Hi All,
It appears that it is not a question of whether or not it is legal to copy, but
whether or not you can get away with theft. Each individual's attitude to this
sort of crime depends on whether it suits their purposes to break the law. CD's
which I own state that 'unauthorized copying, hiring, lending, public
performance and broadcasting of this performance is prohibited'. They also state
who owns the copyright. Of course, its much easier and cheaper to rip it off, as
compared with actually contacting the copyright owner and paying them for the
extra copies. Just because its easy to do, and loads of folk do it, does not
make it legal.
The fundamental cause of this problem, if it is a problem, is seated much deeper
than this. The 'popular' performers are generally speaking paid far, far more
than they are worth, when compared with other areas of human endeavour. CD's are
also overpriced, so you think, hey, they won't miss a few quid in royalties, and
justify the theft to yourself. However, if you were a relatively unknown
composer, and you had worked some time on a particular musical theme, but
someone copied that, and made it freely available and popular, would you be
happy?
As I said, its not much to do with the law, but whether you think can get away
with it. Anyone want to buy some $10 bills, cheap?
Best wishes,
Ray
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