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We are Pirates!! Are'nt we??

Topic started by karthik (@ 207.78.88.252) on Thu Aug 6 10:13:19 EDT 1998.
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

I find it really interesting when people argue that this MD copied this song from this guy, etc, etc...
I think first we should point fingers at ourselves before we accuse others of plagiarism and piracy(this includes me too). Can one TFM'er standup and say that he or she didnt record cassettes from the street corner music shops?
Have we thought about discouraging ourselves from pirating cassettes and CDs? If not are we atleast aware of this?

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Responses:

• From: Sridhar Seetharaman (@ 128.96.140.26) on: Thu Aug 6 10:29:34 EDT 1998
  
  Well said, Karthik.
  
  I was one of the premium pirater (?) in the early 80's. After that, I joined as a sales person for a software company. That is when I realised I was major pirate. I continued to do piracy as it was convenient to make my own collection. Also, I was not too happy with the quality of original kasets from the Indian companies. Once I moved to U.S, I was able to get quality kasets imported from singapore and U.K. Last few years, I have been buying only original kasets.
  
  
• From: raja m (@ spider-wb081.proxy.aol.com) on: Thu Aug 6 10:31:31 EDT 1998
  
  Karthik:
  
  Netthi Adi!
  
  One reason I can think of is the financial situation most of us are in when we are students, the other being, most films dont have all songs great, so as to warrant buying the album - this is no excuse though.
  
  This is similar to buying software. Many dont know what intellectual property is all about. Things are changing though.
  
  
• From: Srikanth (@ 206.139.13.154) on: Thu Aug 6 10:38:46 EDT 1998
  
  Hi Karthick,
  
  You have addressed the worlds #1 problem,
  "Piracy" MUSIC,SOFTWARE - Anything that could be captured in a digital or analog form can be pirated (exception : DVD's cannot be pirated).
  
  People question me why I am uploading tamil songs in the web without any form of copy rights - (do you call this also a form of piracy!,) but this the only and best way I know to popularzie the tamil music
  all the Private FM programs in Madras - use the songs without any copy rights, this is allowed by our producers as it is a form of free advertisment.
  
  Only answer to this is to permit it and make piracy as legal!...this is what Cho says in mohamad bin thuglak - for corruption - just make it legal and give a slab for the amount to be collected.
  
  Belive it or not - all my 100+ cds and 500+ tapes are original. I do not encource in dubbing from the original. This will reduce the quality, besdies the musicians & other involved in production will not get anything. As a musician I have felt this very much.
  
  Srikanth
  
  
• From: Sridhar Seetharaman (@ 128.96.140.26) on: Thu Aug 6 11:17:17 EDT 1998
  
  My friend' B-in-law had been china on business visit. Got DVDs for $1.00 each ( got 500 titles).
  
  
• From: Srikanth (@ 206.139.13.154) on: Thu Aug 6 11:23:29 EDT 1998
  
  Sridhar,
  
  Are you sure it is a DVD! might be VCD-DVD compatible...I know for sure you cannot prirate DVDs, this what Sony, Panasonic promises.
  
  Only possibility is there might be a production unit itself which produces DVD's, without any copy rights.
  
  Srikanth
  
  
• From: Mano (@ eleco170.watstar.uwaterloo.ca) on: Thu Aug 6 13:46:48 EDT 1998
  
  Srikanth:
  I think you can. The only difference between the VCD and DVD is the MPEG-2 compression. In canada, you can buy Audio CD's with MPEG-2 compression. I beleive you can record up to 120 songs!!!
  
  
• From: Sridhar S (@ 128.96.140.26) on: Thu Aug 6 13:59:47 EDT 1998
  
  Srikanth: You are probably right. It could be a VCD. When they sell pirated stuff, they could call it a "DVD" too.
  
