the word about the author, doorman, or architect of the pirated file in question?

I mean lets think about what all happens when someone downloads a file from the internet for free.

1. They smile, knowing they just got something for free.
2. They experience what they've downloaded by listening, reading, or watching it.
3. They either like, love, dislike, hate or feel indifferent to what they just experienced.

Now's where the branching really begins. In this example let's say it's a book and they've never read a book by the author of this file.

Let's call the book "I Stole it on the Internet" by Captain Jack Lots-a-files. Tommy will be our guinea pig for this exercise.

Tommy downloads "I Stole it on the Internet" and reads the book.

Scenario 1: Tommy hates it.
Yeah, Tommy thinks it's the worst book on stealing things off the internet ever. Hell, Tommy read a much better book on this subject last week and it was free so he didn't even have to steal that one. So, Tommy then goes on with his life now knowing he doesn't like the way Captain Jack Lots-a-files writes. Oh well, Tommy wouldn't have bought it anyway. No loss. I think we can safely say the same would likely happen if Tommy dislikes it or feels indifferent to it.

Scenario 2: Tommy loves it.
Tommy loves every detail of "I Stole it on the Internet" right down to Captain Jack's description of how to use fancy downloading programs like Bittorrent and Peer-to-peer apps right on to how Captain Jack even lists all the best sites to find just what Tommy's looking for.

Tommy likes the book so much that he will likely do one of the following: Either he'll buy it, tell his friends, or buy another book by Captain Jack. Now, it may not happen overnight but one of these things will happen unless Tommy lives in a cave and has no outside contact with the world whatsoever. In which case Tommy would be highly unlikely to have internet access to begin with.

Now, does everyone who downloads files and loves them turn around and do these things? Not necessarily. There may be a few people out there who don't. But I don't know about you, when I love something, I tell people, I check out more of it, etc. But mostly I want other people who haven't experienced this beautiful thing who might enjoy it to join me in it's awesomeness!

Scenario 3: Tommy likes it:
Now this scenario is more difficult to predict. It's possible the person could more likely go either way with this one. But even if you just like something it usually stays with you and when you see other things related to it or connected with it in some way you tend to want to repeat the experience.

Anyway, that's enough with Tommy and his pirated copy of "I Stole It on the Internet." When it really comes down to it, especially when it comes to books, is it just me or does this all just really sound a whole lot like going to a library and picking up a book? I'm sure some of you are arguing that you don't keep the book and that's true. But chances are people don't read the same pirated book over and over again and not feel guilty about it. But that's just my opinion on the matter. Goodnight everyone.

4 comments:

  1. Well here are my thoughts for what they are worth Bobby. And to be fair let's just go ahead and through software out on this and stick to music books and films. And this may just be me on this but this is my way of thinking towards it all. For there are several factors that influence my different levels of guilt when it comes to ripping off a creative work.

    1. Is the artist among the living ? If not, sorry its fair game.
    2. If said artist is among us living how sucessful have they been ? If I'm ripping off let's say led zepplin vs some random struggling musician let's say like Jonah. Im not gonna feel bad for ripping off the big corporate giant and might think this thing through with someone with a little less stature

    Something else to consider is the quality of the ripped off work. If I go steal the next deftones album and its a giant turd then more than likely I won't ever listen to it again... In which I don't feel bad for pirating. But if I love it then I usually end up buying it. Just because I'm a nice guy.

    These artists are professionals and there are no excuses for suck records or films unless they are free in the first place.

    I'm not gonna sit here and say I bought all 120 gigs of my music library. But I'm also not going to be able to claim the downloading of these files off of the internet either lol. But I do purchase things that I hold in high regard.

    As far as books go I hate digital copies unless its some sort of manual or how to book. Something that I need to search for stuff if. So yeah. That's just the random thoughts of a guy dropping a deuce. You should have nothing to worry about with me though sir ... Until you figure out a way to put a hardcopy of shining in crimson on demonoid.

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  2. Hey - I just bought your book!

    You have a fabulous blog - Would you like to be part of the virtual book tour of Jake Bannerman - the next big thing in horror? For more information please get in touch asap: sarantorchre@mail.com

    You can review his anthology of scary as hell short stories (the Pitchfork Diaries: Vol 1) which were very recently released, or have Jake guest post/answer your interview questions instead. We would really love to have you on board!

    S X

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  3. Thanks Saran, I hope you enjoy it! I'll email you soon. Thanks.

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  4. I'm behind on this post.. but here's my view:
    Like Steve said, its about who's music I would be "stealing". I quote stealing because I'm not actually taking it. Its being given to me on the internet. I guess you could more relate it to "Receiving Stolen Goods".
    If the goods +5in which were given to me are created by someone who's immensely popular and being backed and marketed by huge corporations, then I wouldn't have any remorse receiving said goods and not paying for them..
    Say Shining in Crimson had been out for about 3 months and the good reviews intrigued me..
    I look ofr a PDF of it online to download.
    Looky here, I found it on mediafire.
    Download it, and read it.
    I looved it.
    Great book.
    If I like it enough to read it again, I'd definitely look into supporting this guy 'Bob', the independent.
    I'd look for Bob's website/store and check into how much a physical copy would be. as long as its not ridiculously priced, I'd surely order a hard copy. Not only order a hard copy, but I'd spam all my friends who like to read, or like relevant topics to the book to pick up a copy and check it out.

    I download music all the time to check it out. Sometimes, even if I like the artist I may not buy their album (money constraints usually hold me back), but I'll spam the artist and album to at LEAST 20 of my friends and I'll get at least 1 or 2 of them to buy it instead. I feel that yea, I didn't buy it but in me getting a free copy, I was able to create more revenue for the artists than just my 1 purchase.

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