[jjm2111]

I do not understand why so many FReepers side with the ugly, price-fixing, artist squeezing Recording Industry.

With regards to file sharing, the law IS ambiguous. If I copy my music and SELL them to others it is against the law, because I'm profiting from someone else's work (or at least someone else's copyright). But giving the copies away is not against the law. The fair use law is eventually going to fry the RIAA.

They could change with the times and profit from the change or they can play Gestapo. We all know which tack they're taking.

[Protagoras]

But giving the copies away is not against the law.

But swapping isn't giving. It's value for value trading. It is precisely like selling them.

[VRWCmember]

If I copy my music and SELL them to others it is against the law, because I'm profiting from someone else's work (or at least someone else's copyright). But giving the copies away is not against the law.

If you give the copies away, then people have copies of the music that were not paid for. Take your argument one step further: Don't even buy the music in the first place; check it out from the library and make your copies; then you don't have to pay for your music and neither do your friends. It really isn't that ambiguous -- it is simply stealing.

[VRWCmember]

I do not understand why so many FReepers side with the ugly, price-fixing, artist squeezing Recording Industry.

I do not understand why so many FReepers buy into the democrat style argument that it's OK to steal from the rich recording industry corporate fat-cats.