Downloads yay or nay?

[latro]

I tend to try and justify my donloads to some extent - I only download anime and only stuff thats not available in the UK/USA and only keep downloading stuff that I buy if it does become available (the groaning shelves behind me attest to this...). It doesn't make it better but by the same extent I think I'd stop entirely if sites like Crunchyroll, which are getting more and more endorssed, would pick-up EVERY show and movie when it came out and allowed download as well as streaming (not sure if CR still do at the mo) in their subscription so you didn't have to rely on them keeping everything on their servers.

To my mind by enforcing all these region-barriers with licensing regulations the media companies themselves are to blame for a good portion of piracy. Aside from the hardcore guys who wouldn't buy things no matter what the price, I think most people would willingly pay for the real thing if they didn't have to wait for months.
American films can be prime examples. I never downloaded Hellboy or Up but I bet a lot of people did given that the gap in the release dates was so big that I had them on R1 DVD within a week of them hitting the cinema over here...

[Necro]

Originally Posted by Kharn

The old excuse of "I wouldn't have listened to it otherwise" doesn't really fly now that most stuff is on Youtube

Unless you listen to obscure stuff like I do, which it is sometimes hard to locate a download, let alone a real copy.
I have something I dont like about buying digital downloads. Its a great idea, and allows for easy pourchase, but if I buy something I want to be able to touch it. For example, I got a £3 MP3 Voucher for Amazon. I downloaded some a few tracks and then some program I ran buggered up my Music folder. I went to redownlaod them and I couldnt, as you can only do it once. Say your harddrive crashed. It means you have paid for a whole music collection and you no longer have it. Of course, backups are needed, but it shouldnt be if you own it, say on a disk.
I have nothing against paying, I just want to know whether it's good. If it is I will buy it, if its not, I wont.

[Dark Hearted Disco Queen]

I don't like to pay for downloads either- I like to have something in my hand. I have done it a few times for things which are unavailable but if I saw them on CD I'd buy them again.

And I agree with streaming- YouTube is one of the first places I go to, even if the band is obscure and don't have a music video chances are someone has still uploaded a few tracks. Spotify is quite good for this too- I've bought a few things from listening to albums there. I do find Spotify a bit dodgy though as they rip off the bands a lot, but it's still legal.

The reason for region coding DVDs and Games make absolutely no sense to me considering that music CDs are not region coded and as far as I know people importing CDs from other places are not having a negative affect- the sooner we get rid of region coding the better.

[Necro]

A small degree of my lack of DVD purchases is due to the region coding. While it can be bypassed with a quick DVD unlock, doing so voids the warrenty and such, and I cant afford one anyway. There are alot of series that have no english release that I would purchase, but I cant as I cant watch it.

I know why they do it, but its still a stupid idea, as the only reason can be fixed by leveling out the prices.

[Kharn]

Is region coding not something to do with international copyright or something?

[Necro]

Well there are a couple of reasons behind it, but I know that one is due to the prices. As it is cheaper to import products sometimes, the region coding is there to increase sales in their own country. Probably for the government, I dunno. But Its the same for CDs, but instead of region coding, there are bonus tracks. So many releases from bands I like *coughdragonforcecough* have Japan exclusive bonus tracks to encourage purchases over there intead of imports. But then that just reduces sales elsewhere due to foreigners importing from japan...?
Its all retarded if you ask me.

[Project-2501]

Originally Posted by Kharn

Is region coding not something to do with international copyright or something?

Yup. And lets not forget the TV system differences. When DVDs were invented not every TV could cope with both PAL and NTSC. (plus NTSC is awful)

Region coding wasn't just put there to annoy.

