Anyone tried this? Is it legit and reliable?
They had a few bits about it on The Screen Savers. It appears to be a great, honest, site that is perfectly legal… in russia. Accessing it is probably illegal most everywhere else.
Probably? Like, probably so you shouldn’t use it, or probably but until they say definitely, go for it?
I’ve used it, if that help. Its really really slow though.
I use it and love it. I advocate it, because it is what I want at the price I want to pay. Hello capitalism.
That’s “Hello, capitalism.” in the same spirit as one would say when buying stereo equipment out of the back of someone’s car as “Factory Direct”, yes?
Some little voice inside of me tells me that the RIAA didn’t decide to finally get into the online music business by giving away distribution rights to all of their music to a russian source while signing an agreement that significantly undercuts everyone who currently sells a partial catalog here in the US. It’s illegal, pure and simple.
The only question that remains is … “does this website eventually lead back to a seedy criminal organization that makes all its money through criminal means, or is it just a bunch of guys who feel like making a quick buck?”
Because if its the latter, its okay because they just want to eat!
Maybe they just want to eat caviar and creme brule? :lol:
Don’t we all?
So why DO you hate Russia?
Hey, they’ve got the soundtrack to Interstate '82!
That’s “Hello, capitalism.” in the same spirit as one would say when buying stereo equipment out of the back of someone’s car as “Factory Direct”, yes?
Some little voice inside of me tells me that the RIAA didn’t decide to finally get into the online music business by giving away distribution rights to all of their music to a russian source while signing an agreement that significantly undercuts everyone who currently sells a partial catalog here in the US. It’s illegal, pure and simple.[/quote]
Actually, no, it’s “Hello Capitalism,” like “Hello Kitty.” It’s cute and convenient and easy for me to rationalize.
I don’t want to pay $1 per song. It is too expensive for me, especially for someone who consumes music at the rate and the way I do (entire artist backcatalogs at a time). I’m sure that I am taking pennies out of each of the artists’ pockets whose music I am getting from AllofMP3 instead of iTunes or wherever, but at this point, I just don’t care. I’ve become accustomed to getting all my music for free, with the occasional purchased CD or live show, and that’s how I intend to continue consuming my media for the rest of time. I pay AllofMP3 because they have a nice backend and good service, and I feel that $0.50 or so is a fair price for an album’s worth of MP3s. If I could put, say, a dime of that into the artists’ pockets, I would, but not for a 1000% cost premium.
When an American-legal service offers what AllofMP3 has at the same price, I will probably advocate them, instead. I feel no moral burden to bolster a failing system.
What does this mean? Are you saying that you feel no guilt for not compensating artists? Or that you feel a little bit guilty because you know they should be compensated, but that you aren’t?
One of the two (or both) of us, has a fundamental misunderstanding of what “capitalism” means. I always thought it had something to do with paying people if you thought what they offered was worth the price they were charging, and if someone came around and offered something similar but at a better price, others have to adapt or face economic extinction.
Your definition is more along the lines of “This is my price, whoever meets it wins, regardless of what’s necessary to meet it.” Since it’s just music, no big deal. Maybe that is the truest form of capitalism after all. However, I sure as fuck don’t want to ride in an airplane built from that base definition.
Well of course not… an airplane is a material good whose quality is suspect if it’s not built under certain auspices. (Government regulation, trusted brand name, etc.) Music’s quality is immediately apparent… all you have to do is listen to it once and you’ll be able to judge its quality. Well… sound quality, at any rate. Some people can’t tell the quality of the music if their life depended on it. Color Me Badd was once popular, as scary as that is.
Unless you’re making the argument “Piracy is the same as stealing”, in which case there’s nothing more to say. People who say that have usually heard all the arguments detailing the difference between normal theft and piracy, and they’re not swayed. Similarly, those who think piracy is OK have usually heard the anti-pirates’ arguments, and are also unswayed. Which makes the whole discussion rather pointless, yes?
What does this mean? Are you saying that you feel no guilt for not compensating artists? Or that you feel a little bit guilty because you know they should be compensated, but that you aren’t?[/quote]
How about neither? I feel that artists should be compensated, but that while I’m certainly taking money from them, and I feel a little bit bad about that, I feel morally justified in getting my music via AllofMP3 (or free, to be honest) because the music distribution system is, to me, broken.
It’s like if someone said, “You know, computers have always cost $5,000, so even though technology has faciliated a method of production that can make a computer for just a couple of hundred dollars instead of the thousands it cost before, we should continue to pay $5,000 per PC because we don’t want to steal from the engineers.” Technically, there is sound logic there, especially if your personal ethic says any action outside of the law is wrong (“plain and simple”). I personally think it sounds like bullshit, though, and feel that this is effectively the same story that’s being told to me about music. I don’t buy it.
I’ll concede, though, that I am also the product of period of being too poor to buy almost anything but a computer and a monthly broadband account that happened to coincide with the ability to easily download almost any media I wanted. As I have started to have extra income again, though, I am reevaluating what is worth my money and what isn’t. PC games, for instance, I’m actually starting to buy, because I want good PC games to continue to exist, and don’t feel that they are unfairly priced (if anything, they’ve gotten more reasonable in the last few years).
And I don’t know that capitalism (and I know I am to blame for introducing the term, if playfully) as we know it actually knows what to do with digital, lossless copying. Obviously, the market reaction right now has been to pay for stricter copyright legislation.
The point is that you should just steal it from Kazaa if you aren’t going to use a real legal service. That way, some jackass in Russia isn’t getting rich.
But I don’t mind them making money, as using their service is approximately $.50 per album better and easier than using Kazaa.
I am going to start shoplifting beer, because the beer distribution system is broken. It does not pull up to my door and drop the beer off when I want one. How F’d up is that, they must have a deal with the car makers, because I actually have to go in my car to go buy beer! And don’t forget what is inside my car, yeah, oil! Thats right, when I go buy beer at the store, I am actually supporting terrorist states, how f’d up is that? The only answer is for me to steal beer.
And. I am not a thief. If John Adams or whoever wants to come to my house, I will easily pay them $1 a case (because with modern manufacturing, that is what I have decided it must cost them to make, with no profit of course). But the hell if I should have to do anything (past the whole shoplifting thing) to get my beer.
Chet
That’s cool. If you bring the beer, I’ll bring the music.