the morality of song sharing?
 

why don't I have to pay to see visual art, but I DO have to pay to hear music?

Am I immoral for doing so? or are the record companies and artists immoral for trying to charge us in the first place? I say if you can provide a quality product, and sell it, fine. blah blah blah...

You can pay a minimal fee and see a whole bunch of bands live. The difference kicks in when you decide you'd like to take the sound/image home for private, individual enjoyment.

In reality you don't have to pay to hear music. I'm listening to a totally free radio station at the moment. I just have to pay if I want a copy of it that I can listen to when I want to. This is the same as art. I can walk into an art museum and see what the curators have decided to display that day, but if I want to view my favorite piece of artwork (that was created by a professional artist) at home when I want I must pay for a replica.

It is true that I can go online or to any library and see most any piece of famous artwork in some form. But it isn't a perfect copy by any means. That's what sets digital music apart from artwork. I can go online and find any piece of music that is as close to being perfect as I care to get free of charge. Is that moral, I don't think so.

That being said I really dislike the RIAA and its methods. I think it’s a terrible organization that has killed almost all forms of free expression in music. The RIAA has taken copy protection to the extreme. I don’t feel that the CD swapping being talked about in the cd exchange program thread is immoral. That is more likely to boost sales for small unknown artist then hurt their sales. The more exposure the better is very important aspect of marketing any product.

Just to clarify. Let's say you make a favorites cd:

The 10 songs come from cds that you bought at best buy or whereever. When you bought the cd you also got the right to play that music. Now you burn a favorites cd - still within your rights. Now you loan that cd to someone else. I think that's cool - but you don't have the right to play those 10 songs until you get the loaner back. Think of it that same way you'd share a book. You can't loan the book and read it at the same time.

The above is my opinion only - the RIAA takes a more strict stance on things.

The station's license is paying for that particular performance.



I'll accept that as a working hypothesis. :cool:

What if the musicians are dead?
What if the recording is not currently on the market?

If it's a commercial work, it's almost certain that someone inherited the rights to the works.


Yeah, that's a tough one. In that case, I make the copy if one is available and check amazon periodically to see if it gets reprinted.

I was amazed when Jimmy Spheeris' Isle of View was finally put on CD.

That's exactly behind the thinking of legislation that would require copyright holders to pony up a token fee (say, $1, $10, who cares?) to renew the copyright after 50 years.

My band and I do a rendition of "I Am The Mercury" from Isle of View. Jimmie was an *awesome* performer and songwriter, and it was a serious undertaking to get his stuff released on CD. There's a fairly extensive site about both Jimmie and the process involved in bringing his works to compact disc.

Anybody here see him more than four times in concert? Man, those were the days. Interesting tidbit: The photo on the cover of his live album was shot here in Kansas City.

"I am the Mercury" is one of my favorite songs ever. Does your band have a CD?