That's what the radio is for.
...or even the 30 second preview in iTunes, or MTV, or AOL music. There are plenty of legal alternatives that can be used to discover music, but they aren't utilized - why? ...Because that's not why people pirate music - they pirate music because they don't want to (or plan on) paying for their music.
I am strictly arguing for principles, and against the arguments pirates use to defend their illegal practice. It is absolutely not OK to steal music in any way.
And what we're seeing is that all those are collectively doing nothing to stop the decline in CD sales.
It's good you are arguing for principles, but what if those principles are based on misguided ideals? It's easy to say "stealing music is not okay" but you're not recognizing that music was shared in many different ways pre-Internet, albeit less effectively. People used to make mix tapes which they copied and gave to friends, for example. The music industry also considered that "stealing" but seriously, would you consider making a cassette recording of a CD and giving it to a friend truly stealing?
Because if that's the kind of world you want to live in, then I hope you never, ever exceeded the speed limit when driving a car. 'Cause speeding is illegal and against the law. I hope you never snuck your own candy bar into the movie theater, 'cause that's cheating the theater chain out of concessions money. I hope you never parked on the street without putting a coin in the meter because the errand would only take 5 minutes, 'causing that would be stealing the use of that parking space for a few minutes.
Heck, the music industry has even sued libraries in the past because people could borrow music CDs just like books. Maybe the whole concept of libraries should be abolished, since it's a system set up expressly so that people never have to pay to buy books or magazines. That's surely stealing, isn't it? I'd like you to answer why the free library system isn't considered stealing, or why even copyrights should ever expire since making content freely available is apparently detrimental to business.
Frankly, with the multi-year decline of CD sales that's occurring, I am content to let the music industry go on imploding. It deserves to lose another $2 or 5 billion a year in sales because only a crisis of that proportion will give them a clue (more likely, act as a catalyst to push out the copyright purists who hold all the power right now).
Because that's what this is about. It's about the
purism of absolute control - or more accurately, the absolute fear of the loss of control - and the desire to punish ordinary people for simply sharing music, like people have done since the dawn of human history. Forget that locking music down contributes to its decline and eventual oblivion, no matter how many ad dollars you spend or how many radio or TV stations carry the tune. Because it's all about principle, dude, and stealing is stealing, right?
Here's some perspective.
* When Thomas Edison invented the phonograph, the music industry cried it would destroy the market for music because no one would want to buy player piano scrolls anymore. It didn't happen.
* When the radio was invented, the music industry cried it would destroy music because it threatened the lucrative phonograph market. It didn't happen.
* When TV was introduced, the music industry cried it would destory music because why would anyone listen to radio when they could see a performance on TV? It didn't happen.
* When the portable cassette recorder was invented, the music industry cried that it would destroy music because it would make illegal copying rampant, and no one would buy music again, ever. It didn't happen - the music industry only grew richer.
* When the CD came out, the music industry was happy because there was no easy way to copy CDs.
* When PCs started shipping with CD readers and burners, the music industry cried that listening to your music on your PC was illegal, and began concocting all kinds of schemes to prevent your PC from playing audio CDs. Burning CDs was an even bigger no-no, and when Apple began advertising Macs with the phrase "Rip, Mix, Burn," clue-deprived Michael Eisner testified in front of Congress that Apple as advocating outright illegal piracy (even though burning CDs was completely legal fair-use right, according to the Supreme Court).
The music industry had it's best years when the original Napster was at its height. You must admit that is highly ironic. Why? Because of the
network effect. People would see the video on MTV, maybe catch the tune on the radio, and then sample it by downloading on Napster. Sometimes that was the end of it, but overall, the sales of music CD were sky high because people were surrounded by music. Now a vital piece of that network effect is gone due to the actions of the music industry - not because "stealing is wrong" (which it is) but because they are more interested in enforcing ideological purism and creating a world in which people only get information from "authorized sources," damned be human nature. Not because it's "morally right" or legal, but
simply because they can soley as a result of computer technology. There is no other reason, despite all the moral posturing.
(I note that Prohibition was quite successful at getting people to stop drinking that devilish, sin-inducing alcohol in the 1920s...not)
But it's all cool. I'm quite happy to see the music industry bleeding out even as its top execs go through painful contortions as they keep trying to explain how piracy is still responsible for declining sales even as they keep jacking up CD prices and overal P2P piracy keeps going down. I haven't bought a music CD in quite a while and neither have I bought a song on iTunes in years (I also don't download songs from P2P networks, either). I know nothing short of a musical industry equivalent of the Titantic sinking will shake the hubris and blind arrogance of people like Doug Morris, so I say, "So be it!"
But like the new "Get a Mac" commercial says, I hope you are coming to a sad realization that your purist stance serves no common good, does not help the livelihoods of the artists at all (declining CD sales push them more into debt with the labels), hurts a lot of innocent people who are targeted with lawsuits for crimes the RIAA can't even prove they committed, and still has no effect on the actual copyrights (which the labels are quite eager to take away from the artist at the very first opportunity).
On top of that, everyone but Apple loses money the whole way down.
So be it, until the labels are one day pummeled into a DRM-free reality.
to reset my account because I had one-too-many activations due to a install of an OS going boom before I could deactivate the OS. (I wont mention what OS. >.>' <.<')
