acting on ACTA?
As you already know (and if not, will find out soon enough) Megaupload and Megavideo were taken down, and probably for good. You can read the details here on BBC NEWS' page. The article mentions American regulation documents Sopa and Pipa, but apparently Europe ain't any better - we are about to enter the so called ACTA, and Poland is supposed to sign it on 26th. Now, this made me think... and yes, me thinking means your friendlist gets spammed with another long post.
I believe even if all major host sites get closed that won't stop willing people from sharing illegal copies of movies, music and software. There will be other methods found or brought back to daylight from the depths of '90ties memories (do you remember sharing files through IRC?)
Now, I don't want to talk about morals - we could spend hours discussing whether intelectual property is a valid term, and exactly how much should one pay for a chance to watch a music video. I would like to tell you about my personal experiences and ask about yours. And I'd like to stay practical, leaving judgement for another ocassion.
Long time ago, when my hard disk was 3.2 GB, I had no Internet connection at home, and kept the whole Gravitation series on 2 CDs (yes, I meant CDs) copied from a friend who was lucky enough to download it through IRC at the uni, somebody brought a fanfic to a party. It was a Polish translation of Leareth's X Therapy, and we all loved it (who didn't in 2003?). I liked it so much that I spent some time at my high school library to hunt it down, saved it on a diskette, and since I was at it, I also took another multichapter by the same author to read later at home. The 'another multichapter' was Angelic Intervention, and, long story short, it changed my life. It made me fall in love with Tokyo Babylon I still knew very little about (only as much as any teenage 'X' fan would).
Now, I don't really remember how it happened that I got my hands on Tokyo Babylon image soundtrack with 'Sweet' on it (but I am sure as hell it was anything but a legal copy). 'Sweet' is the first song by Chara I have ever heard, and at first I disliked it. Try to give it an out-of-context listen and you have a good chance of hating it too. After some time I found the now disfunct onmyouji.net along with more Leareth's writings (now THAT was a reason to learn some English...), spent a few nights sleepless and found myself humming 'Rainbow Gossip' all the time. Then I also downloaded '70% Yuugure no uta', and sure it was different. But the oldest mp3s I had were badly tagged, so it took me two more years to find out all three songs (not just the latter two) were performed by the same artist. It must have happened that finally winamp played them one after another and made me freeze in whatever I was doing at the time.
Curiosity was eating me alive. I wanted more. MORE! It was very hard to find anything by Chara back then. She was on a hiatus, and old torrents were dead. But I managed to find around 4 songs on some Chinese sites (it was an interesting experience considering I do not speak not to mention read Chinese), and among them 'Atashi ha koko yo'. Curiosity was over, I was mesmerized. It took time, effort and a lot of good luck, but finally I had a few full albums and so I could say I was a fan.
What's the point of this story?
Today I own most of Chara's albums (not all yet, but I'm on my way there), some singles, and I went to her concert while in Japan, paying good money for a ticket of course.
Yet, I would never as much as hear the name of my all-time favourite singer if not for illegall uploads.
Same goes for Luna Sea, Buck-Tick, Shiina Ringo, Bonnie Pink, Wang Lee Hom, Clazziquai Project, Epik High, Kubota Toshinobu, and pretty much all the other artists whose releases I do own, and who may have found their way to my heart in a less complicated way, but it was always, ALWAYS through net.
Now, it's your turn: Honestly speaking, how may Asian CDies, DVDs and goods altogether have you bought earnestly, and how many do you think you would, if you had no chance of downloading them beforehand, or at least checking the contents out on youtube?
When major Japanese companies started removing videos from YT I sighed over how retarded their way of thinking was, and watched kpop videos (legitimately uploaded by their makers) taking over. Still, I thought it was a phase old-fashioned producers like JE had to go through to realize they don't earn, but rather lose money doing that. Now I see I was mistaken - it's gonna happen all around the globe. Are they trying to make us watch MTV? Sorry, but to me it's not an option.
