OCTOBER 16, 2009
VOL. 46, NO. 2 Music:
Illegally downloading music? Think again
Max Mallory
STAFF WRITER
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ENTERTAINMENT
llegally downloaded music has existed for more than ten years now, ever since the rise and decline of Napster and other “peer-topeer” programs in the early 2000s. The death of Napster proved that downloading music illegally could result in consequences, but in 2009, does that still hold true? The answer isn’t quite clear to anyone at this point. For most people, the worst they will get is a letter telling them to stop infringing on copyright, and even that is somewhat rare. Some get it worse. Take the case of Joel Tenenbaum, who was fined $675,000 for sharing a grand total of…30 songs. That ends up being a fine of $22,500 a song. Compare that to the average price of $1 a song and Joel could’ve purchased 22,500 songs instead of sharing one. Excessive punishment is an understatement here. Another example is Jammie Thomas-Rasset, a Minnesota mother of four, who was sued a whopping $1.29 million for sharing 24 songs, or $80,000 a song.
But who’s suing these people? The corporation that represents 85% of legitimate sound recordings, called The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), is. The RIAA’s actions are reasonable to a degree. Some think that the lawsuits they imposed are necessary, and some do not. But the amount of money they want in return is probably pushing the limit. The RIAA claims that piracy is killing the music industry, but the music is doing just fine. Some artists don’t care, and have even publicly announced for people to download their music. 46% of students at Maine South agree that artists do not lose anything by kids downloading music. Most local bands build a fan base by giving out copies of their songs at gigs, or at their school. There are many ways for unsigned bands to promote their music and make a little money at the same time, and the most popular way right now is the Internet. Sites like Facebook and MySpace let the fans come to an artist’s page and listen to their music online. The website Last.fm gives artists royalties based on how many times people
listen to their songs. YouTube lets artists put up music videos. Cdbaby will even sell music for artists. There are countless ways to promote, but for every band that sells their music independently, there’s a record label that could have made money off of them. The more music that is shared, the less control the record labels have over the music industry. What do the students and faculty of Maine South have to say about illegally downloading music? “It’s cheaper and easier to get than a CD, and why buy something if you can get it for free?” one Maine South student said. According to a school survey of 783 Maine South students, 56.5% of Maine South students illegally download music. And 60.9% of those same students say less than 25% of the music on their computer was dowloaded illegally. Piracy has always existed in one form or another, and people will adapt to the change. It seems that no matter what the RIAA does, songs will always be shared. “Downloading illegally is like doing anything else that is illegal- like breaking the speed limit. You can commit it, but if you get caught, you
will pay the price just like anyone else,” said Mr. Krause, an applied technology teacher here at Maine South. A big reason minors are the main pirates is because they aren’t liable—their parents are. If they are caught selling pirated music, their parents will be the ones blamed, and while the minor will still get in legal trouble, the parents will likely get in more. “Musicians are paid enough for what they do, and it doesn’t seem fair for people to have to buy their CDs and see their concerts and buy their merch, so music should be shared” states senior Drew Pruett. Just because people download music doesn’t mean that they don’t make up for it in other ways. Some buy merchandise and concert tickets instead. In fact, a study showed that those who said they download illegal music for free bought 10 times more legal music than those who never download music illegally. By law, copyright infringement is illegal. However, it’s up to you whether you download or not; just be careful and consider the consequences. Misc:
Ten random things you need to know about Josh Timm STAFF WRITER
O
ver the years, pop culture has changed. Fads have come and gone. Everybody remembers the Livestrong bracelets, but few look back fondly on the Gwen Stefani song “Hollaback Girl.” Even though there have been a lot of fads over the years, there are always great things that people miss, things that the average person has never heard of, but should have. There are ten things that stand out as things that everyone should know about, because not only are each of these incredibly entertaining, but they are also great to share with friends. 1. First on the list is Tinyurl.com. The site is very incredibly useful, and easy to use. When one is assigned a project that requires the use of long URLs, it can be difficult to write out 25 characters with forward slashes, brackets, and dashes galore. The website turns long URLs into a sim-
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ple, easy-to-write-out URLs. 2. “Stadaffe,” an entire album of German rap, by Peter Fox, is an incredibly catchy album. The lyrics to the song are entirely in German, but it doesn’t stop the songs from being fantastic or catchy. The song “Alles Neu” on the album is a favorite of most. 3. “Flight of the Conchords.” This band is a hilarious folk duo. Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement are the two musicians from New Zealand that make up the band. The duo mainly play guitar, but occasionally they switch to other instruments. They have a show on HBO and two seasons of the show are available on DVD as well as on a number of hilarious albums. 4.Howmanypeopleareinspacerightnow.com. This website lists a simple number of how many people are on the International Space Station right now. It also links to videos of all thinks aeronautics, including the docking of space craft to the ISS.
5.“Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.” This is a 45-minute musical starring Felicia Day, Nathan Fillion, and Neal Patrick Harris. Harris was the host of this year’s Emmy Awards. The plot of the musical is about the rivalry between Dr. Horrible and Captain Hammer, and the awkward love of Dr. Horrrible and Penny. The musical is a must-watch because it is witty, entertaining, and hilarious. 6. Imdb.com. If you’ve ever wondered what a certain movie was called or every single actor/actress that was involved in it, Imdb.com is the perfect website for you. Just typing in the name of an actor or actress brings up everything he or she has done. 7. Funnyordie.com. This website is host to a large amount of sidesplitting videos, including exclusive videos of celebrities. Will Ferrell and Jack Black make appearances on the site’s videos from time to time. 8. Hulu.com. Ever since YouTube removed TV episodes because
of copyright infringement, Hulu has been the best source to get recent episodes of TV shows for free. TV shows like “Heroes,” “The Biggest Loser,” and “Saturday Night Live” are all on Hulu for free. 9. “Garden State.” The movie has an incredibly interesting story. It stars Zach Braff of “Scrubs” renown, and Natalie Portman. The plot signifies the expression, “to the world, you may be one person, but to one person, you may be the world.” The story is about how one person can change somebody else’s life so drastically. 10.“The Royal Tenenbaums.” This movie is written by Owen Wilson, and starring Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson, Ben Stiller, and Bill Murphy. The movie is incredible. While depressing and hilarious at the same time, skipping this movie might be the biggest mistake in your life.