I Download. Illegally.

Downloading things for free is stealing. We all know this. Yet, unlike shop lifting, it’s so much easier and you’re less likely to get caught. Plus, it doesn’t affect your conscience, much like pushing over a toddler when nobody’s looking, or is that just me? These two reasons are why illegally downloading is so great.

In my personal opinion, if you have a computer and you’re not downloading illegally, you’re not using your machine to the best of its abilities, and you shouldn’t even be allowed a computer in the first place. Music, Films, Software, Games … it’s all within your grasp. An unending amount of entertainment at your figure tips. It wants you to download it and enjoy it for free. So do it, do it now (but come back to read the rest of this Blog)!

Welcome Back.

There is of course numerous ways to download (maybe I should have pointed these ways out before telling you to go and download something – we live and learn), I’ll list them off for you n00bs (that’s internet slang for ‘newbie’ btw … and so is btw, it means ‘by the way’); File sharing programmes like LimeWire, although they’re a hotbed for viruses, and getting a virus on your computer is like getting a virus on your cock, you really don’t want it there and you’ll do anything to get rid of it, although you can’t reinstall your penis to it’s default setting, trust me. File sharing websites such as Rapidshare or Megaupload are decent, but these often have limitations on how much you can download and premium accounts are available at a cost; although if you know where to look you can recuperate your money in a matter of minutes (depending on your download speed). Then there are torrents. I’m not 100% sure how they actually work, mainly because I just don’t give a shit and if I knew how everything worked, I wouldn’t spend my days being cynical about how things work. With so many options you’re spoilt for choice when it comes to wanting to steal some information.

A lot of people believe that downloading is selfish! That people that do it are horrible and only looking out for themselves. This is of course not true, it takes an extremely kind person to rip a DVD, then upload a DVD and share it with people for absolutely nothing. These honourable people go out of their way to do these things, and for what? There’s no money to be made on their part, they do it because they’re just nice people. If you ask me doing something such as this is the complete opposite of selfish… it’s selfless. If you were in town and someone approached you and gave you £5, you’d probably suspect something was up but once you realised they were being nice, you’d go on your way and buy some heroin … or whatever you spend your money on. Then as you lay back later that day, you’d think; “Wow, that was nice of the stranger to give me something for free, what a selfless act. Man, I’m fucked up!”

But what about these companies losing out?
Are they losing out? We live in a time in which you can download a film that’s just been released in a smidgen of time that it takes you to drive to the nearest cinema. But if your film is good enough (or the promotion for it is good enough) people will still go and see it. Look at Avatar, its broken records worldwide; people are flocking to see it like it’s the second coming of Christ or something else that people would gather to look at. Products are still making vast amounts of cash in this downloading era of ours. Artists are still selling albums, left, right and centre. 50 Cent’s little bastard child isn’t going to starve just because you downloaded his shitty album instead of buying it. Most of these companies putting out films/music/software/games are huge conglomerates anyway, they’re not going to go bust because there’ll always be people buying something they put out.

I still buy DVDs, in fact I’ve starting buying more DVDs recently, because although I advocate downloading, I still like to have a hard copy of something if I deem it good enough, it’s just that the majority of media being produced is below standard. That is why things such as HD and 3D are becoming so prominent, the content isn’t improving but the viewing standards are. A classic film, is a classic film, HD or 3D doesn’t or won’t make it better. A film such as 12 Angry Men (which I hadn’t seen until I downloaded it) would be no better from these innovations.

I especially don’t see anything wrong with downloading shows produced by the BBC. I do see something wrong with the BBC putting out DVDs and making people pay full price for them. These shows wouldn’t have been aired in the first place if it wasn’t for us paying for our TV licence. It’s a travesty that the BBC is able to put out DVDs and charge the same price as other DVDs. It’s like going to ASDA, buying your food, going home but having to pay ASDA extra money every time you eat some of that food. BBC DVDs should be free or just expensive enough that the BBC can recuperate money from the manufacture of the DVDs, no profit should be made.

Piracy funds Terrorism?
I’ve heard this wild claim a couple of times before and to be honest it’s a massive lie. Anyone that’s ever bought a pirated DVD has never bought it from a terrorist. Abu Hamza isn’t locked up for selling dodgy DVDs, is he? How can piracy fund terrorism when Osama Bin Laden is still putting out videos? He hasn’t even updated to DVD yet. I get the idea that when Al Jazeera get a video from Bin Laden there’s a massive scramble around in an old dusty cupboard in which a bunch of runners and junior researchers desperately attempt to find a VHS player. I mean, Osama doesn’t even have a YouTube page. I mean, come on Osama; get with the times, grandpa. No MySpace, no Twitter, not even a Facebook page! I’ve gone off on a bit of a tangent here and I’m starting to forget what my point is, but anyway, I’m standing by my previous convictions of what-ever-it-was I said.