the morality of song sharing?

[Cam]

In reality you don't have to pay to hear music. I'm listening to a totally free radio station at the moment. I just have to pay if I want a copy of it that I can listen to when I want to. This is the same as art. I can walk into an art museum and see what the curators have decided to display that day, but if I want to view my favorite piece of artwork (that was created by a professional artist) at home when I want I must pay for a replica.

It is true that I can go online or to any library and see most any piece of famous artwork in some form. But it isn't a perfect copy by any means. That's what sets digital music apart from artwork. I can go online and find any piece of music that is as close to being perfect as I care to get free of charge. Is that moral, I don't think so.

That being said I really dislike the RIAA and its methods. I think it’s a terrible organization that has killed almost all forms of free expression in music. The RIAA has taken copy protection to the extreme. I don’t feel that the CD swapping being talked about in the cd exchange program thread is immoral. That is more likely to boost sales for small unknown artist then hurt their sales. The more exposure the better is very important aspect of marketing any product.