Feds to audiophiles: You're all pirates now

just remember guys, even 'the dead' have a legal staff who constantly patrol trademark and copyright infringement. when the band tells you its ok to record 1. they're not playing other writer's songs('they' pay out for those), and 2. if you 'sell' copies of a dead show, you can still get busted......china's black market for pirating music, film, and books, is nearly as large as the legitimate marketplace. there is a somewhat infamous story where Graham Parker played a gig in hong kong, and stayed a few days to 'sightsee'. he went into a main st music store to find a pirated live cd(beautifully packaged)within 48 hours of that gig (of that performance). to this day, part of the retail of blank tape goes to a royalty pool to help offset copying.......whether they be big or small, support your favorite artists..most musicians struggle financially, but thankfully those artists are still compelled to make music..speaking for myself, i'm compelled to buy it..dreadhead and all, have a happy holiday season..be cool

Theft at Christmas even to give a gift to a poor person== is still theft. Euck

Exactly, Psacanli. Robin Hood be damned.

i would not relate stealing music to Robin Hood (there is no higher moral ground to stand on)......i would relate it to Hitler looting the Art of Europe during the Occupation. just like these present day thieves; Hitler stole because he could.

you could make a case that some then owners of the Art were corrupt or bad folks.....but that does not justify Hitler's actions.

just because technology has made data theft easy does not justify it. Hitler had it easy too.

Rewind a few decades. What is the view on Big Music "out positioning", to put it politely, countless musicians who later realized they didn't have the rights to the music they created, and then watched others get rich off of those rights? And continue to get rich off those rights today. I saw Chuck Berry in the airport the other day, heading off to Europe for a 20-gig tour - I should have thought to ask him his opinion.

I don't disagree that it's against the law to pirate music. I just don't think it's as big a story as the media wants to make it out to be, and I don't particularly feel sorry for the "victims" even if I don't choose to pirate "because I can".

Big Music has used their legal muscle for decades for their own profit. Unfortunately, they did not engage with technical visionaries, or they never would have produced their product in a format that propogates the way a CD does. They're falling back on the one strategy they've used forever, but even their lawyers can't get the genie back in the bottle. As Dusty says, it's a bull-headed and, ultimately, bad strategy. I don't have to condone rampant pirating to chastise the music industry for their backwardness.