RNB

Well for all of you hyper moderators this is not the same as the anime thread because it has to do with music, and the RIAA.

Anyways I don't think downloading music is morally wrong because you are not saying you own the property rights to the album, but you are saying you have the right to listen to the album. The only reason money is charged for music is so that people become rich and famous. It has nothing to do with supporting the artist because if you look at Radiohead's recent release, "In Rainbows" and the way they proposed how you would acquire the album (through paying what you want for it,) you can see that Radiohead has already made a large amount of money off of it.

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"Nature loves to be hidden."

- Heraclitus

Missing Nin

No it's not wrong to download music i mean seriously who would pay for an album these days everyone i know downloads off limewire so no it is very good.

balmung5000

you know i dont think that paying NOTHING for an album is way to go
i think that cd's should be a lot cheaper because the only reason why they are so expensive
is so other companies can make money from them
the bands make very little profit from the cds sold
so with that said downloading music truely isnt moraly wrong since the majority of the money these bands make isnt from cd selling its from shows and merch

Freshgrease

I stopped downloading because I could afford to download off Itunes, get it in in 30 seconds, and not have to worry about it being a renamed MP3 of some dude jacking off to gay porn. Man, there are some sick f**ks on Limewire.

As for morally....I think it is ok. That is only because I have a bias against the RIAA. Any greedy business willing to steal $222k from a poor woman for 20 stolen songs is pathetic. They think that they are above the law and use scare tactics to get universities and ISPs to rat out file sharers.

While a file sharer is techinically stealing, the gross amount of "damages" the RIAA claims offsets the morality of stealing the music. In the court system, the typical punitive damages are 3 times the actual damages. The RIAA has no bloody idea on how much one downloaded song costs them, so they assign a price a tad less than $1K per song shared which they pulled out of their ass.

IMO downloading music is the lesser of two evils. The most you should be charged is 3 times the price of the CD or song off Itunes, but the RIAA demands too much money to be considered just "damages."

If there was a definitive answer to the question, I would say "yes." You should pay for the music you listen too. Those artists need money to survive, and their songs are all that they have. Most don't live much more extravagant lives than the typical adult (as far as money goes.) What's so bad about paying $1 for a song? It's a win-win situation for both parties.

However, record companies setting varible pricing for certain songs, and limiting their input to the music library on Itunes (because Apple won't charge variable pricing) is despicable.

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RNB

But why should you have to pay for the album rights. As long as the artist is known that they created the album then there should be no problem. The fact that I have to pay to listen to an album and I am allowed to look at paintings on the internet for free is stupid. It is just a scheme to make money. Why can't I just donate to the artist freely.

File sharers are not stealing. What are they stealing is the question?

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"Nature loves to be hidden."

- Heraclitus

Miburo

It's not morally wrong for the same exact reasons downloading anime online isn't morally wrong. Nothing is subtracted, and you can't actually prove any financial loss. It's not stealing, it's sharing.

You can argue that it may possibly equate to lost business, but you could apply that to any type of sharing. The only way you can argue that it's actually wrong though would be to say that sharing anything someone sells is immoral or wrong. So the only valid argument against media sharing boils down to saying "Sharing is immoral." Good luck justifying that.

RNB

Well it seems like the RIAA and some juries have.

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"Nature loves to be hidden."

- Heraclitus

Miburo

No, they haven't. They've made up bullshit statistics (Protip: Anytime you see anything that says 'the music industry loses X amount of dollars a year to file sharing' it's complete bullshit) that don't take key factors into account by assuming that every song downloaded equates to money lost, which is totally retarded, and a bunch of not so smart people actually bought into that shit.

Remember, juries are more than capable of being wrong. Not only that, but there's a lot of money being thrown around, which undoubtedly influences things a bit. So if one is going to argue the actual morality of something, they've got to do a lot better than bringing up the legality of media sharing.

Edit:This is good shit, by the way. Totally agree. Like Bal said, the artists can make money from merchandise and concerts. So as long as they get credited for their work, and no one is using their work to make a profit, it should be all good.

AnticitizenOne

I don't believe it is morally correct at all. People these days just don't have any appreciation for the people who are actually giving things to them these days. That's why they steal off of programs like Limewire.

You might as well go ahead and rob a jewlery store, pick somebody's pocket off the streets, or hold up an old lady for her purse. EVERYONE today has been turned into a common thief by that program and whoever they catch doing it should be fined and incarcerated to the FULL extent of the law. Bottom line, if you steal, you go against the law, and if they catch you, you don't get away with it.

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RNB

Is it stealing to listen to music for free?

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"Nature loves to be hidden."

- Heraclitus

AnticitizenOne

Listening to music and downloading it are two different things. If you listen to it, that's sharing, since you're just going, using it once, and then returning it to its owner. Ownership, however, is a different thing altogether. If you own the music, you can put it on your computer, manipulate it, or add it to some kind of music video or something.

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RNB

So if I download it to listen to it, is it stealing.

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"Nature loves to be hidden."

- Heraclitus

AnticitizenOne

Yes. It is stealing.

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Master2005

Yes, it definately is, but mostly people don´t care about it...

RNB

So what if I listen to streamed music over and over again.

__________________
"Nature loves to be hidden."

- Heraclitus