OrangeSteamboat wrote:candy-coated_fake wrote:I despise people who download full CD's. It's okay to burn a few songs, but a full CD? That's evil, I tell you. Evil.

I figure, it doesn't matter if I download CDs, cause I usually end up going to shows of bands I like and spending a lot of money there. I don't think most bands give a shit if you download their CD, they just wanna make money somehow.
I have to be the unpopular one here. And I have to eat alot of shit because I used to slug it out with lots of CC old-schoolers about the ethical landscape of this debate. However I have to say, after working in broadcasting and meeting alot of people in the music industry that it changed my politics. Specifically, when I met the people whose food I was stealing from their mouths.
I enjoy the concept of copyright. Much of the outlandish artistic indulgence in the music scene is because of the creative industry's predication on copyright. Folks don't realise that without the Britney's and disposable pop, that we don't get the Flaming Lips on the grand scale that we do. This is because copyright ensures that the industry will be compensated. People can spend their lives promoting, creating and ensuring the livelihood of art.
Also, the infrastructure (specifically the marketing) that ultimately allows us to enjoy music the way we do depends on our financial support. Every time I download a CD and burn it as a replacement for the store-bought copy, I am cheating the industry (and that includes artists, support staff, management, video producers, album art creators, and other related creative individuals), thus reducing capital funds to create more music and more art.
Its said that a starving artist creates more vital art, however I'd like to think when I do something worthy of other people's attention that those people will want to compensate my efforts. Downloading and burning is stealing.
Now until recently there haven't been very many progressive ideas to change this old, antiquated model. But with iTunes coming out for PC in the fall, I will download again - and I'll pay for it. Until then, when I want some free music I'll turn on the radio. Broadcast work will do that to you
