Professor Commie PhD Posted:

Your examples are flawed in so many ways it’s difficult to count them. For one thing, downloading a song is nothing like stealing a painting. If anything, it’s like taking a photo of the painting. By downloading, I’m not stopping anyone from buying the song. As for “I just want to try it out and see if I like it”, that’s a perfectly reasonable argument. I would never spend $15 or whatever CDs cost these days on a CD from an artist I never heard of. I would, on the other hand, download the album, see if I like it and then, if I do, buy the CD. Artists don’t make their money from CD sales anyway; record companies do. The same record companies who always choose the lowest common denominator to feed to the mbumes and that have made intelligent, mind-stimulating music nearly extinct these days. You want to support an artist? Go to concerts, buy merch at gigs, let other people hear their music and tell them to see the artist live if they get the chance.

Artists WOULD make money from CD sales if the record labels weren’t having to take so much of the profits to break even from the piracy.

Furthermore, you think you’re supporting the artist by pirating music but going to shows?

Thanks to piracy record labels are being forced to turn into 360 companies that manage both the artist’s music and their live performances, and their merchandise. The record labels are taking cuts of the merch money now, the ticket money, everything, all because they can’t support themselves off music sales anymore.

There’s really no difference between photos of a painting and a painting. It still costs a bit of money to make a photo, and it’s still costing them money when it’s stolen. It costs money to create a painting, and it’s still costing them money if it gets stolen. In both, the creator is being ripped off unfairly.

Using a painting as my direct analogy was hyperbolic to an extent because the magnitude of theft “feels” greater. It’s the exact same thing in practice, though.

Say someone goes and takes every picture made of the painting. The artist still has to fork over money to get more.

There is no difference between pirating online and just walking into a store, grabbing a handful of CDs, and walking back out. Only difference is one is tolerated.