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Looper's Delight
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Interesting topic. I've changed my attitude on file sharing over the last few years. When it first started happening, I was incensed. I've since become resigned, and convinced that there is no point in fighting the tide. I may antagonize people with this (but why should I start caring now? - I've already had a 2-hour head-butting exercise over this with the CFO of a small record company, during which he mainly equated me with someone who walks into Tower Records and stuffs CDs in his coat pockets), but I've downloaded probably 4 gigs of MP3s using Morpheus. Yet, I quickly returned to the habit of buying CDs, and rarely listen to my downloaded files. Why did I download, and why did I return to CDs? I downloaded because, just like Stephen said, I didn't want to pay for the same freaking song a third or 4th time. 90% of what I downloaded I already have on vinyl - I could have recorded the tunes and then used a deglitcher to take out the pops, but that would have been extremely time-consuming. So I perceive that I had a legal right to a digital copy of the tunes under fair use. I just found an easier way of exercising that right. Other tunes I've downloaded have sometimes resulted in CD purchases, sometimes not. IF THERE WERE DECENT RADIO STATIONS, I WOULDN'T HAVE TO DOWNLOAD *ANYTHING*. If I had an Internet connection everywhere - in the car, in the kitchen, etc. - I would never listen to anything but free internet radio (btw, is there a looping station on Live365?). Anyway, I have returned to mainly CDs because (1) the prices on Amazon have finally become reasonable. When CDs were first coming out, there was some justification for charging $16 for them, but that is *long* gone. I don't have any trouble paying $12 for a CD, but $16 just drives me nuts. Go figure. (2) I grew up in the age of "concept albums", so I still have a charmingly naïve belief that entire CDs have a coherency and present a picture that individual songs do not. (3) CDs are just easy to take everywhere and play. In terms of the morality of file sharing, or music stealing, if you will: I think of it in terms of the speed limit. Everyone flaunts the speed limit, but no-one faults them on morality - even though the consequences can be far more serious than denying a record company a profit opportunity. In terms of the effect on the music industry: if the major record companies go under, it will mostly make life better for me. I think music as whole can benefit greatly from decentralization. Warren Sirota