Stealth wrote:In some countries downloading is not illegal; sharing is.
In any case, even if it's illegal, you can still disagree with copyright laws. And then there's the matter of ownership. Can consumers ever really be owners of the CDs they pay for?
EDIT: Btw, if you ever made photocopies of a book, journal article, etc. because you needed material for your studies or for whatever reason, you have committed piracy. The books and articles are copyrighted and authors don't receive a single cent for those copies. Why is it that this issue is so important in the music and movie industries but widely accepted as the "natural" thing to do with books? If all of you who say that you will buy such and such CD when it comes out are not hypocrites, then you should also buy the books and articles you need. On the other hand, if you still think that making photocopies represents an acceptable behaviour, stop giving speeches about "ethical conduct" regarding illegal downloads of music and movies.
I agree in overal but the point is not what is legal and what illegal. Legal doesn't always mean right, and illegal isn't always wrong. Long conversation...
The difference between the photocopies and the cds however, is that when it comes to books people usually copy some chapters that they need for a diploma work or something. Which means that in other ways they wouldn't be reading the book (at least in the cases of friends of mine and myself). So we are "forced" to make copies or buy it. And of course since it's something we don't like, we'll choose to copy it. But when it comes to music, no one forces you to listen to it (unless you're studying it of course), so it's you who decides to download the copy. The situations might be similar but the circumstances are different.
Well, you could tell that if you wouldn't download it, you wouldn't care to buy an album anyway, so in this case the artist isn't losing anything either...
But more importantly, mp3s and copied cds are a bit soulless, don't you think so?
And more than that, I think that buying something makes you appreciate it more than you would have if you had downloaded it for free.
Personally 99% of my cds/dvds are originals cause I prefer them that way, not cause copies are illegal.
But on the other hand, those who download are not the ones to blame. If the cds had normal prices (which are high due to the salaries of big managers, directors etc) then people would prefer buying rather than downloading, I think.