[FLAMING DEATH]

I want to make sure I understand.

Could I paraphrase your last post to say, "Copyright law may be ignored, if such ignorance doesn't harm anyone?"

Believe me, I'm not trying to remark on your character, or imply that you are less of a conservative or anything like that. Obviously, we both have a problem with the copyright law the way it is written, as do many people. That's what I'm trying to highlight by discussing this.

I just think people shouldn't be too critical of those who share files.

[Wil H]

I'm not saying copyright law should be ignored. I think that newspapers copyright their intellectual property as a matter of course just so no-one else claims rights to them. not to prevent redistribution. They are not averse to the reproduction of their work as recording comapanies are, they have different agendas.
A newspaper wants to broadcast it's message in a timely fashion to as many as it can reach. - if some copying and re distribution takes place to achieve that it is OK AS LONG AS THE ORIGINATOR GETS CREDIT AS THE AUTHOR. Greater distribution benefits the newspaper and increases advertising revenues so they do not enforce their copyright rights.

Recording companies are selling their product and that is all they have to sell. They want to maximize revenue from those actual sales.