Do you anti-KaZaA people not know what "theft" means?
Definition:
1. (Law) The act of stealing; specifically, the felonious taking and removing of personal property, with an intent to deprive the rightful owner of the same; larceny.
(Emphasis mine)
Downloading music is not "theft", or "stealing" since the original owner of the music is not deprived of his or her work. This is the difference between walking into a record store and shoplifting a CD, as opposed to downloading on using a p2p service. If you shoplift, the owner of the store loses a CD, which is worth money. If you download song, who has lost anything? There is only the loss of "potential" sales, which is impossible to place a monetary value upon, since one may not have bought the CD with the song they downloaded on it, were it not available "free."
This is not to say it is moral or legal to download songs from a p2p service. It isn't. However, consider my situation. I live in a smallish town... I can listen to about 7 FM radio stations: dance, top 40, dance, "new music", dance (yes, again), country, classic rock. This is with a good radio in my car. In my house, I get only top 40, dance and country. I have a rather different taste in music. Generally older stuff, but some things you will never hear on radio. My friends are generally the same. The way we hear about music is word of mouth. "Ever heard of X?" Then I go and download a few songs. If I like the songs, you buy the album, usually within a week. If I don't like it, I delete it. Why would I want to keep it on my computer otherwise? So, the record company lost no money, yet I downloaded for free. They probably gained money, since there are only about 3 people I can absolutely trust to recommend good music. If they recommend it, I just buy the CD without the download.
Consider this, too. I went out and bought, along with 3 other CDs, Radiohead's
"Hail to the Theif" (great album, btw) Now, on the back it says "Copy Controlled," which should have tipped me off not to buy. However, it also says 'Compatible with... Mac OS X' (among others). I assumed this would mean I could copy over the songs to iTunes. And, lo and behold, I could. BUT the first track (2 + 2 = 5) copied over complete silence (except for about 10 seconds of the end) Thinking this was just a glitch, I tried again. Nothing. Tried again. Nothing. So I hopped on Poisoned and grabbed the track. Was that wrong? I bought the CD,
they screwed me. I don't expect to have to return a CD because it's incompatible and is designed as if I am a theif. I evened the playing field by downloading the song... BUT I had to take MY time to do that, rather than getting what I was promised when I bought the CD. I still feel scammed having paid full price for the CD.
As for iTMS, I will continue to buy CDs at the store. I like the record store. I like getting recommendations from a human. I like having something physical to show for my money. I like listening to the FULL album, how it was intended to be heard. I like being able to do what I want with what I bought... absolutely no DRM. (The DRM in iTMS is nice, though) Maybe I'm just weird like that. I could see using iTMS to make a very specific CD, though, for a presentaton, or a joke... something where I needed a wide variety of songs on one CD.
Does anyone know what the possibilities of Apple buying Apple Records?
