[Caipirabob]

Reznor - along with a massive cohort of popular musicians including Missy Elliott, Neil Young, the Dixie Chicks, DMX and Elton John - have the law and morality on their side...But the side with the law and morality appears to be losing, at least in the hearts and minds of music fans.

Go figure. After all these years of preaching destructive anti-social, anti-cultural messages to our children, they start to complain when those messages take hold. Who are people like Reznor, Sir Elton John-Flecher and other industry scabs to complain about "morality"?

The man who fathered the lyrics "I want to F* you like and animal" is simply not a credible spokesman on this issue, nor any other I can think of.

[jpl]

When I'm at home, I can listen to damn near almost any song I want to on my Yahoo! personal radio station, virtually commercial free. And I don't have to pay a dime for it, other than the cost of my ISP. If the music industry is so dead set against people getting "free music", why do they allow this?

[It's me]

``Just because technology exists ..., that doesn't give you the right to do it.''

Hmmmmm, like abortion...

[HairOfTheDog]

Free music, or stealing?

Yes to both!

[Mr. K]

I disagree that this is wrong- I think it is a new paradigm for which we have not yet come up with reasonable answers.

The person who buys a CD and places it on the net is the only one commiting the crime. I am hoping this DOES put the major record labels out of business, and then with the technology available today we will have small groups recording their own CD in the garage, and get back to a love of music, not a love of money.

[rwfromkansas]

Well, my college....a private Christian college (and a conservative one at that).....has a big problem with this. Many people with computers use the software, including myself. I don't feel bad about it. If the companies are trying to screw me, I will screw them back.

"``I'm all for getting a taste of something before you buy it, but when it becomes more than a taste and people begin hoarding the entire work, it becomes piracy, which results in a system in which artists are not being rewarded for their work,'' says Vanessa Carlton, who broke out earlier this year with the hit ``A Thousand Miles.'' Others, from Luciano Pavarotti to Eminem, also sound off on the group's Web site."

Uh, Miss Carlton, 20 seconds at the beginning of a CD doesn't exactly give you a feel for the song.

What is the solution to this problem? Allow the downloading of EVERY SONG BY EVERY ARTIST for a small fee.....anything higher than $1/song is too much. I would be glad to pay that; the artists would get their much-deserved funds then. But instead, the companies want to horde all the money to themselves and not give the artists their fair share; then they decide to not change with the times.....a capitalistic trait. Hey, if they fall, it won't be Kazaa users at fault. It will be their complete and utter failure to be capitalists.

[PoorMuttly]

Stealing free music ?

[RWG]

I would like to see carpenters copyright their work. Every time someone other than the owner of the building used it, the guest would have to pay carpenters a royalty.

[freepy smurf]

Why don't they sell singles any more? I watch what happens in these music exchange sites and their predecessors on the news groups. It's mostly people requesting and downloading one particular song, not an entire album. Imagine every time you bought a loaf of bread the grocery store also made you buy a 50-gallon drum of tofu. After being forced to buy hundreds or maybe thousands of dollars of tofu, the average music listener has become angry and they're rebelling.

[tm22721]

I feel like I'm ripping off some big corporation, which doesn't feel as bad

Copying music will not cause the end of the world. But what happens when replicators are available and nukes, consumer goods etc can be easily copied ?

The end of humanity, I tell you.

BUMP

[NittanyLion]

"People see this as an invisible, seemingly victimless activity, when the truth is it hurts the ultimate small business person, and that's the songwriter," who does not collect royalties, Breeden adds.

Ultimately this technology will allow the songwriter to bypass recording companies entirely, so in this case immoral means will likely achieve a moral end.

That said, it's still theft.

[MEGoody]

Of course it's wrong to illegally download music from the internet. Don't know why anyone would even debate whether stealing is wrong or not.