I don't know if i'd be considered a Communist, maybe Socialist - not a Capitalist. So I don't really talk with many Communists and i'm curious - do you see filesharing as a positive or negative? I mean, on the one hand workers in companies don't get any of the money from torrents created. Yet, at the same time it is a good equalizer that allows those in the lower and middle classes live the kind of life the free market claims should only be lived by the wealthy.

I mean, I know people who make less than 12k a year & thanks to the power of the internet they are able to loan games, music & movies that they would never be able to afford otherwise.

So i'm curious - how do you, personally, feel about filesharing? And how do you think Communists as a whole feel about it?

Oh, loan should be load, sorry.

I'm a Marxist and I support file sharing and I would assume most Marxists and communists would agree with me as file sharing destroys or at least weakens the exclusivity of ownership. Other more hard-line communists might argue that the files shared are trivial and distract people from their real problems and romantic communists (those who don’t know what they’re talking about) would argue that anything that hurts big business and corporatism is a good thing.

filesharing is stealing. Only differnce is that this kind of stealing is much easier to do. your lack of money does not give u the right to steal product of someone's hard work

File sharing is exactly that, sharing. Why should I be stopped sharing something I have paid for, it’s mine to do what I like with.

I support filesharing because I think stealing people's hard work is good, and I'm to much of a cheap lazy theif to actually pay money for it, but I will wright convuluted moral reasons for my acts of theivery. VIVA LA REVOLUTION!

Filesharing is desirable. Use the rules of the Capitalists: You own it, you spread it.

Your ignorence is somewhat astounding. Look, by the rules of capitalism, you bought a copy of whatever it is you bought, you did not buy the rights to it. Basically, if you, say, bought a CD, then you have the rights to do with that physical CD whatever you want, but you do not have the right to do what you want with the information and data stored on the CD. Also, have you ever seen a movie? You know that big FBI Waraning thing in front? Read it sometimes.

Also, your attempts to justify robbery by an economic system that you don't believ in are absolutely pathetic.

I fully support file-sharing. After awhile it just gets to the point where information is so accessible that copyright laws become redundant.

So that's how you justify robery and stealing money fro hardworking men who created those things.

Sometimes you gotta bend the rules a little bit.

Sometimes you gotta actually, you know, pay for things you want. But I don't have any money! you say to me. My response: Work for it. But the institution of currency is inherintly capitalistic, which is evil, and I am to f'ing H4RDC0RE to do that! So you want to punish the hardworker workers, people you supposedly represent, people you say you have the best interests in mind for, by stealing their work? By robbing the food off their tables?

So have you ever used filesharing groupie? If you haven't you might find its not as bad as you think.

No, I never had. Tell me, have you ever tried robbery? It might not be as bad as you think.

I think your taking it a little too seriously. One of these days you need to try it and see.

I am all for sharing. If you do not like it, do not do it. As for as robbery goes--apparently it is fun for some--your government has been robbing me all my life and they seem to enjoy it,

I want to cry out and say YES YES!!!!!!! The point of file sharing IS communism, the work of others being used to help everyone. The hard work of honest men is what we all do. what better happiness can you get than sharing your hard work? wanting anything other than to share the work of all people, even if it is your work, is not communism, it is the capitalistic draw which we are all subject to.

Reading the shameful, ignorant comments from Communists and Socialists in this thread have made me realize once again that at it's heart, your ideology and your philosophy are driven by an intense yearning for the unearned. By unearned, I mean: that which you have made no effort towards. It's a Cult of Entitlement.

But let's start by clarifying something about property. Without the most basic concept of property rights, how can you lay claim to your own life, your own mind or the product of both? The arguments for Socialism or Communism stop right at the very beginning, when it becomes clear that the lack of property rights also results in the enslavement of the individual to the collective group and leaves his own personal aspirations irrelevant, his own volition obsolete. We don't even need to go into the economic superiority of Capitalism nor the fact that it's been solely instrumental in raising man's living standards; Socialism and Communism are immoral and inhumane.

So "property" exists. The idea of property and the laws which enforce it are what protects the smallest minority on earth - the individual - from tyranny or aggression. Property rights, which start with the individual being the owner of their own lives and nobody elses, effectively ban force from human relationships; it is this which separates us from the primitive savages we once were. The degree to which force is an unfortunate reality in the lives of humans today is in direct proportion to the lack of free Capitalism in their lives - Capitalism in its philosophical and political sense, a system which fully protects the property rights of the individual.

Why shouldn't the intellectual or artistic product of your mind be considered your own property? If you were building a boat, and you'd spent a good 5 years doing it and invested incredible sums of your own hard earned money in it, and then one night some bum launched it, sailed away in it and was never seen again, then you'd realize the importance of property rights. The fact that you don't yet see this is, I have to say, a product of your youth, your naivety and lack of experience. You obviously haven't yet produced or earned anything worth keeping. You haven't yet established the link between mental effort, physical effort and reward. If you spent 5 years composing an epic piece of music (time which could have been spent earning a living in other ways) and then people started recording it all over the world and you didn't earn a cent from it, you'd be mighty pissed, I know you would. A child's first words after "momma" are "MINE". Deny that you are human - sure, that's a GREAT way for a human to live their life!

Property rights apply to art as much as they apply to boats or humans themselves. Anyone who ignores the ownership of a piece of music (and maybe even reproduces and distributes the music without permission for their own profit) is, legally, morally and philosophically, a common thief. Since the moral aspect of what I've said above is grounded in reason and thus reality, such a person can never hope to gain any kind of genuine, rational self-esteem, which is absolutely essential for achieving any kind of meaningful happiness in life. I feel sorry for some of you kids - some of you will outgrow this, others will remain as children their whole lives. What a shame.