Illegal downloads

[GujuNilesh]

Our generation is know for downloading illegal songs, movies, games, software, etc etc... and I am sure that includes many of us that are Christians.
My question is do you think its ok to download songs, movies, etc? The reason I ask is because I see many christians continue to download illegal songs, movies, games, and software and pretend that its ok or at least they dont care about it.
What do you think?? Dont get me wrong lol I am not trying to judge, its just that I've learned to stop downloading illegally and have found freeware or cheaper alternatives but then I see alot of the christian youth illegally downloading and makes me wonder why in the world I am not doing it. Maybe I'm just putting to much emphasis on the law and maybe I need to relax?

 

[arunma]

No, I think you're on to something here. The usual justification for downloading music is that you're only stealing from some faceless organization. However, there are a couple problems here. First, stealing music does have a noticable effect on the musicians. I've been told that musicians really do get hurt financially because people download their music illegally. Secondly, even if we are stealing from faceless, evil organizations, it still gives us an appearance of evil. As it says,

But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. (1 Peter 4:15)
​

When we suffer for such sins as these, it brings reproach to Christ, and can result in leading us into sin. Mind you, I too am not trying to judge people who download music illegally. I did this too for a long time, and was only recently convicted that it is not a godly practice for me.

My best judgment is this. Not all Internet media downloads are bad. For example, I don't personally see any issue with downloading television shows. I usually record programs on my TV card. So when I forget to do this, I have no problem downloading the show, since it's broadcast on live television anyway. Music and movies, however, are things that we normally need to pay for, which is why I don't download these.

 

[Windmill]

Our generation is know for downloading illegal songs, movies, games, software, etc etc... and I am sure that includes many of us that are Christians.
My question is do you think its ok to download songs, movies, etc? The reason I ask is because I see many christians continue to download illegal songs, movies, games, and software and pretend that its ok or at least they dont care about it.
What do you think?? Dont get me wrong lol I am not trying to judge, its just that I've learned to stop downloading illegally and have found freeware or cheaper alternatives but then I see alot of the christian youth illegally downloading and makes me wonder why in the world I am not doing it. Maybe I'm just putting to much emphasis on the law and maybe I need to relax?

Unlike what others may say, its not stealing. It is breaking copyright laws. There is a difference.

Despite that its still against the law and Paul tells us to not break the law. Now that is a definite fuzzy subject, so I won't go into it.

But my conscience tells me no so I don't do it, nor does it bother me, because its such a small price to pay

 

[icarusforde]

organization. However, there are a couple problems here. First, stealing music does have a noticable effect on the musicians. I've been told that musicians really do get hurt financially because people download their music illegally. Secondly, even if we are stealing from faceless, evil organizations, it still gives us an appearance of evil. As it says,
But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. (1 Peter 4:15)
When we suffer for such sins as these, it brings reproach to Christ, and can result in leading us into sin. Mind you, I too am not trying to judge people who download music illegally. I did this too for a long time, and was only recently convicted that it is not a godly practice for me.

My best judgment is this. Not all Internet media downloads are bad. For example, I don't personally see any issue with downloading television shows. I usually record programs on my TV card. So when I forget to do this, I have no problem downloading the show, since it's broadcast on live television anyway. Music and movies, however, are things that we normally need to pay for, which is why I don't download these.

Just a thought about this last paragraph...

The part where you say that you would download a tv show becuase it is free to air, brings me to this point: are songs not free to air when they are played over the radio? are movies not free to air when played over the same network that people see the shows on?

Thats my thoughts on your reply.

Downloading music: Im not sure about it really. I would say ok to it if you cannot find the music anywhere else, eg on CD, iTunes, shops, etc.

Thats the only time that i would condone it, and i would still say go out a buy another album from the artist that you downloaded the music from.

 

[MrAlan]

Right/wrong?
I guess you can look to two sources as to the right/wrong part of this. If I spent the time to write, perform, record, and publish the song and I say that this is copyrighted and you have to pay for it, then downloading it for free is wrong. Most artists fall into this category, but some actually do offer free downloads of their music. The second part would be the government's part in copyright law. According to US law, it is okay to record stuff from the TV/radio for PERSONAL use Also, ripping CDs to digital music also falls under that category at the moment. So I guess my answer would be the illegal downloading of music is wrong, but recording of radio and tv for personal use in America is not. Law decides what is theft and what is not theft, so that falls under the "thou shall not steal" category.

I had quite a bit of music I downloaded when I was a teenager (pre-DSL, 56K was slow too! you really had to want it and look hard). I started feeling bad about having the stuff, so I got rid of it all over the period of a month or so which was a bit painful. However, I found that I valued and enjoyed my music much more when I had to buy a new album to listen to it.

Some Legal ways to have tons of music on a budget

• music subscription services out there (ZunePass, Rhapsody, etc) where you can legally listen to basically any album whenever you want if that's what you want. A ZunePass is $15/month for unlimited music I believe where you have access to about 3 million albums.
• Used record stores where you can buy used CDs for cheap. I usually walk out the door with 5-8 CDs for 30 bucks when I go. keep in mind, you really should get rid of the digital copies of your music when you sell the CD since it becomes illegal to have digital copies when you don't have the CD

I think this is more cut and dry than some make it out to be. If you put your time and energy into your music, wouldn't you want people to pay for it? After all, if there's no money in producing music, there will be much much less good music out there

 

[arunma]

Just a thought about this last paragraph...

