So for the past month or so i've been paying more attention to my real life and realizing how incredibly blessed i am with the people in it. This strangely enough has turned in to something I've been calling... the line of the day. It's paying attention to what people say/think etc and selecting one random ridiculously wonderful alive thing which was shared....
I've hesitated to post these because I dont have permission in most cases... but since my blog has dried up, I'm going for it today.
Yesterdays line of the day... "Mom, why can't we have Limewire... Beyonce' has enough money... and dad agrees with me" - Molly
You see, i grew up when you actually paid $17 bucks for an album/cd because you loved one song, so itunes... it's a dream come true. My kids though live in the world of the internet and can't imagine spending a buck for a song. I love this line because it shows me that Mo's paid attention to my reason, but she's processed it and come up with her own logic on the subject.
So beyond sharing my line of the day... where do you stand on free music? Are there safe sites? What do you use? you can comment anonymously in order to avoid prosecution :-)
11 comments:
In some ways I agree with Molly. I remember getting really frustrated when Garth Brooks put up a stink about selling cd's second hand because he didn't get any money from it...this coming after he'd admitted he has more money than his grandchildren will be able to spend.
Then again, in regard to itunes, etc, this is what these people do for a living, so I suppose we ought to give them their just dues. Yet, I am not beyond buying the songs and making a cd for a friend.
I guess I'm on the fence about it...
i used to download day and night...all the time...from limewire, and before limewire was kazaa. anyway...
i don't do it anymore. i will confess that a buy a good amount from a russian website because they exchange rate makes it cheap. but i am paying for the music and i also use iTunes or Amazonmp3 a lot. i've been convicted enough to know that downloading for free is stealing. that is just a bottom line for me. as far as the russian website...i call that being smart :)
I will plead the 5th here about free music. Plus, I think you already know what I think about that :)
But I listen to Pandora a lot. It's FREE internet radio and you can find new artists you like... but you don't get to keep the music.
Tell Molly to hold off until she gets to college. Most colleges offer free sharing services within their community (as a way to avoid getting sued). Or she will meet people who can hook her up.
I'm with Jenni...I listen to Pandora a lot when working on the 'puter. I also feel fine about paying an artist/musician for their work. I don't even know what Limewire is. (I have a blog, a photo site and a pre-paid cell phone...that's about as with-it as I get!)
I buy all my music on iTunes. It's uber easy and $10 for an album is way cheaper than the $15-$17 we used to spend when we hadn't heard the entire album. I just try not to do it too often.
I do it partly out of convenience and feel like there's no shame in paying money for music.
I don’t really know what to say other than that I am shocked. Not so much that your daughter would share the view of the majority of her generation, but that otherwise seemingly rational adults would not see clarity in this issue and use it as an opportunity to teach a young person about ethical decision making. Here are a few simple ways to see this:
- The wealth of the seller does not in any way justify theft on behalf of the consumer.
“Beyonce has enough money” - or Garth Brooks, or whoever. Really? The Robin Hood defense? Think of applying this logic elsewhere - Who else can I steal from that has what I consider to be too much money? Steve Jobs is a billionaire so should I steal the iPod too? And what then do you say when someone of significantly lesser means steals from your daughter citing the same justification?
The ease of committing the theft does not make it any less of an offense.
In the old days, you would have to actually go into a retail store and walk out with a stolen CD. In today’s age of digital media, passing around music has just become too easy. But does that change the ethics of it? Think of it this way, if you knew for certain that Best Buy had no security and was therefore absolutely unable to catch any shoplifters, would you suggest that your daughter go ahead and take a few things she desired?
“Purchasing” stolen property from the person or company who actually stole it does not absolve the buyer from responsibility.
There are numerous sites operating outside of international copyright jurisdictions (some in Russia and elsewhere) that do sell music for cheaper prices than available elsewhere. The problem is that in most cases they do not have the legal right to do so. Rather, they merely are immune from prosecution. Again, what are the parallels to this? There are a lot of practices across the world that are “legal” but are far from being moral - from teenage prostitution in parts of Asia to beating your wife in parts of the Middle East. If buying music from Russia would be considered smart, then I guess if a man wants to beat a woman he should book a vacation to Iran.
That said, I am not a supporter of the RIAA, or the music business for that matter. Their days are numbered and they will need to change their business model soon or see extinction. Support local and independent artists who more often than not see the future and give their music away, to make a living touring and through other means. But seriously, don’t create a flawed ethical construct to justify something of desire. You’d be better of just saying, “well, yes it’s wrong, just don’t get caught.”
yikes! let he who has not sinned cast the first stone....
it's just a discussion people!
i am not the original Anonymous poster, but i ask, in response to Anonymous poster #2, is it a sin to state one's opinion?
and also, to Anonymous poster #2 - regarding "it's just a discussion people!" - isn't this what Anonymous poster #1 was doing by sharing his/her thoughts?
I am a professional who makes his living in a business that is directly affected by piracy. I'm not 100% pure, but I try to set a personal standard to avoid acquiring any intellectual property if the owner of that IP does not allow me to get it for free. Every time IP rights are violated, it discourages innovation and creativity.
Here are the common arguments for violating IP rights:
* It's like leaving something valuable on the porch... you are inviting people to steal it. Baloney, next you will think it's OK to see if their front door is locked.
* The IP owner already has enough money. Don't *we* don't have enough money too? Compared to the third world, we're rich. So is it OK for people to steal from us?
* Business models based on Old School IP rights are obsolete in the internet era. Maybe so, but it's still violating a contract.
I buy almost all of my music from Amazon. com as mp3 downloads. No copy protection, so if my player dies or whatever, I still have rights to listen to the music I bought. No itunes or zune for me!
(here in Beijing, yesterday's China Daily had an article about this subject too!)
I don't do the whole "free" music thing. Free sites scare the crap out of me because I'm afraid my computer will end up with a virus or something, so I only buy from itunes or Amazon. Also, I don't see anything wrong with purchasing music off itunes or Amazon and then making a cd for someone (just not TEN copies or something crazy like that).
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