Limewire..Torrents -Living Righteously..

[Klesk]

^I'm not at all saying you are wrong. I'm just interested to know what others opinions are on a couple things here listed in this post.

First off: What makes secular or world music wrong? Aside from music that has obvious profane content, what makes it wrong?

I say this because there is so much music out there that is considered secular that has no questionable content. By ruling out secular music, do you also rule out secular movies/paintings/books and so on? Think about it.

Secondly: If you refuse to accept a burned cd, would you also refuse to borrow a movie/book/anything? If you borrow a movie from a friend, are you not technically stealing it? If you dont like it, you wont buy it. You tested the full product without paying for it, decided you didn't like it, and gave it back.

So where is the line between stealing and borrowing? Just like borrowing a movie from a friend, downloading music is not costing anyone anything. Because you arent taking a physical product. You are simply taking a digit copy from a unlimited source, costing no one anything.

Again, not saying you're wrong. But I would like someone to explain the questions I've listed. Convicted? Why? What makes X different from Y?

 

[awakenurspirit]

^I'm not at all saying you are wrong. I'm just interested to know what others opinions are on a couple things here listed in this post.

First off: What makes secular or world music wrong? Aside from music that has obvious profane content, what makes it wrong?

I say this because there is so much music out there that is considered secular that has no questionable content. By ruling out secular music, do you also rule out secular movies/paintings/books and so on? Think about it.

Secondly: If you refuse to accept a burned cd, would you also refuse to borrow a movie/book/anything? If you borrow a movie from a friend, are you not technically stealing it? If you dont like it, you wont buy it. You tested the full product without paying for it, decided you didn't like it, and gave it back.

So where is the line between stealing and borrowing? Just like borrowing a movie from a friend, downloading music is not costing anyone anything. Because you arent taking a physical product. You are simply taking a digit copy from a unlimited source, costing no one anything.

Again, not saying you're wrong. But I would like someone to explain the questions I've listed. Convicted? Why? What makes X different from Y?

1. I never said secular music was wrong. It is a conviction. God convicts each person differently. It is not listed in the Bible as a sin. God convicted me (asked me) to give up secular music. If I had disobeyed God, now that would have been a sin. For me and my life, God does not want me listening to secular music. Now, my best friend, she listens to some secular music (that is clean). She doesn't have that conviction. So she is not sinning by listening to worldly tunes. Movies are also convictions. I don't watch horror movies because God doesn't want me to. But some Christians do and that is fine. Nothing wrong with that... well... unless God convicts them but they do it anyway but that is between them and God.
2. It is not the same to burn a CD and barrow a movie. BIG difference. When you barrow a movie... you watch it... but give it back. If you really liked the movie, you would go out and buy one for yourself. But if you would make a copy of that movie and accept it... that is stealing. The same with music. When you burn a CD and another person takes it... that is money out of the artists pocket. If everyone would burn and never buy a cd... there would be no music. There would be no money made and that money belongs to them. You may think they have enough but that is not the point. They put a lot into their music. They wrote the song, practiced, performed, and worked hard. When you burn or steal from linewire, you are taking advantage.

Let me ask you think... would Jesus do it? (NO) If not, then it's not right.

Don't worry, I am not offended by your questions.

 

[ScoShar]

I think downloading software is def. wrong. As far as Christian music (especially Worship music) I'm not so sure.

There have been many times where I couldn't afford a certain worship CD so I downloaded a torrent. God has touched and healed me many times. I almost think worship music should be free.

I guess it still is stealing, but you are right...it is very convenient and doesn't seem like it.

If someone steals a Bible and then gets saved, is it wrong?

It's like a catch 22.

Thats why I LOVE ministries who's copyright is "free to copy". A lot of the time you can freely share and download anything that takes place on the platform at a public gathering/conference. IHOP does this and you can find a lot of stuff for free.

 

[Klesk]

1. I never said secular music was wrong. It is a conviction. God convicts each person differently. It is not listed in the Bible as a sin. God convicted me (asked me) to give up secular music. If I had disobeyed God, now that would have been a sin. For me and my life, God does not want me listening to secular music. Now, my best friend, she listens to some secular music (that is clean). She doesn't have that conviction. So she is not sinning by listening to worldly tunes. Movies are also convictions. I don't watch horror movies because God doesn't want me to. But some Christians do and that is fine. Nothing wrong with that... well... unless God convicts them but they do it anyway but that is between them and God.
2. It is not the same to burn a CD and barrow a movie. BIG difference. When you barrow a movie... you watch it... but give it back. If you really liked the movie, you would go out and buy one for yourself. But if you would make a copy of that movie and accept it... that is stealing. The same with music. When you burn a CD and another person takes it... that is money out of the artists pocket. If everyone would burn and never buy a cd... there would be no music. There would be no money made and that money belongs to them. You may think they have enough but that is not the point. They put a lot into their music. They wrote the song, practiced, performed, and worked hard. When you burn or steal from linewire, you are taking advantage.