  
• From: karthik (@ 207.78.88.252) on: Thu Aug 6 15:28:44 EDT 1998
  
  Pirating a DVD is not a difficult task. Infact it is very easy to write a DVD player/Encoder. Piraters always stay ahead of new technology. Not to digress, one interesting thing is that it is legal to copy a video or audio from public broadcasting as long as it is used for private use. But things get really bad when one starts to profiteer this and people do that. IR fans should imagine how much the maestro loses in royalty from piracy. Uploading songs may be the only way to popular tamil songs, but is it the right way??
  
  
• From: Srikanth (@ slip-32-101-16-173.il.us.ibm.net) on: Thu Aug 6 16:08:32 EDT 1998
  
  Karthick
  I dont agree with you. To duplication a DVD2DVD is not easy -
  * The DVD is designed to prevent Piracy.
  * Equipments used are very very expensive
  But we can transfer from a DVD to a VCR and then covert it to MPEG and create a video CD.
  
  But DVD2DVD is not easy as you mentioned.
  Srikanth
  
  
• From: Udhaya (@ 205.218.142.217) on: Thu Aug 6 20:56:10 EDT 1998
  
  There is no reason cassettes and CDs should cost what they cost for the consumer. It is mighty selfish of any creator to expect the average person to pay $15 a CD. I will continue to tape all the rare to find tracks on tape from anyone who has it. Unless the price is reasonable $2 a cassette and $6 a CD and the product easily available for the consumer, what other choice do they have then to make their own collections.
  I searched and searched for classic SPB songs from the 70s and 80s. Many of the songs I wanted were obsolete. I finally paid a guy in Australia to make me 5 tapes from his collection for $60. Do I feel bad? Hell no, I needed these songs.
  
  In India, don't they have music shops that make professional quality recordings of whatever the customer wants for a price? I see this as the best trade-off. And Karthik, does IR or any established musician really need to make any more money from royalty? Most of the royalty money goes to greedy corporations and movie studios like AVM who make too much compared to the resources of the average music consumer. More power to the people. I love piracy.
  
  
• From: Observer (@ spider-tr072.proxy.aol.com) on: Thu Aug 6 21:31:18 EDT 1998
  
  That is absolutely right udhaya,
  I have good collections of 60's 70's and also
  some golden hits of IR in 80's , all of them
  recorded in quality sony cassettes from a reliable recording person. If I want to search for these selected songs in the market , I think I will spend my entire youth doing so. During my last visit to India, I frustrated myself in hunting for collections as some of them labelled as 'best of ... Vol 1...' donot have the songs of my choice. So the only way to procure one's choice of songs is to get them recorded.
  So I would not hesitate pirating songs to this extent.
  
  
• From: NOV (@ 202.184.134.10) on: Fri Aug 7 00:38:43 EDT 1998
  
  Aattai kadichu, maattei kadichu, ippo nammaleyei kadikka vanthutteenga!
  
  Looks like we can't be in total agreement, even here. :-))))
  
  Nalla kindalthaan poango......
  
  
• From: Narayanan (@ 206.217.81.244) on: Fri Aug 7 13:42:52 EDT 1998
  
  I am glad that there are people like you on this forum:))))
  
  
• From: Narayanan (@ 206.217.81.244) on: Fri Aug 7 13:43:18 EDT 1998
  
  To karthik:
  I am glad that there are people like you on this forum:))))
  
  
• From: Prakash (@ node1.allegiance.net) on: Fri Aug 7 16:30:32 EDT 1998
  
  Udhaya Sir,
  You have said very correctly. With all these technology advancements, I think it is very reasonable to bring down the prices of CDs and Cassettes.
  
  Request to evryone on the TFM DF:
  If any body knows of a good Shop in Madras that can make me professional quality recording of song lists that I can provide, please either post a response on this DF or email me.
  
  Anbudan,
  Prakash Krishnamurthy
  
  
• From: Prakash (@ node1.allegiance.net) on: Fri Aug 7 16:32:15 EDT 1998
  
  I should have said, 'good Shop in Madras or in the US' in the above posting.
  
