Mininova announces Content Distribution

Jasper · 24-02-2008, 13:20

http://www.mininova.org/distribution

http://torrentfreak.com/mininova-lau...ervoce-071221/

I'm not sure if people will see this as debate-worthy, but I think it's very relevant to freedom of speech and action on the net as a whole. One of the things I'm very passionnate about is an open internet where people are free to express themselves in ways which don't harm others. I, very strongly, believe that piracy does not harm the industries it affects and I am very pleased to see Mininova trying to illustrate this point. What people fail to understand is that there will always be piracy - be it some dude wandering up and down the beach whilst you're on holiday, or a muso downloading gigabytes of albums; it will never stop.

What the industries also fail to realise is that it provides listeners with a decent insight into their product before splashing out their hard-earned on it. I'm not going to choose to buy an album until I've had chance to listen to it properly, on my own terms - that doesn't mean a 96kbps 10 second sample of each track on a website somewhere (or even a couple of full-length tracks off their last.fm - this is still not representative of their album!), it means on my ipod/laptop/stereo/whatever, and I should be given that choice. The fact that I am able to do this (legally or not) allows me to see whether I like a band, put their album on my to-buy list (yeah, there's a list - money's tight right now!) and probably book tickets to their show if they play close enough to me. I, for one, would not go out and spend £10-£20+ on an album on a whim - at least half of the stuff I try out is crap! Is the industry still benefitting from my borrowing music from them? Yes.

Of course, you will always have those who download without the intention to buy - and those are the damaging small minority - but they may be distributing content for others to peruse before they buy, so it's swings and roundabouts.

I've extended the music aspect of the argument as it's the side that's most relevant to me, but it also applies to software and movies in the same light.

24-02-2008, 13:20	#1
Jasper Simple & Red Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 535	Mininova announces Content Distribution http://www.mininova.org/distribution http://torrentfreak.com/mininova-lau...ervoce-071221/ I'm not sure if people will see this as debate-worthy, but I think it's very relevant to freedom of speech and action on the net as a whole. One of the things I'm very passionnate about is an open internet where people are free to express themselves in ways which don't harm others. I, very strongly, believe that piracy does not harm the industries it affects and I am very pleased to see Mininova trying to illustrate this point. What people fail to understand is that there will always be piracy - be it some dude wandering up and down the beach whilst you're on holiday, or a muso downloading gigabytes of albums; it will never stop. What the industries also fail to realise is that it provides listeners with a decent insight into their product before splashing out their hard-earned on it. I'm not going to choose to buy an album until I've had chance to listen to it properly, on my own terms - that doesn't mean a 96kbps 10 second sample of each track on a website somewhere (or even a couple of full-length tracks off their last.fm - this is still not representative of their album!), it means on my ipod/laptop/stereo/whatever, and I should be given that choice. The fact that I am able to do this (legally or not) allows me to see whether I like a band, put their album on my to-buy list (yeah, there's a list - money's tight right now!) and probably book tickets to their show if they play close enough to me. I, for one, would not go out and spend £10-£20+ on an album on a whim - at least half of the stuff I try out is crap! Is the industry still benefitting from my borrowing music from them? Yes. Of course, you will always have those who download without the intention to buy - and those are the damaging small minority - but they may be distributing content for others to peruse before they buy, so it's swings and roundabouts. I've extended the music aspect of the argument as it's the side that's most relevant to me, but it also applies to software and movies in the same light.