Dennis Prager and Downloading Music

[The Aliens]

Copyright infringement != theft

Legally and ethically they are not the same. Theft involves depriving someone of something they have, copyright infringement involves depriving them of something they could theoretically have maybe possibly in the future.

Theft of intellectual property is still theft. When you recieve a product that you did not pay for, you're stealing. I'm not saying copying a song or two is immoral- in a lot of cases it helps album sales and allows artists to get a borader fan base. I'm objecting to people copying entire albums instead of buying them. If they didn't download the album, they would have to pay for it, giving money to those who produced it. They're choosing not to give money to the person that owns the copyright.

In my opinion, this is liek stealing a pair of pants from Wal-Mart. Wal-mart mistreats its employees and lines it pockets with markups of products that cost pennies to produce, giving virtually nothing to those who actually produce the pants. Is it then ethical to go into Wal-Mart and take those pants for free, because you don't support the company?

The AHRA also provides CASH for copyright holders in exchange for them giving up the right to complain about people copying stuff for non-commercial use. Is it theft when the person gets money and signed off on it already?

I absolutely agree with you in the cases of producing back-up copies of an album for personal use. I don't think this is the same thing at all as downloading an album off the internet as opposed to purchasing it.

You pay on every single blank CD and hard disk for the right to copy music. If you cant copy music then the recording industry are in fact the ones engaging in theft taking cash in exchange for nothing.

Once again, there's a difference between copying music you already own for personal use and burning a copy of a CD you don't own. You seem to be talking about the former, and I the latter. I fuly believe people have the right to copy music they have paid for- onto iPods, mp3 players, and CDRWs. I don't think this right extends to music they haven't purchased.

[Keevan_Colton]

It doesnt just apply to music you own, it applies to music recordings period. You can get into some semantic arguments with copies of copies, but copying an original CD is fine no matter which way you try to cut it...the act also applies to digital tansmissions and mentions about items communicated or in any other way made available to the public.

The tax the RIAA gets a cut of pays for the right to pirate.