> Yes, ethics matter. But copying a friend's CD is not unethical.
> And in the United States, it's not even illegal.
If wanting it to be so *made* it so, you'd be right.
Distributing copies of copyrighted material without permission is,
indeed, illegal.
> You make believe
> you know it's illegal to trade MDs.
Not at all. You may trade MDs all you want -- as long as they don't
contain copyrighted material for which you don't have permission.
> The truth is nobody knows and
> the recording industry would never contest the issue in court
> because they'd likely loose and the world would laugh in their face,
> just like it did with the MP3 debacle.
When it's detected on a large scale, it's taken to court --
regularly.
. . .And the recording industry wins -- regularly.
> You know what happened when the recording inustry tried to SUE in
> FEDERAL COURT to make selling an MP3 recorder illegal? They LOST.
This is an entirely different issue. The industry lost because it
was ruled (rightly) that what they wanted to do was "prior restraint"
-- they wanted to put in restrictions because people *might* steal
the work. In a situation in which someone demonstrably *has* stolen
the work, the law is squarely on the side of the owners of the work
in question.
>Trading MDs is a grey area,
> yes.
No. It's actually quite clear. When you steal someone's property --
whether real, personal, or intellectual -- you're a thief. The fact
that you want the property doesn't change this -- nor does the fact
that you *reallyt* want it.
> But not because
it's unethical or immoral.
*EXACTLY* because it's both illegal and unethical.
> You know, every MD that's sold in the U.S. includes a fee that goes
> to the recording industry, even if all you do with it is record your
> own CDs. You know what? That SUCKS. Maybe that's unethical, eh?
Absolutely.
wrong + wrong <> right.
> Copyright law was meant by our founding fathers to promote the arts
> and creativity
Yes, and stealing the fruits of someone's creativity lessens the
incentive to create more.
> The recording industry is not creative. The recording artists are.
> You think the recording artists like the recording companies?
You're really big on non sequiturs and irrelevancies, aren't you?
> You are implying people who trade MDs are unethical.
Not at all -- as long as they have the rights to the material.
> I'm stating explicitly I think you should think things
> through a little more.
I deal with intellectual property issues regularly in my work; it's
unlikely you've considered them to the degree I have.
=========================================
Jeffrey E. Salzberg, Lighting Designer
http://www.cloud9.net/~salzberg
=========================================
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