Illegal Downloads

A patch for Google Earth was released this week, allowing you to fly on Mars. As I read this news, I jumped in glee at the thought of spending useless Technology lessons flying around the Olympus Mons. I clicked on the link to download and had my dreams shattered (my god this sounds geeky). £280. Little did google tell me that you had to buy the complete business package to do this. So I thought on my heels and headed on over to The Pirate Bay.

"Oh my" I hear you all say. Well don't be shocked. Downloading illegaly is a little bit like cannabis in my eyes. Everyone from all walks of life does it. David Cameron - supposedly - downloaded Windows Vista Ultimate for his old laptop and a friend of mine who basically lives out of a rucksack recently downloaded Windows Vista Business on his desktop. I'll admit it, I do (on rare occasions) download the odd film or song. But like I say, everyone does it!

So what's the disadvantages of illegal downloads? The folks at EMI don't get any money when you download it...but who cares! EMI earnt a gross profit of $26.9billion last year, so they hardly need any more money. The small time bands and soloists aren't gaining any money though, but you can't find any of their stuff anyway so that doesn't really matter. And that's it. I can't think of many more disadvantages that really make much difference to the argument.

The advantages are plentiful though. People can listen to all sorts of music, allowing people to broaden their tastes. People can watch independant films and find new directors and actors. People can update the applications on their computers without having to spend vast amounts of money. Old games that have been taken from the shelves can grace your screens once again (Unreal Tournament 1999 for example).

I don't condone illegal downloading...but I just find it difficult to understand why it is illegal. Have a good week, I have revision to do.

-Steve