Free music or stealing?

Cox News Service ^ | 12-23-2002 | Phil Kleur

[M. Thatcher]

Would love original url, many thanks in advance.

[Chad Fairbanks]

Hmmm.... I just downloaded a few samples of a band called The Electric Amish, and now, I think I am going out to buy their CDs :0)


Chad "I want to hoe your land" Fairbanks

[aberaussie]

Um, did I misread this, or do they have males and females rooming together at Emory?

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Are you sure it's not Chad "I want to land your ho" Fairbanks?

[Chad Fairbanks]

I'm PRETTY sure... maybe not 100%, but pretty darn sure nonetheless...

:0)

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

Boy, am I stupid! I thought Kazaa was an African-American holiday celebrated in late December.

[Nick Danger]

Imagine no possessions,
no rights for even me,
No need to buy my music,
it's all on MP3,
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...
You may say I'm a lefty,
And I reap what I have sown,
I sang about this bullsh*t,
Now all I can do is moan.

[Drango]

There are temptations no ordinary human can resist,'' he says

'cuse me?

[Drippy]

"I thought Kazaa was an African-American holiday celebrated in late December.

Could this be a plot to share music in a Marxist style?

[zook]

This is not a moral issue at all. Suppose I stand on a street corner and sing an original song. On what moral basis can I say, "no one who hears this song can sing it themselves"? In fact, I would be the one with the moral problem, since I am attempting to coerce others from repeating my words.

Downloading music, intercepting cable signals, etc., are not immoral acts. Certainly we can make them illegal, but in themselves they are not immoral.

[Drippy]

No private property involved-music belongs to everyone,and what they can't get at the goverment owned store,they can steal or get on the black market.Many people leave ethics behind when free is the price.

[hole_n_one]

Brilliant!

[SamAdams76]

If CD sales are off, I think the music industry needs to look within. Perhaps the product is not what it was. Or more likely, maybe the pricepoint is just too high. Now that Joe Six-pack sees that he can buy a stack of 100 blank CDs for under $20, he now realizes just how much he's been getting ripped off these past 20 years.

Speaking for myself, I'd buy a lot more CDs if I could get them for a reasonable price. It's a royal pain in the neck downloading MP3s and then burning them to disc. I've got a few "homemade" CDs and they just aren't the same and I hardly listen to them. I'd much rather have the genuine CD with the artwork, liner notes and its crisp, clean sound.

[Paul C. Jesup]

Could this be a plot to share music in a Marxist style?

I doubt that considering the people (RIAA and Hollywood Liberals) who sell music at ripoff prices (hurting both the artists and the consumers) are Marxists.

[zook]

The other day I was dying to hear "New York's a Lonely Town (When you're the only surfer boy around)". Now, where could I go to hear this, let alone buy it at a reasonable price?

My obvious solution was to go to Kazaa.

The obvious solution for the music industry is to negotiate some kind of fee with the software or hardware industry.

[Drippy]

Offering other people's copyrighted product for other people to rip is theft in my opinion.I have always found it unethical.God frowns upon both the people who offer the download sites and the people who rip other's songs.

[Drippy]

I could care less about the music industry RIAA etc.They deserve what has happened to their greedy selves.My concern is for the musicians who do not want their stuff passed around for free.Some desire it,that's their choice and thats fine too.

[Alberta's Child]

Excellent points. I can honestly say that I own CDs for about 90% of the songs I've downloaded, and the rest of them are simply older, unique tunes that won't drive me to buy a whole CD just to hear them. I'd love to be able to pay a fee to download these tunes, especially if there is an automatic credit given back for those who then buy a full CD afterward.

While the legality and morality of this downloading process are clear, it should be pointed out that this is precisely what drove the publishing industry to come out with paperback books -- they made their products cheap enough that nobody would bother copying them.