Illegally Downloading Music-New Law | elilaa's Blog

The British government is to introduce a “three strikes and you’re out” rule to combat the illegal downloading of copyrighted material from the Internet.

From April next year, offenders will initially receive warning notifications, followed by targeted legal action by copyright holders. The government would reserve powers to suspend accounts as a “last resort” for the most serious infringers.

That's from The Irish Times website.

The same article said that 1 in 20 tracks downloaded are downloaded legally, meaning that 19 out of 20 are downloaded illegally and I can say that I have contributed to that number. I have downloaded music illegally. I knew it was wrong but I did it anyway. The reason I did it was because, for myself, that was the best option.

Two plates are put in front of you each with a cake on them. Both cakes are identical except that one is free while the other one you have to pay for. You are told how hard the baker has worked on them. The baker won't know which one you picked but at the end of the day he will know how many in total were paid for and how many free ones people had taken. Which one would you pick?

Sure everybody would like to think that they'd be kind and appreciative and pick the one you have to pay for but if this choice was given to you every single time you wanted a cake eventually most people would pick the free one. Maybe not every time but sometimes you would pick the free one.

It's the same with music. The choice is always there when you want a song.

I'm not saying it's right to download music illegally I'm just stating the facts.

Sometimes when I download a song after a week or two I get sick of the song and simply delete it. If I had to pay for that song I'd be pretty annoyed, which again pushes me to illegal downloading. I say pushes but I know that it is ultimately my choice to do something illegal not someone else's. I'm not trying to move the blame off me.

Another thing I'm worried about (and the main thing I'm worried about) with this is invasion of privacy. How do they know exactly what I'm downloading? Are there people spying on my computer watching everything I do? How will this work?

It just makes me a bit itchy...

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On another note I'm doing NaNoWriMo!

And I'm already behind!!

Wish me luck!