These bands and artists are not suffering for music. Most of the downloads are performers who have already made it big. I have a hard time listening to how it financially hurts someone who drives 3 different cars and spend more on clothes in a month than I MAKE in a year. If I download songs from a smaller groups I find I love, I’m willing to go buy their whole album to show my support. If I download something from Aerosmith or Britney Spears (not that I ever would – she isn’t my favorite artist) I don’t really feel bad about it. AND it’s often the only way to get hold of really old music that were things like one-hit-wonders of the 70’s and 80’s. Their music isn’t even available on CD’s unles it’s part of a compilation that is expensive and uses other pieces of crap as fillers, if they use your favorite song at all.

One of my favorites I could only find was in a 70’s package set from Time Life. Yeah, they had a number of others that were hard to find, but at $150 for the set… no freaking way! So download or not, you still would never get my money. And my Dad who could download loved it enough that he bought it because he could afford to.

They aren’t suffering that muchh folks, trust me. So long as they talk about it on the news while wearing diamond earring the size of my eyeball and Dolce and Gabbana shirts.. I won’t feel any pity.

Too often people equate the ‘right to free access to music’ to mean the ‘right to access music for free.’ They are not one and the same.

People who attempt to argue their right to access music for free do not do so out of principle, but rather they just do not want to have to spend their own money for music. But, to say “I just do not want to spend my money” doesn’t seem a reasonably defendable rationale. As such, they resort to the pretext of defending a supposed right of free access to music, which they further interpret (shamefully ‘twist’) to mean access music for free.

If people want to download free music, then fine. But just do not try to rationalize why it is ethical to do so. Just admit, “Hey, I do not want to spend my money so I will download the music for free. I really do not care if it illegally screws someone out of a royalty.”

If the courts decide it is legal, then one can do so with a clean conscience, for if it is legal then it must be ethical. :\

(And, yes, I download some music for free and use Russian sites to do it on the cheap.)

artists work so hard to make entertaining music for us and for people just to take it from them is straight out stealing.

i argue that many artists make their songs as short stories and to fully grasp the concept of the CD one must listen to the WHOLE album and get what the artist is trying to communicate.

we also get to know the artist in a much deeper level if we buy the CD in its whole. The songs that didn’t make it on the radio or other types of media, might reveal who the artist truly is inside.

if we pick and choose what songs we would like to listen to according to what is “popular”, everyone is missing out on creative thinking.

they are doing very well !

I like to take advantage