Let me ask you think... would Jesus do it? (NO) If not, then it's not right.

Don't worry, I am not offended by your questions.

I understand what you're saying awakenurspirit. I guess I still see this as a grey area (for me) and I've never felt the slightest bit convicted about this, but I can understand why someone might. I still buy CD's all the time (bought one today that I've had on my ipod for a couple months now) and I do what I can to support the artists that I like. Like I said, this wouldnt be a problem for me if I hadnt bought so many CDs in the past that had one or two good songs on them, and the rest garbage, and thats $10-$15 that just about goes straight to the record label anyway and not the artist. That alone is frustrating. The way I look at it is- if I like the music, I will buy it. If I dont, I might have it on my computer but, you know, if it sucks I'm not going to listen to it anyway. Thats why I compared it to borrowing a movie.
Maybe I'm one of the few people that still likes to have a physical, art -work-and-all record. Heck I even collect vinyl records, and I dont have a record player >.> But yeah. I might just be speaking for myself here.

 

[awakenurspirit]

I understand what you're saying awakenurspirit. I guess I still see this as a grey area (for me) and I've never felt the slightest bit convicted about this, but I can understand why someone might. I still buy CD's all the time (bought one today that I've had on my ipod for a couple months now) and I do what I can to support the artists that I like. Like I said, this wouldnt be a problem for me if I hadnt bought so many CDs in the past that had one or two good songs on them, and the rest garbage, and thats $10-$15 that just about goes straight to the record label anyway and not the artist. That alone is frustrating. The way I look at it is- if I like the music, I will buy it. If I dont, I might have it on my computer but, you know, if it sucks I'm not going to listen to it anyway. Thats why I compared it to borrowing a movie.
Maybe I'm one of the few people that still likes to have a physical, art -work-and-all record. Heck I even collect vinyl records, and I dont have a record player >.> But yeah. I might just be speaking for myself here.

lol. Vinyl records?

I can't afford CD's. AT ALL. I have been tempted many times to download music off the internet but in the end, I would refuse because it is wrong. It's hard not to have music sometimes. So, I would watch music videos on youtube sometimes or listen to the radio.

Maybe you should start buying music from itunes? You don't have to buy the whole CD. Just the songs you like.

Usually, when I have my favorite singers/bands... I like all their music. My favorite is worship. I like Deluge, Jesus Culture, Frontline Worship. Those are my top 3. lol

 

[Allegory]

God only hates leechers..it's okay to torrent if you seed, though. It says so in the bible

 

[SuperPhil]

God only hates leechers..it's okay to torrent if you seed, though.

Hahahaha! I completely agree!

What I don't agree with is the term "gray areas"

God doesn't work in gray, only black and white. The Lord will give us the wisdom to distinguish what is black and white. But by NO means is there a point where God doesn't know if it is bad or good.

I do believe that one Christian can think it's black and another think it's white.

 

[JoeBradley]

I gave up downloading music illegaly this summer. what a change.

 

[Madcap Mo]

I only stream anime fan subs, why? Becuase it's near impossible to get stuff like One Peice and i refuse to buy the 4Kids version after they butchered it!
Also the stuff i stream would have appeared on TV anyway so the publishers get their money right?

 

[stirthewater]

I also gave up downloading movies and music illegally a few years ago. It always felt wrong but I justified it since I didn't have much money. A combination of things has occurred in my life: I've grown closer to Christ and taken a more strict interpretation of God's commandments, and I've pursued career success so that I can resist the temptation to do things like this.

However I would suggest you use caution about professing your righteousness in this matter.

Matthew 6:1 (NASB)
“Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.

 

[ceh85]

you could try spotify.com if you can't afford to buy cds. you stream the music rather than downloading it and it's legal. you obv can't put it on your mp3 player etc but it's a lot better than nothing!

 

[homeofmew]

there are some torrents and mps that are totally legal and legit that are released by the artist or network.

 

[Zoness]

Limewire is literally an abomination in the world of good p2p programs for good p2p networks. Bittorrent, however, is an amazing creation. Along with being a member of dozens of invite-only sites the content selection I have access to is unparalleled. Anything I can't find there; I simply resort to using the eD2k network (eMule) or newsgroups.

