Just because I feel like opening a volatile can of worms:
I don't have any ethical problems with downloading music for free, because I don't believe it's stealing.
When an item, like a CD, is stolen from a traditional music store, the store has lost stock. It hurts them. In the most basic terms, stealing in the usual sense deprives someone of something that is rightfully theirs.
When you download a CD, no one is losing anything. No store has to restock that CD. It's a copy that was made without cost to anyone. What's being "stolen" is what I would call "potential profit." The person who now has a free copy of an album on their hard drive is no longer a viable consumer for that particular album.
In my case, I download albums for two reasons: A) I already own it on vinyl, or B) I can't afford it -- usually the latter. Am I, then, doing anything wrong by acquiring music for free, without causing anyone to lose a physical product, and with no possibility that I would be able to pay for it instead?
(Yes, I have bought physical copies of albums I'd previously downloaded. And yes, I realize that puts me in the minority of downloaders.)
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KS said on February 21, 2008:
Just because I feel like opening a volatile can of worms:
I don't have any ethical problems with downloading music for free, because I don't believe it's stealing.
When an item, like a CD, is stolen from a traditional music store, the store has lost stock. It hurts them. In the most basic terms, stealing in the usual sense deprives someone of something that is rightfully theirs.
When you download a CD, no one is losing anything. No store has to restock that CD. It's a copy that was made without cost to anyone. What's being "stolen" is what I would call "potential profit." The person who now has a free copy of an album on their hard drive is no longer a viable consumer for that particular album.
In my case, I download albums for two reasons: A) I already own it on vinyl, or B) I can't afford it -- usually the latter. Am I, then, doing anything wrong by acquiring music for free, without causing anyone to lose a physical product, and with no possibility that I would be able to pay for it instead?
(Yes, I have bought physical copies of albums I'd previously downloaded. And yes, I realize that puts me in the minority of downloaders.)