To Share or Not to Share... That is the Million Dollar Question...: Guess Things Happen That Way

*Lemme explain: Today's title is the 10 billionth song bought on iTunes. Johnny Cash, anyone?


Being honest, I'm actually okay with file sharing. My general rule is to download whatever interests you, and if you start foaming at the mouth from excitement, show that artist/actor/person respect by buying their album/movie/thing. Maybe it's because I don't see its harmful effect, but I don't think it's that wrong. Why do we have to worry about giving celebrities more money, when the yearly income of our parents/providers, are less than an quarter of what they make in a month? And if I have no real motivation to stop, why would I?

SOPA destroys Megaupload

It's difficult for me to justify something that appears so immoral, but maybe the war with SOPA will help provide me with a way of explaining. If you are an experienced participant in file sharing, torrents are not a new concept. And the best place to download these torrents is indefinitely The Pirate Bay. They are the big wigs of the file sharing world, and are currently loudly protesting against SOPA. They recently released a press release that explained why their stance was so strong. It's general statement was that The Pirate Bay and Hollywood are one and the same. Due to Thomas Edison's patents for motion pictures, all aspiring film makers relocated to California, founding Hollywood. As well, at this time there were no copyrights to speak of, allowing studios to copy old stories and make movies out of them. This means that the whole industry was based on "stealing" the work of others. The Pirate Bay, and other file sharing websites are all doing the exact same thing that was done during the making of Hollywood; they've circumvented their rules and demolished the monopoly held over the public.  As a person who uses file sharing, I am allowing myself to freely access media. I am helping create our own, virtual Hollywood while using what I am given. Ultimately, I would still hope that whoever wanted my theoretical art/song/movie would want to buy my piece after they had downloaded it. People taking my work and using it freely is something which naturally accompanies making my art form available to the public. Deciding whether that really matters to me is what is important. Regardless, the most important factor should not be whether I'm not receiving money from people who choose to download my music or not. It's about whether they listen to it at all, and what they think of it. The money that comes from what I love is just an added bonus to using my passion to do what I love successfully. 


Want to read all of The Pirate Bay press release on SOPA? Click here.