I admit, back in the day I stole a lot of music with peer to peer sharing programs like Napster and WinMX. I stopped after I realized that most times the MP3s I was getting were subpar and the metadata associated with them was crap. I spent more time fixing artist names, track numbers, etc than I did listening to the actual music. Enter buying a Mac and having iTunes and I’ve tried to go legal for all my music.
Then my mom calls me this last week. “Hey, I’m looking for the sound track to Steven King’s tv movie The Stand. They don’t make it any more and Ebayers want like $60. Can you find it ‘for free’?”
My mom is asking me to break the law and download this CD without paying for it. I, of course, said no problem and starting the search and eventually found a few seeders with the songs. I went to iTunes and the album was there, sort of, but I couldn’t view it getting a “not available in the US Store” error. Amazon doesn’t sell the CD and their marketplace sellers want $40+ for a copy.
When I told my mom I had the files, a mere 30 minutes after she requested them, remorse set in for her. “Oh are you sure this is okay??” I told her, it’s illegal and if the RIAA had anything to say about it, they’d cut off my nipples. However, I’ve tried every LEGAL route to obtain the album. It’s not like this is a collection of songs from other albums – this is music orchestrated specifically for the movie.
So, in the end, screw the music industry (in this case). You don’t want to sell it to me, then I don’t want to buy it from you.