Investigating downloading goods and services

Items that family has downloaded;

1. itunes software
2. Music
3. Films
4. Microsoft office
5. Real players
6. Media players
7. Google toolbars
8. edexcel syllabus's etc..

Why downloaded instead of buying the physical goods;

1. Downloading itunes is a free service so you do not need to be going to the shop and buying the software, it acts as an online store once you have downloaded it. You can go through different areas to buy albums,single tracks, videos, etc... which then cost so it is in itunes interest to advertise downloading itunes as free, because it increases the amount of customers using their online stores and spending money in itunes once they have downloaded it. It is also the best music archive for downloading music to ipods,MP3's because it is easy to store your music in specific genres and is a very easy to use free download.
2. I download music,videos,pictures,films through other websites that do not cost though, e.g. using bittorrents/mininova and other software that make it possible to download all the latest media for free. So I use these websites to save time and money because i get everything i wont for free and i simply have to find a good download and wait for it to finish.
3. I downloaded microsoft office on my computer as well because I didn't see the point in going out and buying the software when you can simply download it off a official website that offers the software for free, so again it saves money.
4. People I know also download real and media players because it is easier than buying them because they are constantly offered and easy to find and download.
5. Downloading a google tool bar was a free download that google was offering that I do not think you could buy from a store because they simply wanted there search engine to be in a place permanently so people would use there search engine more than others because it is constantly there meaning you don't need to set it as your home page etc...
6. I also downloaded the edexcel syllabus for my subjects because it is easier than buying books and it is offered for free.

Problems I have with downloading and consuming online files;

1. Sometimes downloads are really bad quality or harmful to your computer, so if you are to download goods then you need good internet security to stop you from getting viruses, trojans etc...
2. They take to long to download sometimes because they are so large
3. There is no way of checking quality before downloading
4. Some software that seems necessary to download ends up being useless and just takes up memory for doing nothing.
5. If the site is not completly legal or it is easy to flaunt copyright laws you can get your self into alot of trouble through downloading stuff you shouldn't be.