The part where you say that you would download a tv show becuase it is free to air, brings me to this point: are songs not free to air when they are played over the radio? are movies not free to air when played over the same network that people see the shows on?

Good point. I suppose the key difference here is that TV shows that one can find online are recorded off of TV, so they are lower quality than what you would find on DVD. I suppose in principle that a radio recording of a song might not be wrong either.

 

[Isambard]

Considering that the actual cost of a CD approaches 0 as the number of copies increase, I feel no pity for breaking a law designed to protect the rich.

 

[heavenbound1984]

I download illegally and I purchase CDs. I usually download because I want to preview the song before I buy it and if I don't like it i delete it and I never buy the CD. I hate going to the store and picking out a CD, bringing it home, and find out I don't like the songs, but one. It seems to me to be a waste of money. I don't own an ipod or an mp3 player, and i'm on my computer all the time for work. I don't consider it to be wrong. It's only a law because musicians want you to spend money on them instead of something else for you.

 

[Touma]

What about watching streaming video/movies? Its not against the copyright laws to view them (its against it to upload them without permission). Would it be considered stealing,when you are not taking it illegally, but rather watching it on a site that posts, and it stays on that site?

 

[SistrNChrist]

The way I see it is that downloading is wrong if you're planning to make a profit off of those free downloads, but it's all right if the downloads are strictly for your personal use. That being said, I see no problem with downloading songs to play on my Ipod

 

[Inbox24]

There is one best answer to this question.

It lies in not consuming these products (TV shows, music, etc) because really what have we as Christians have to gain from doing that? Will it help grow our relationship with God?

Instead we should be free from such bondage of the world and be dedicating every moment of our living to God.

 

[GujuNilesh]

while reading this topic... i realized the story in the Bible about how the Pharisees went up to Jesus and asked him if they should pay money to Caesar. and Christ responded (Then he said to them, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's." Matt 22:21)

which leads to the point that we should give to the musicians what they deserve... same goes for programs, games, and of course movies....

 

[Fraxenatic]

I agree with GujuNilesh.

I think that stealing is stealing. You can reason your own actions if you want to but the bible will always tell the truth. My conscience tells me that it is wrong to download this stuff even for your personal use.

You wouldn't steal a television. You wouldn't steal a computer. If you start thinking: "I will only download this for my personal use.", you are basically saying that stealing someone's items "for personal use" is fine too.

I don't mean to be judge anybody here. I have been hooked to downloading copyrighted material as well. Stopping it was really easy for me and God, though. I just removed all of the illegal stuff I had on my hard drive and asked for forgiveness. It was that simple.

 

[aric714]

I personally do not download illegally but will admit I had done so in past. With Youtube, you can preview any album you want and that determines if I buy the album or not. If I just want a single I usually us amazon, walmart, itunes, something like that. I do see it as stealing and it takes money out of peoples pocket who spent the money to make the music. We might think that those in the music industry have unlimited money but in reality it takes 100 of thousands of dollars to really establish an artist so that they are profitable. Also I would hate to be an artist trying to establish myself and have people who just steal my music.

 

[GujuNilesh]

agreed aric714

 

[johndale]

Just purchase original CDs it would be a big help in the industry too.

 

[montgolfier]

Theft is the illegal taking of another person's property without that person's freely-given consent.


In music downloading you are only making a copy, not taking property away.

If I walked into the newsagents, and took photo's of a daily newspaper with my camera phone, am I stealing? It's the same thing.

Although having said that, free services such as Spotify more or less meet my music needs these days, and at least the artists get paid a small amount. I think this kind of thing will be the way forward, for film and software too.

 

[ponderingnwandering]

Hmm....... allow me to offer an alternative method of downloading music for free. Tell me if this is legal or not.

I want to download some music off of a cd, but i don't want to pay. I could go to some kind of torrent site or program to download with, or i could go to youtube. There are certain programs you can download to convert a youtube video into a mp3 with its just web address.

Am i breaking the law using the youtube to mp3 program?

And this is not a hypothetical question, programs like this already exist. They are incredibly easy to find -_-

 

[cloudstrife007]

I have personally struggled with this issue and didn't throw out all my illegal downloads, pirated software until 2 years ago. If its not lawful, then I AM STEALING.

There are no excuses. Some people argue that big corporations won't notice because they make big bucks and it won't harm them. What about the kids down the road who are trying to make it into the music industry? Are we going to steal their music too? We can't simply bend the law and morals to what we try to justify is OK.
That's not what the bible teaches!

Stealing music, programs, movies can also be a stumbling block for non-Christians. They see a Christian downloading stuff illegally and they don't think any highly of Christians. They may think Christians are just hypocrits!

Brothers and sisters, we have the right to exercise our rights and freedom, but we need to use this freedom lovingly and for the glory of God our Father.

If you're ever in doubt as to whethere something is lawful or not, the answer is probably IT"S NOT LAWFUL. We know what's lawful, but if we are trying to bend the rules or going around loop holes then that just questions our own morals.

 

[drodriguez910]

For those of you who want to listen to music without downloading it, I would recommend sites such as Grooveshark or Rhapsody that allow you to listen to music online without having to download the song onto your computer.

Also, rhapsody has a neat iPhone app that allows you to stream any song onto your iPhone as long as you have 3G access. I've been listening to a lot of TobyMac albums this way over the past few days. This only costs $10 per month and is a great way to just listen to whatever music you would like!