Quote:
Originally posted by tw
Quote:
Originally posted by wst3
I seem to be the only one here who really believes that it is wrong to steal from artists, so this will be my last post on the topic... the majority rules<G>!
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Which means wst3 was never reading my posts carefully. I never said it was right, or moral, or legal, or polite, or ethical, or acceptable to steal from artists.
<big snip>
Perspective is important here - as in everything else. Where as Napster is symptoms of a mismanaged, overly top heavy, anti-innovation industry; that does not justify stealing - from the perspective of the individual user. I believe most readers never understood the important concpet of perspective in my 'too long' posts. I believe wst3 has failed to understand the importance of that perspective. Dagnabit's perspective is classic, immoral corruption - not to be confused with an economic perspective of why Napster exists.
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Man I hate it when this happens, but I guess I gotta answer this one<G>...
I repeatedly asked you how you could justify theft and you answered with additional accusations of ant-innovation and anti-americanism... which certainly appears to be justifying Napster, and therefore theft via Napster.
I'm not even sure if Napster is a symptom of a top-heavy, greedy, etc business climate, or perhaps a lazy, entitled populace. Probably both, and I don't know which is in the lead.
What I know:
1) CD prices are ridiculous, even when you consider what it costs to "break" a new act, and how many development deals actually pan out.
2) We all keep buying them (well, except for those who steal them!) We could end the gouging if we simply stopped voting with our wallets, and giving them license to gouge.
3) The audio quality of the few MP3s I've heard has been awful. There are folks who carefully process their material before converting to MP3, and it the material is suitable, and the engineer talented, it is only bad. The stuff that is posted on MP3.com is worse, and the examples (admittedly few) I've heard from Napster are awful. Without ratting anyone out, in my office there are two napster denzions, so I have heard a few examples.
Once again, if people cared they could change that from awful to just bad<G>... or maybe even acceptable.
4)The record companies tend to treat artists a whole lot better today than they did 50 years ago... partly because artists got smarted, and partly because the public got smarter. Sadly the part that is due to management's values is tiny indeed.
5) Theft is theft, and it is wrong on moral and legal grounds. You want to change that, change the laws. Don't just ignore them.