varropdx: (Default)
varropdx ([personal profile] varropdx) wrote2003-07-10 01:34 pm

File Sharing is Killing Music!

Good rationalization for file sharing on this blog.

Frankly, in my circles, it's better to be thought of as a thief by the artist-cheating, crap-peddling, Monty Burns-run recording companies than be thought of as a sucker by people you know. (RIAA, and many people's moms, would ask "if everyone was shoplifting, do you have to do it to?" Never mind that copyright violations are a different kind of law than theft, more similar to a breach of contract where mens rea is irrelevant than a criminal deprivation of property rights.)

Time will tell if reasonable prices for downloaded music and a drop in CD prices will bring people back to contractual honesty with recording companies.

I buy used CDs from used record stores, eBay and half.com, and yard sales, usually for $1 (some yard sales) to $8 (major artists at used record stores). I'll buy indie releases from the artists at shows for $8-12. But I'll be damned if I'll buy a CD for $18 at a conventional record store. It's time RIAA realized this, and starts cutting their prices. (Not cheating artists out of royalties would be another good thing to do.)

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