Okay,before i make my long-winded reply, I have to set out my stall so you can all know what direction I'm coming from, ok?
I am not into music. I never listen to CDs, i never download mp3's. It is totally uninteresting to me. The only music I hear comes from films i watch. My answer to the question "Why do you not download music?" is exactly the same as my answer to "Why do you not buy CDs?" - I simply have no interest in doing so.
Now, no matter how interesting you all find it to read about me, i guess some small-minded people out there will actually be more interested in seeing me answer the question, damn you all
Piracy is a problem, and people downloading music
for free without the author's consent and without paying for it are quite simply in the wrong. The musicians spend time and effort on prouducing their creations, which they own as surely as you would own the cupboard you made from scratch. Just as I would object to someone entering my home and appropriating my home-made cupboard, so I assume the artists would object to someone stealing their possessions.
So why do people do it? Well, I see two types of people who do this sort of thing. The first is the type who downloads things for a few reasons - they can't afford to buy the CDs, or they have some inherent dislike of the record companies that get a stupendous and unreasonably large percentage of the sale price.
The second is simply the mass downloader. They DL it because it is free, they want it, and they can have it for nothing.
Obviously, a missed sale is a missed sale, and in that respect it makes no difference, but i feel a touch more sympathy for the first type. The people who make the most money from music are not the artists, but the people in suits who have never touched an instrument in their lives. However, it is still wrong.
So, you think I am totally in favour of Kazaa being shut down? No. My reasons are simple. Kazaa is a file-sharing system, and once you dictate that no matter what legal purposes it is used for, because it is also used for illegal purposes it must be shut down, you are on dangerous ground. Are we going to start suing gun companies because their creations maim and kill thousands? How about people who produce and sell screwdrivers, because they are used to stab people sometimes? Hey - I heard that a man was killed with a golf club yesterday. We have to control golf clubs now.
I think it's the start of a slippery slope. I completely agree with the man that says he wrote a book, he invested time and effort in it, and he wants monetary reward form each person wanting to read it. *However*, what is next? Today the record companies are banning/hamstringing file-sharing. Tomorrow they are preventing you from making legal, home-use only backups. Then they are putting software in your computer to track if you are downloading mp3s. That we use kazaa, cd-rewriters and computers for perfectly legal means is unimportant. The rights of all the law-abiders are becoming increasingly infringed in order to catch the criminals.
Don't start with "What have you got to hide?" I have nothing to
hide - i have something to
protect - my privacy. My right to be assumed to be using a legal means of file transfer for legal purposes - in other words
to be presumed innocent - rather than having fileshare software outlawed because of the people who abuse it. I hear from the gun-lobby that it is wrong to ban guns because it would be an injustice to the law-abiding gun owners (and this is in the UK, where there were fewer law-abiding gun owners than illegal-gun-owning criminals before they were totally banned). If people died through misuse of file-sharing, i would see the point in strict control, but i have yet to see the headline "Musician dies, bloody fileshare found dumped nearby."
All over the internet, you can see peoples' winamp generated playlists. Naturally, the music companies will say that this is a way of people posting adverts for personal filesharing/swapping. Will it become illegal to mention what music you own on the internet because it might entice them to ask you for a copy? When will they install the software on your computer to monitor everything that goes through your connection?
How long will it be until libraries start having to charge the public because the music and publishing industries demand payback, since libraries obviously encourage piracy? Anybody can walk into a library and get a copy of LotR (book) to read. How long before this is seen as a violation of the author's rights?
Also, i notice that i hear alot of rich, influential people complaining that record companies are losing money because of filesharing of music files (or films). I must say that i haven't lately seen people causing such a fuss over child pornography. That is a big problem on P2P networks, but then no industry loses money to child pornography, and in today's world of big-business first, people second, that is unimportant. After all, protecting the capitalistic aims of the mega-companies is
far more important than protecting young people from sexual abuse, isn't it? Let's not waste time chasing the filesharers for encouraging paedophilia (which i would have alot
more sympathy for). No, lets go after them for costing the music industry money.
Is it terribly unfair that the artists lose out from the piracy on filesharing networks. Yes. Is it wrong to download music for free that another person created? Yes. Is it right to let the large corporations gradually steal away our right to privacy to prevent this - no. We're not at that point yet, but we're getting there, and every court case won by the music industry against fileshare programs like Kazaa brings us that little bit closer.
Here's an analogy for my opinions. I disagree with parents smacking their children. I think it is assault, and i don't think it works. It encourages violence, especially violence towards children. Do I want it banned? NO! Why? Because when you ban a parent's right to enfore discipline through a smack on the hand, it's not long before you're getting arrested for sending them to bed with no supper. Then you're getting arrested for not giving them the right foods. Then your child is taken from you at brth because you
probably wouldn't treat them right.
Many of these issues are slippery slopes. The initial step may seem logical, but before you know it you're fighting for your rights.