Feelings on Napster?

WOW.....Issabre, you tell us that "poverty is not the actual need. It is the perceived need". Would you care to go back to africa and tell all those millions of happy, starving, AIDS infected folks that are living (dying?) in war torn countries, that they actually have no "poverty"? ie no need for additional food, medicine, clean water, clothing, housing etc. Or are all those pictures on CNN totally wrong? I'll take my chances with America's problems, thankyou. Back to the topic: Napster itself may not be stealing music, but it certainly is making it possibe for those who do/would steal it-- it's called aiding and abetting, and that's wrong-- IMHO.

Garfish, Perceived need includes needs that are both real AND needs that are completely mental. It is an expansion of the definition of need, not a total redefinition. And yes, what you see on CNN is no way representative of the majority of Africa, just as what you see on CNN is no way representative of the majority of America. I'd just like to say thank God someone in the federal court system does see the bigger picture.

No, I'm not belivin. You need to publish your Mein Kompf elsewhere. Saying things like "people are the least happy in the USA, than in anywhere else in the world"...is utter foolishness. I could say just as accurately, "that everyone in America is actually blood red, it's just that their skin pretends to cover all of this blood that's actually perfectly visible underneath...if we just don't let the skin fool us into thinking that we aren't seeing it..." It is indeed born out in history, and I too "don't know where you get this". What do you suspect about my "tone", btw? IT IS ALL VERY SIMPLE. YOU, AND ALL LIBERALS AD SOCIALISTS, ARE THE ONES WHO ARE UNHAPPY. Why? Because you want to EQUALIZE EVERYONE'S LIFE OUTCOME, and have us all share a collective uncounciousness, and shirk out individualism. It'll never happen, it's not logical, it's not human, it doesn't occur in nature, or in the history of society, and it's the antithesis of capitalism, and everything out country was founded on. If you want a socialist utopia, I suggest you build one on the Moon, sans spacesuits! Give it up, and come over to the good side of the force, before you self destruct!

Issabre...... you sound like a guilty liberal. If you can't enjoy a good stereo system, get rid of what you have (what do you have?) and get off Audiogon; go to a good socialist's chat site and be happy. Just don't pretend to know how I feel about music or anything else. Cheers.

First, Adam Smith did NOT sign the constitution of the United States and our country is NOT based on freemarket capitalism, and our forefathers who were escaping intolerance in Europe certainly would NOT have advocated Social Darwinism lest they be damning themselves. These tenents were adopted outside the constitution. Second, You're right when you say that we liberals are the ones who are unhappy. By very definition "liberal" means open....open to many different perspectives-(it's a natural evolution of human thought when you are faced with the complexity of the universe. One man or culture cannot know about everything...so there must be other people with other perspectives who are right too. At least we are open to that possibility.) But we don't call ourselves liberals. It is only after one begins to act on this assumption that you are automatically slapped with this appelation. Why are we unhappy? Certainly not out of a desire to equalize outcomes or wealth. That would dictate that a belief that more wealth or more things equals greater happiness and capitalism has show great dexterity in that relm. So why? Simple. WHILE WEALTH AND POWER DO PLAY A PART, WE ULTIMATELY HOPE FOR DIGNITY AND HUMANITY FOR ALL PEOPLE. MOREOVER, WE VIEW OUR PRINCIPAL SOCIAL TENENTS AS THEY ARE HELD AND PRACTICED TODAY AS BEING INEFFECTUAL IN THIS PURSUIT AND, TO THE CONTRARY, ARE INCREASINGLY BEING MANIPULATED BY POWERFUL PEOPLE WHO DICTATE THE RULES OF THE GAME, SUCH AS THE MUSIC INDUSTRY. As Garfish pointed out all societies have their problems and I'll admit that Americans are not necessarily worse off than Africans-surely Africa has many points that it needs to develop. Both cultures have their advantages. But what I DO WANT to say is that if you think that America is fully developed in the broadest sense of the word, THINK AGAIN. Development is not a one way street...and technology is often mistaken for development.