(07-16-2009, 04:07 PM)Richard Wrote: Pirated music (or video or text) takes from another entity the fruits of their labors. That they use to feed, clothe and house themselves and the ones they love. It doesn’t matter how much window dressing one piles onto it…you are still using something that you did not ask (or pay) the owner for. Being of a spiritual bent…on a spiritual path does not absolve you of your responsibilities to the culture you choose to live in.
Within the realm of the LOO though…..its an inherently self serving act.
I definitely think anyone who pirates music and then resells it should be hung up by their toes. (just kidding.) Seriously, actually benefiting financially from someone else's work (without their permission) is in another league altogether.
I think maybe we need a better definition of 'pirating.' Is recording an artist at a concert, then posting the video on youtube considered pirating?
I assume that most of this discussion has been referring to illegally downloading songs that are for sale by conventional means (cds and legal paid downloads).
If I were already planning to buy a cd, but then illegally downloaded it instead (which, again, I have never done) then that is obviously robbing the artist because I would not be paying them $$ which I originally was going to do.
If, otoh, a friend copies a cd she had actually bought, or downloads an album (whether legally or illegally), by a band I had never heard of before, and gives it to me, is that robbing from the artist? I would never have bought their album anyway, since I had never heard of them, so what is being stolen here?
Although I've never downloaded music myself, I have a friend who regularly downloads and shares music. I confess that I have enjoyed the music of many bands whom I had never heard of before. Most are very obscure and not likely to ever hit the mainstream because of their genre. In these cases, I surely would never have bought their cds anyway, because I didn't know they existed! Folk metal, symphonic metal, jazz metal obscurities that I never knew existed...I never even knew the genres existed, much less the huge assortment of artists!
Case in point: Sonata Arctica is among the most commercially accessible out of those he's turned me onto, and they still play small clubs or as opening acts for bigger bands (like Nightwish) in slightly-bigger clubs here in the US (though they fill larger venues in Europe). I'd never heard of them before, but because my friend gave me a cd he'd downloaded, I liked them so much that I went out and bought all, yes, ALL of their cds, their live dvd, at least 3 t-shirts, and I've seen them live 2 times. Oh, and I plan to see them live every chance I get!
Does this excuse my friend's downloading activities? It's not my place to say. I just know that Sonata Arctica now has about $200 of my money that they otherwise wouldn't have had.
It can work both ways! My main point is that it's not a black-and-white issue.
PS. My friend has also seen them live, at least 3 times. I think he bought a couple of t-shirts too.