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"Why is it that people, who would never for a moment consider shoplifting a CD, feel entitled to download pirated music?"

Remember when we made mixed tapes and gave them to all our friends? Mine totally rocked and everyone wanted a copy. Music was free to share. And we spent our after school job money only on the good stuff to get the cover art... just like how our parents would only splurge on the hardcover books that were classic enough to make into the permanent family library. The 80's were so awesome.

Is it live, or is it Memorex?

I have to concede your point, as I did the same. However, the scale of copying (copyright infringement) wasn't nearly so great then. Also, even the best analogue tape recording equipment couldn't match the quality of the original recordings, and the blank tapes weren't free. With digital, there's no cost to distribute hundreds, even thousands of perfect copies of the original recording. I'm not concerned about the music industry as such -- the process of "disintermediation" will eventually eliminate most of the middle men anyhow. However, there has to be some revenue for the artists, and the production studios.

Remember when we made mixed tapes and gave them to all our friends? Mine totally rocked and everyone wanted a copy. Music was free to share.

I don't think music was ever free to share. There was just so many people doing it it was nearly impossible to do anything about it. Lots of people also copied rented VHS movies, despite the 'scary' FBI warning displayed prior to the start. I remember, as a young teen, copying music from the radio to a portable cassette deck with an external mike. I then strapped the deck onto my self-customized Sting Ray "chopper" bicycle and was the only kid around with a nice little sound system on his bike. The bike had a long chrome chopper fork that I bought separately. A two-tone metal flake with a few layers of clear coat paint job, and a custom-made white leather banana seat that went up the chrome sissy bar. My father, who years earlier did auto upholstery, did that for me. It was a diamond-tuft pattern with black vinyl buttons. Man, I wish I still had that bike, or at least had taken pictures of it. This was back in the late 60s, early 70s. I remember cruising around the neighborhood on the 'chopper' to "Under My Thumb" by the Rolling Stones.