DO NOT DISCUSS THE PROCESS OF DOWNLOADING MUSIC. ONLY THE ETHICS BEHIND IT
Recently, there has been a crackdown on downloading of music on the internet. I support the people who are doing the downloading, not the effin greedy millionares, I do so for 2 reasons:
1. Someone bought that music originally, and whats wrong with just sharing that music with other people?
2. Music is ART. And art should not have a price. You wouldnt crack down on someone trying to find a picture of the mona lisa on the web would you?
A few points...
1) Yes, music is art, but it takes money to produce that art (the same as it takes money to buy paint and canvas to make a Mona Lisa). The money you pay to buy an album goes to support both the actual artist and the company that helped to make that album.
2) The Mona Lisa makes thousands if not millions of dollars a year in revenue for the Lourve museum in Paris. The pictures you find on the internet are private property, not the same property that makes the Lourve money. Its not the same with music. The music downloaded off the internet is the exact same music that was on the album created by an artist. Even if its not the same song, and is a re-recording, almost every artist holds the rights to their lyrics and the tabs to their songs, and it is therefore a violation of copyright law to use them without permission. [sidenote: a copyright is easily obtainable, even to amateur artists. Just print a copy of your lyrics (or music sheets) and mail them to yourself. The US postal service time stamp is proof of ownership from any date (the date at which it was processed) and is therefore a viable copyright.] Thus, when downloading music, you are stealing.
HOWEVER: US copyright law stipulates that it is acceptable to gift ownership of music to 'friends'. This is why programs like Grouper and, to an extent, Gnutella (the base form of Limewire, BearShare, Kazaa and others) can operate. Many, many times over, this stipulation has been sited as a loophole for companies to slip through.
3) Even after all of this, I still support downloading
under the right circumstances. To be the right circumstances, I believe it is necessary to posess two things:
- A friendship with the person who owns the file, and
- the file in question must be from a prominent artist (e.g. one who will not be harmed from the loss of revenue that you are causing)
If you have these two things, I would support you in downloading. Otherwise, you cross some lines I don't like to get into.