  
• From: Kannan (@ q235.questis.com) on: Fri Aug 7 19:33:07 EDT 1998
  
  Hai guys,
  One of the major advantage and disadvantage of this audio and S/W industry is it can be easily pirated. without piracy i think these two won't be so popular as easily as it is now. think of a if every pc user have to buy original s/w for the home computer, how many of us will really go for originals or even buy computers.To a great extent piracy popularise the audio.how can u expect a kuppan or subban to buy a cassttee which cost 40rs jus for 2 good songs!!
  If really the audio industry wants to avoid copying, let them bring some new tech,by which only once it could be copied.
  i know a s/w company in madras where they made a product and written some code by which that product can only be installed twice. I think this can be made into audio also..
  They themselves r not bothered to do it!!bcos, it is a way of adveritment for the movie also..
  
  
• From: raja m (@ spider-ti063.proxy.aol.com) on: Fri Aug 7 21:40:54 EDT 1998
  
  Prakash K.
  
  There is a thread in the archives "Purchasing TFM/Carnatic Music in Madras". DFers have given leads in that thread. Check it out.
  
  
• From: badri raghavan (@ 206.103.12.125) on: Mon Aug 10 00:55:42 EDT 1998
  
  an interesting topic for a change (albeit with references to raja)
  
  why do people copy software or music? because the original is frightfully expensive and/or it does not have everything they want and so do not want to pay for it. let us leave out software from the purview of our discussion and focus on film music.
  
  let us look into the so called "best of spb", golden moments of kjj and the like and you will find mention of songs that you are hearing about the first time in your life. some obscure songs from some vague movies which have not seen the light of the day! why this trend? the producers think that they are smart by giving rotten apples with good ones and making the customer pay for the entire lot. this makes sense in the short run but then not many trust this packaging gimmick. as a result, music lovers tend to look around and hunt for genuine best of breed music. unfortunately, we have a scenario where there are not many of those around and so we prepare a shopping list consisting of
  1. aayirem nilave vaa
  2. nilave vaa vaa
  3. pournami nilavil
  4. vandal mahalakshmiye
  5. pani vizhum malar vanam
  
  et al and give it to a local recording store and make a cassette of our choice. in the process, we might pay more but we get what we want. this is a fundamental marketing requirement and i am surprised that there is nobody who understands this trend and capitalises on it. hmv brought out and still brings out some best of mukesh, lata and kishore which are genuinely best but their dominance in tfm is quite low. the recording quality of hmv also leaves much to be desired.
  
  the case of CDs is even worse.
  
  i attribute the entire piracy to bad marketing (please note that i am not using the word selling) and will change if some smart guys enter the picture.
  
  remember the move of Tseries to bring in cassettes at ridicolous prices and that brought in some semblance of competition in the market. unfortunately, Gulshan kumar too became a part of the game by getting "nakhli" singers to record.
  
  Cassette players are no longer the prized possession of a few. it has become a common man's item but the cost of cassettes still is high and continues to be higher than before.
  
  
  
• From: Anand Mahadevan (@ 205.147.245.41) on: Mon Aug 10 16:44:47 EDT 1998
  
  The TFM CD combinations are the worst U can find.
  There is this golden collection of IR(40 greatest hits) which are downright crap.They have picked up the worst combinations U can imagine.I have not found a single good combo on CD, which forces us to get/make our own combo.This is an issue which needs to be tackled at its root.The recording companies can come out with some judicious combos and I am sure HMV or pyramid have people with musical sense.
  Its not a big deal for them to pick up classics and release out a combo.It saves us a lot of trouble.I have spent days in recording shops to select nice combos and in some cases the records are'nt available(thalai kuniyum thamaraiyee is an example).Archive maintenance is very poor and
  people want to make fast bucks.
  
  
  

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