It’s been a long time since I wrote anything, that was because I had a mishap. Now I’m back with a post about the current status of the music industry and the piracy of music and why you should or should not do it.
First I just want to clarify that almost everybody, except my mom, pirated some music either during the days of Napster or the current DC++ or BitTorrent. I, for one, have done all three. So there’s really no need for the shock you are giving to yourself about stealing music.
I favor piracy for several reasons. One is when the artist I’m stealing from is a major star and as far as I can tell he doesn’t need any more money. Also having being on a major record label makes me feel like stealing from a capitalist is OK, although that’s not always the case. But the most upright reason of illegally getting a copy of the album is when the musicians, or the recording companies, entice you with things like an “extra” song at the end of CD if you wait long enough, or include “previous unreleased” songs you can only get on this new CD that came out just a little after the original. For that, I have the right to get those rarities however I want. It would be ideal if I had the original CD so I don’t feel like stealing anything but more of acquiring the things that the record companies missed in the beginning. But that’s not always the case with “remasters” of the originals. Some new CD are re-releases of the old ones. Now I don’t like duplicates in my life so why would I re-buy another CD with the same songs, maybe with a few more “previously unreleased” tracks. So with that I can tell myself copy the CD, or downloading it, is OK if all of what I said in this paragraph fits the bill.
I don’t think you should practice piracy from artists in which you do not have a CD of, or have not purchased their songs online. At least buy one of their CDs to support them then pirate the others. This is especially true if the artist is coming of age. Then after they get big and start doing those “previously unreleased” songs piracy is encouraged.
As for me I do not pirate any music right now. I just listen to pandora, one of the best internet radios out there.
Also does ripping CDs from the library count as piracy? Perhaps it is just borrowing, then keeping it on your computer for later listenings so you don’t have to go back to the library again to borrow the CDs again. That’s what I think of it anyways.
I like to take the view that if someone has purchased a CD/mp3 file, they now own that file (kind of the concept of buying/selling things). If they choose to share it with other people, then that is their prerogative. You can look at this as allowing others to borrow something you bought if it makes you feel better. Technically, if you borrow the music and like it, then you should purchase it to support the artist that produced it. This is just like making a photocopy of a book from someone, reading it, and then deciding whether or not to purchase the book yourself so you have an authentic copy for times when you revisit it. In the end, once something is sold to a person, I don’t think the person who sold it has any claim over it anymore. Clearly, there are different points of view on this, but nothing is going to change the sharing of knowledge/information. Producers of music or whatever other form of media you want to talk about have to find a way to make actual ownership of their product attractive.