The only difference between downloading copyrighted music and going into a store and stuffing a cd down your shirt is you dont have to leave home. How can you possibly think that taking a copyrighted product that someone worked on and created is not stealing and should be lawful? If the person wants to give it away fine but thats not what this is this is stealing plain and simple and you people that download music are thieves and r just upset that you wont be able to do it anymore. If i had a band and made music to sell I would be pissed if it were all over the internet and people werent paying for it and dont say you wouldnt be either.

i look at it this way.

1. the musicians don't really get alot of the proceeds from store sales. that all goes to record labels, recording companies, the store itself. why should i support them when they are trying to screw me over?
2. if i want to support the artist i'll buy directly from them. or go to a concert of theirs. and i do this frequently
3. i am in a band, and i work very hard in it. but its a hobby for me, i'm not naive enough to expect it to be a living for me. only lazy morons expect their music to pay their bills for them. thats just not the reality. musicians should do music for themselves, once it becomes a form of sustenance they're doing it for the wrong reasons and i will not support them.

but what you are talking about is downloading full albums and not ever helping the artist out at all. i think the majority of people download music to sample, and then if they like it or not buy it. why would you want to go and buy something youv'e never heard before? and for those critics who would say that we should listen to the radio...well we all know thats crap. same 12 songs over and over. there are more than just 12 bands out there in the world and there need to be other ways of listneing to them and finding them


this is all just justification etc. i like downloading stuff and i'm not going to stop. i could care less if its stealing. victimless crimes shouldn't be crimes is my take on it.

Who is screwing you over? and this is not a victimless crime you are taking money away from someone else if you walk into a store and steal a car that is a crime just as if you steal a cd from a store. Your type of logic is baffling. Where you raised by wolves or something, Your saying its ok to steal as long as everyone agrees it is? what the hell is this world coming to?

What the RIAA like to keep to themselves, is that CD sales have actually increased since the MP3 revolution. As sk8guitar said quite plainly, the vast majority of people download music to sample. If they like what they downloaded, they buy the album, if not, they delete the MP3. Do you really think someone is going to keep a song they don't like on their system, just because they downloaded it?

And, if they go and buy the album afterwards, how is that theft? They have legitimately purchased the product and the fair use clause in copyright law grants the right to make a copy of any media for backup/archiving purposes.

I think the biggest difference is in the store they might give you a misdemeanor and the RIAA wants to make it a felony...

flapjackboy, have you got proof for that, or a reference?

Reproducing copyrighted material is theft plain and simple. Stop trying to justify your crimes, waht does the increase in sales have to do with anything that is irrellevent, The fair use clause is after you have purchased the product you can make a copy. Theres always people that try to justify crime. If your so obsessed with hating people that make a profit you should seek counseling theres more to life than music and holding animosity towards freedom.

It should be a felony, Stealing is wrong no matter how someone tries to justify it.

I don't download mp3's alot. If I do they are legal. I agree with BajaNick to a degree. But the RIAA is now suing ISP's to force them to hand over personal info on registered kazaa and other mp3 softwarez users. Now I have a kazaa account but like I said I have never used it to steal music. I don't want my ISP to hand over my personal profile to the RIAA.

I think they are going too far and I hope they lose in court.

Welcome to a Democracy. If the people vote that something is ok, then laws get passed making it ok. But then the people dont run the US really, do they.

http://www.guidance.net.nz/article.php?article_id=123

That should reveal all...

The RIAA's quoted figure of 39% actually refers to CD singles which makes up just 1% of their actual sales, so they're losing 39% of 1% of sales... Oh, boohoo, poor RIAA, they're so hard done by. By comparison, CD album sales have increased.

Personally, I don't think suing college students and grandmas out of their life savings is the answer. Maybe if the recording industry even ATTEMPTED to make a viable internet downloading alternative that was a reasonable cost (Sorry, but $18 for a CD is not reasonable), then they wouldn't be in this situation.

They need to simply not charge $18 for a CD. They need to drop the price to about $7. I would buy a lot of CD's then.

As it is right now I either go to the library, or I buy CD's from discount music stores for like $5.00

The music industry is simply being greedy and tryting to rape your wallet.

The automobile industry does the same thing.....problem is that you sorta need cars

No need for cars to cost $15,000 and up. Come on....

>I would buy a lot of CD's then.
Me too.


>The automobile industry does the same thing
At least the automobile industry lets you go for a test drive. If they did things like the music industry, it would be "Sorry, you unlocked the door...you have to buy it now"

They'd also send the stormtroopers in when you borrowed your friend's car, or hired one from Hertz or something, 'cos you didn't pay for it.