Originally posted by Ravens Nest
But the RIAA should leave us all alone, people will take things for free if they are available but if a album is good enough (And a lot are not) then they should buy it, but searching peoples machines for copyright material is just plain wrong.
RIAA stop being so greedy and let people decide for themselves if they want to buy, most will eventually if it is good enough and cheap enough..
If you consider something is too expensive, then the response to that is too simply refuse to buy it. The price doesn't give you the right to rip off the artist or the record company. If you don't have illegal material (be it music, video's or software) on your machine, then you have nothing to fear even if someone does "search" it.
If you get caught downloading, or worse yet, uploading copyright material then you do open yourself up to legal action and it COULD end up costing you a lot of money.
I speak as someone on the other end of this chain. I have had to threaten court action (and mean it) to protect works of my own that are copyrighted. Without that protection, a large part of my living would disappear - and as a direct result I would not produce the works that I do. In my case, had the other party not backed down and paid up, I
would have proceded with the court action - I had already instructed solicitors and the party in question paid up 24 hours before my deadline expired - by sending a cheque by motorbike courier.
If you don't like the price of something, simply don't buy it. But it does wind me up when people try to justify their illegal action by moaning about the price. The people that have the rights to a copyright right work have the right to determine the price, and you have the right to buy it or not.
I work hard to produce my work, and I damn well object when someone decides they can just take it because the think I'm overcharging.
In response to the original question, I think that it is a bit of both. I think that there is undoubtedly a slump due to piracy but that it is not that simple.
Some people pirate, then buy. Some people pirate that never would have bought. If that is the case, then the copyright holder has not lost anything.
I thihnk they RIAA have a point, but that their figures are probably wildly exaggerated - it does, after all, strengthen their case to make the problem out to be worse than it is.