 

[127.0.0.1]

Blind Post:
Torrents are not illegal, per say. Torrents are a method of downloading files. You'd better hope they're not illegal, because the very video game companies you infringed probably release game update, patches, etc. via torrents (such as Blizzard). So it's not the torrents that are illegal. Our currently copyrite system isn't working, so far the RIAA has sued, dead people, a copy-machine (yes, looking up), old ladies, people in the hospital and more... The thieves aren't saints and neither are the sellers.

Obviously stealing is wrong, but...we've got a situation here that needs to be re-worked. Remember, VHS was supposed to be the end of the movie industry...was it?

It's all about making media content and then keeping it scarce...scarce in an age of sharing. So...something needs to be re-worked.

 

[Jarrodis]

I use to be Big on Downloading music from limewire and movies from torrents, but something hit me, and I just felt bad for everything I downloaded for free. I was tempted to get a cracked version of windows 7 from my friend, cause I got the beta and I love it, and I dont want to go back to Windows XP. But I decided im going to buy it. im download all my music from Itunes now, im buying movies.
The only problem I still have is with Adobe Photoshop and After Effects, cause I got it cracked cause its just so Darn Expensive, but im saving up,and willing to actually buy them when I have enough money

 

[Allegory]

With high end professional software - stuff like Creative Suite and Visual Studio and CAD software as well as databases and what not the money is not made from individual customers. I'm sure Adobe makes some money from individuals (I'm thinking freelance designers and stuff) but the real bread and butter comes from B2B and support contracts and that sort of thing. For example databases like Oracle and MSSQL are free to individuals, but businesses will pay like $20,000 per CPU.

Companies like Adobe and Microsoft have some interest in stopping piracy, but the people who pirate their software are not the same people they make their money from. It's not the same as downloading music instead of buying it. In the case of the music industry the people who are "stealing" the music are the same people who they would make their money off of.

 

[127.0.0.1]

The only problem I still have is with Adobe Photoshop and After Effects, cause I got it cracked cause its just so Darn Expensive, but im saving up,and willing to actually buy them when I have enough money

Dude, get CS3. CS4 totally sucks. It's got like this...GPU enhancer that just...totally slows the thing down. My laptop is by no means a crummy setup (I'm running 3DSMax 2010 and Crysis on High with this thing) and believe me, Photoshop CS4....LAG!!!! Unbelievable LAG!!!!! Just thought I'd save you the money on that. Trust me, go with CS3.

PS
I got a Nvidia GeForce 9600M GT 1 GB

 

[Allegory]

don't get CS3 if you're using a mac with snow leopard though, it crashes all the time....just wait for CS5

 

[ks777]

Okay... I wish everyone could stop calling it stealing... and I wish there wasn't an advertisement with horrible looking yellow teeth staring at me while I'm trying to write this too...


If you feel the holy spirit has convicted you of downloading music or various data, then don't do it... Personally, that hasn't happened to me and I honestly don't think God cares too much about somone getting some enjoyment out of listening to one of their favorite songs they heard off the radio and downloading it so as they can hear it again, he's got far bigger things to deal with than that...


Youtube is all good and well, but the audio quality is horrible, And I'm sure the commandment regarding the sin of listening to low audio quality clips just didn't fit on the stone or something. Haha, but seriously, It's probably not 'righteous' to download music, but at the same time it shouldn't be considered stealing, the 3rd poster I think had the right idea.. Taking something away from someone is stealing, copying it so more people can enjoy it doesn't take anything away from the person that made it, he's still got exactly what was his... it's just that everyone else does too lol. Walking into Kmart, taking a movie of the shelf = stealing. Downloading the same movie off the internet = Obtaining something through the Infringment of the copyright. Not saying it's righteous, I just hate it when people say I'm stealing.


Another good point the OP raised, downloading something is in turn 'stealing' money from the original creators of it.... Depends on the circumstance. I'll use an example of DS games, I buy the games I want to buy, and download the one's I don't.... (I don't download many DS games, just an example ) Say this game sucked so much I'm not going to waste my money on it, but I'll download it to see what it's like. Right off the bat, I had no intention to buy this said game.... so they arn't losing anything from me downloading it, heck, they don't even know I had it. Either I'll play it for a an hour or two, might have a bit of fun and delete it OR I'll enjoy it so much I change my mind and think it's worthy of a purchace, in that case I will... So if anything, people are only gaining money from me downloading the games Just an example though, not everyone's the same and all circumstances are different.

 

[itisme_angela]

I'm so glad That the Holy Spirit is helping you do the right thing, i've been striving also to enter in at the strait gate(which is jesus christ). I'll never give up seeking Jesus. my goal is to serve god through Jesus christ. You be blessed in jesus.