To this day, I own quite a number of original CDs released in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, it makes for about a half of my collection. Only a few of these I got without downloading them and giving them a good listen first (they were from artists I already knew and liked). I'm afraid not having the chance to check the contents of what I get shipped (not for free mind you) from the other end of the planet will only result in me not ordering. Am I the only one?
I believe even if all major host sites get closed that won't stop willing people from sharing illegal copies of movies, music and software. There will be other methods found or brought back to daylight from the depths of '90ties memories (do you remember sharing files through IRC?)
Now, I don't want to talk about morals - we could spend hours discussing whether intelectual property is a valid term, and exactly how much should one pay for a chance to watch a music video. I would like to tell you about my personal experiences and ask about yours. And I'd like to stay practical, leaving judgement for another ocassion.
Long time ago, when my hard disk was 3.2 GB, I had no Internet connection at home, and kept the whole Gravitation series on 2 CDs (yes, I meant CDs) copied from a friend who was lucky enough to download it through IRC at the uni, somebody brought a fanfic to a party. It was a Polish translation of Leareth's X Therapy, and we all loved it (who didn't in 2003?). I liked it so much that I spent some time at my high school library to hunt it down, saved it on a diskette, and since I was at it, I also took another multichapter by the same author to read later at home. The 'another multichapter' was Angelic Intervention, and, long story short, it changed my life. It made me fall in love with Tokyo Babylon I still knew very little about (only as much as any teenage 'X' fan would).
Now, I don't really remember how it happened that I got my hands on Tokyo Babylon image soundtrack with 'Sweet' on it (but I am sure as hell it was anything but a legal copy). 'Sweet' is the first song by Chara I have ever heard, and at first I disliked it. Try to give it an out-of-context listen and you have a good chance of hating it too. After some time I found the now disfunct onmyouji.net along with more Leareth's writings (now THAT was a reason to learn some English...), spent a few nights sleepless and found myself humming 'Rainbow Gossip' all the time. Then I also downloaded '70% Yuugure no uta', and sure it was different. But the oldest mp3s I had were badly tagged, so it took me two more years to find out all three songs (not just the latter two) were performed by the same artist. It must have happened that finally winamp played them one after another and made me freeze in whatever I was doing at the time.
Curiosity was eating me alive. I wanted more. MORE! It was very hard to find anything by Chara back then. She was on a hiatus, and old torrents were dead. But I managed to find around 4 songs on some Chinese sites (it was an interesting experience considering I do not speak not to mention read Chinese), and among them 'Atashi ha koko yo'. Curiosity was over, I was mesmerized. It took time, effort and a lot of good luck, but finally I had a few full albums and so I could say I was a fan.
What's the point of this story?
Today I own most of Chara's albums (not all yet, but I'm on my way there), some singles, and I went to her concert while in Japan, paying good money for a ticket of course.
Yet, I would never as much as hear the name of my all-time favourite singer if not for illegall uploads.
Same goes for Luna Sea, Buck-Tick, Shiina Ringo, Bonnie Pink, Wang Lee Hom, Clazziquai Project, Epik High, Kubota Toshinobu, and pretty much all the other artists whose releases I do own, and who may have found their way to my heart in a less complicated way, but it was always, ALWAYS through net.
Now, it's your turn: Honestly speaking, how may Asian CDies, DVDs and goods altogether have you bought earnestly, and how many do you think you would, if you had no chance of downloading them beforehand, or at least checking the contents out on youtube?
When major Japanese companies started removing videos from YT I sighed over how retarded their way of thinking was, and watched kpop videos (legitimately uploaded by their makers) taking over. Still, I thought it was a phase old-fashioned producers like JE had to go through to realize they don't earn, but rather lose money doing that. Now I see I was mistaken - it's gonna happen all around the globe. Are they trying to make us watch MTV? Sorry, but to me it's not an option.
To this day, I own quite a number of original CDs released in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, it makes for about a half of my collection. Only a few of these I got without downloading them and giving them a good listen first (they were from artists I already knew and liked). I'm afraid not having the chance to check the contents of what I get shipped (not for free mind you) from the other end of the planet will only result in me not ordering. Am I the only one?