Downloading music free from the internet: Is it wrong?

[Tony]

Have you invented a way of cloning sausages without buying them?

 

If you have, you can probably afford to buy your own music.

[Bonzo77]

No..

 

lets say i release a dance record on my own white label, featuring Beatles samples that i haven't been able/bothered to clear. I could easily supply record stores on an SoR basis (have done it a few times myself) - are they breaking the law (almost like handling 'stolen' goods), and is it still wrong for someone to download it for free?

 

That's what I thought you meant.

 

An artist should be asking permission to sample other artists work. So yes it's still wrong to download it for free.

 

The only way this situation would be totally legal would be if the artist had permission to use the samples and gave his/her audience permission and access to a free download.

[Forumosaurus]

Have you invented a way of cloning sausages without buying them?

 

If you have, you can probably afford to buy your own music.

 

No but that's my point.

 

If you could copy my sausage sandwich, you're not causing me a loss..you're not stealing it from me if you copy it and leave me with the original sandwich.

[LeMaquis]

But is it stealing if you can make a copy of something without causing loss.

 

I have a sausage sandwhich in the kitchen I made, if you could clone it without taking mine then hey, go ahead.

 

And if I decide to stop making sausage sandwiches because you copied it, well, there'll always be a thousand other people making sausage sandwiches you could choose from.

 

My point is nobody is going to stop making sausage sandwiches.

 

If I steal from you, that would suggest you had something which I took and you no longer have it. That's not what happens when you copy a record.

 

Even by your standards that's poor. There is no copyright on a sausage sandwich. It isn't a unique artefact created and marketed solely by someone. Your sausage sandwich won't carry the words "All rights of the manufacturer and of the owner of the sausage sandwich reserved - Unauthorized public performance, broadcasting and copying of this sausage sandwich prohibited."

[Tony]

Forumosaurus, I have the means to bludgeon you to death with a bag of frozen sausages.

 

It wouldn't really be like killing you, I would just say that it was sossicide.

[Forumosaurus]

Even by your standards that's poor. There is no copyright on a sausage sandwich. It isn't a unique artefact created and marketed solely by someone. Your sausage sandwich won't carry the words "All rights of the manufacturer and of the owner of the sausage sandwich reserved - Unauthorized public performance, broadcasting and copying of this sausage sandwich prohibited."

 

Forumosaurus's sausage sandwiches should be copyrighted.

 

What do you mean by my standards? I didn't realise I had a reputation on the forum.

[Bonzo77]

I'm pretty sure the law has changed recently to allow the royalty free use of samples so long as you have changed the song significantly

 

The law hasn't changed. If you are sampling another artists music with intent to release it, you need permission.

[Forumosaurus]

The law hasn't changed. If you are sampling another artists music with intent to release it, you need permission.

 

The mashups I made and put on to youtube, they are significantly different to their original songs but I'm allowed to make no money from them.

[Bonzo77]

The mashups I made and put on to youtube, they are significantly different to their original songs but I'm allowed to make no money from them.

 

I don't know where you've got this idea that if a song is significantly different, it's ok to use samples. If you use any part of aother artists song, even a snare crack or a kick drum sound, you need permission. Otherwise, it's illegal.

[Forumosaurus]

I don't know where you've got this idea that if a song is significantly different, it's ok to use samples. If you use any part of aother artists song, even a snare crack or a kick drum sound, you need permission. Otherwise, it's illegal.

 

Yeah but a sample can be part of another persons song.

 

I'm not sure it is illegal because as far as I'm aware, (I say as far as I'm aware, actually I mean, I know) Youtube puts ads on my videos and the money is split betwixt the artists.

 

Thus the artist consents to it being on Youtube.