[Eros]

I am both for and against, but it depends upon the context. If its just for the sake of getting hold of something you shouldn't otherwise be allowed then i have to be grumpy granddad and say "You should do without"

However alot of the current annoyances like - only downloading something once, is there to stop people going around to a friends house, logging into the account and downloading a billion tracks onto someone elses pc or what ever. It does make sense since people said "NO" to the DRM stuff (and for good reason)

However, the same thing can be easily done by everyone with any kind of MP3 player, just plug in, copy, take to friends house. SO in many ways, the industry achieves nothing and just pisses everyone off...

However your average joe user probably doesnt do such a thing anyway, im not going to pay for something then give it away... why? because im a miserable git.

[Necro]

Sharing is caring.
Im quite happy to pay for stuff, and then have other people leech off of me for it. I mean I have burned copies of my games for people just because im like that. Same the other way, to be honest. I know its wrong, but Im not one to give a damn. I have much more illicit friends, such as the one who phishes for eastern european/asian paypal accounts.

[Dark Hearted Disco Queen]

Well it looks like Google is getting much stricter with Blogger sites that offer downloads and have started deleting them. It's about time- I have found countless blogs offering complete albums for download when I wasn't even looking for them and I always wondered how on earth Blogger was allowng them to get away with it (I'm not even talking about just odd tracks for download I mean entire blogs with nothing but links to full downloads of brand new or unreleased albums).

[Ross]

The problem is abuse - I for one download PSP games, but if I like them, I buy them. In the case of Gundam/Macross, I download them because the discs take forever to get to me from Japan (I just insta-buy those games on pre-order).

My PSP games collection is 40-odd strong, more than any of the other consoles I own (and I own a LOT of consoles!). Yet aside from the DS, the PSP is the only console I can pirate games on.

Which is why I don't believe the PSP is "crippled" by piracy. So far as I know it's no worse than the DS, and that's doing ok. If the console is crippled by anything, it's crap and dithering support from Sony.

Oh, and region coding is about release and pricing control - by delaying releases by region, they can concentrate their marketing. It also allows them to charge the maximum possible price in each region on release. Americans, for example, wouldn't pay $80 for a new game, but that's what's expected in the UK.

[Necro]

I rarely use my PSP, but when I do its either to play Hatsune Miku Project DIVA or Pokemon games, as its easier then on my GBA. Its too easy to pirate on it though.

And about the blogs, I find them all the time too. I know of a few I use to discover bands, which links to their myspace if they have one, so its pretty good, as alot of these releases will never be seen by the average person unless they look for them on these blogs.

[The Master]

Dont mind downloads but when it comes to music nothing beats the sound quality of vinyl

[Necro]

I really wish Vinyl was still the main music thing, because while CDs are small and hold alot, there are alot of really nice picture disk vinyls that I want, but I cant justify buying them. I have no record player, and even though I could get one, probably at a decent price, I still prefer MP3 as its just easier. Though I have tried buying this one vinyl twice now. The Stars are Dead Now - ColdWorld. Limited to 287 copies, 100 on white, 187 on black. I have only seen the black version. I really want it, but it goes for 40EUR+

[Eros]

Vinyl is nice, though the sound quality as such is usually just 'different' rather than better. I can see a long argument breaking out so before we start... audio is massively subjective, about 95% people cant tell the difference between 256kbit/s MP3 and CD on awesome sound gear and only about 50% can tell the difference between that and 128kbit/s (this is from a massive study that was done during the early days of MP3 compression, i believe it was the guy who came up with the r3mix profile for lame.) So any difference between CD and Vinyl given that the CD media outstrips the physical specifications of Vinyl is down to the mastering.

Mastering is important though, many of the original Smashing Pumpkins Vinyl do sound better than there CD counterparts.


Anyway.... ripping off via download is bad mmmmmkay. To be honest i often think of it as living beyond your means. We don't have a human right to have everything we want. Yet we are sort of told or given the impression that, to want something... means we must have it and regardless of how it comes, its fine. It is frustrating as all hell if there is something amazing that you want, but you cannot have it... totally understand that! There are many things i want, but alas! I cannot have