>Please tell me why, if someone copies and keeps one of our releases, thereby
>depriving me of the sale of that release and our artist for the payment of
>the sale of that release, why this *isn't* theft?
The sense I'm getting from some people here is that they don't consider it
stealing because you would never have made that sale in the first place -
they wouldn't have shelled out the money anyway, so you can't lose what you
would never have gotten in the first place. I happen to think this
argument is crap. If you aren't willing to invest your money in purchasing
the disc, what gives you the right to enjoy the disc? I would love to have
a new car, but I won't get one because I can't afford one. But I really
want it anyway, so just taking one isn't wrong because I would never have
bought it in the first place, right? I realize there is a difference in
scope here, but where do you draw the line? The only real difference I see
is that I can't easily make a copy of a car whereas copying CDs has become
ridiculously easy.
The other prevailing argument seems to be that copying music and giving it
to others helps the bands by spreading the word to an audience that
otherwise wouldn't have been exposed to it. Again, crap. What about
loaning your legitimately purchased copy to someone else for a week to let
them make up their mind about it? If they like it, they can buy a copy and
you get yours back. If not, you get yours back and there isn't an unplayed
illegitimate copy laying around somewhere. Why is this not preferable to
just giving them a free copy of a disc? Are you trying to expand someone
else's taste in music, or just their record collection?
Just because it is easy to do something today with the technology being
what it is doesn't make it right. I was going to say that you don't see
people making copies of books because it isn't cost effective to do so, but
I guess billashline(a)netscape.net proved me wrong. Then again, his example
assumes that a few bucks is better than full price, when you can get books
at greatly discounted prices every day legitimately, and without the
hassles of printing your own copy. I can guarantee that as soon as it is
cost effective to copy DVDs, there will be people doing so and justifying
it one way or another.
I am in no way guilt free here - I've downloaded things because it was
easier as well. But at least I admit that what I did was wrong. I'm not
trying to justify it by coming up with excuses. And about 90% of the stuff
I've downloaded in the past was music that was unavailable to me in any
other way. If I find one of these releases available legitimately, I buy
it and throw out the CDR.
I'm not trying to be preachy - do whatever you want, it's your life. But
don't make excuses for your actions or blame your actions on the "evil
record companies". It's wrong, and that's all there is to it. If that
doesn't bother you, all the power to you.
Craig M. Rath
H: fripp(a)attbi.com
W: rathc(a)questarweb.com
