[Stu]

Originally Posted by setanta

No no, you've stated that it's ok to steal off some bands and not off others but I don't believe people are guided by such principles when they download off the internet. And they're not principles in the first place really because, as I said before I don't believe that many go out and buy an original copy after downloading a pirated one. People don't work that way in life, as we've already seen from some of the comments posted on this thread.

Yes, I do believe it is okay to 'steal' from some artists and not others. That's my personal opinion. Well, actually, it's more a fact, but at the risk of sounding pretentious, god forbid, I will leave it in the opinion basket.

'Stealing' an album from an artist who is overpaid and who is underworked, studio wise, and 'stealing' an album from a band struggling to make ends meet who put effort into creating genuinely interesting, unique soundscapes are two very, very different things.

I don't really see where you are coming from, to be honest. Your just running off on tangents instead of confronting the arguments I have posted. I don't see why you are using TiBB of all places as the template for gauging what illegal downloaders do. Your argument has no real statistical merit and merely boils down to ''well I reckon most people download artists and never buy them''.

Your probably right, the majority probably don't buy all of what they 'steal', but people are different. They, like this issue, can't be generalised into such daft concepts as 'good' and 'evil'.

Again, I show you the upsides of this 'crime' : Increasing live ticket sales, exposure for new bands, new channels of media for pre existing bands, slashing long overpriced record sales, wider consumer choice, easier access to otherwise rare and experimental material, a greater shift to independent labels where artists have both more of a say and more of the profits, a return to genuinely trying to create records the public will want to buy because it's not the same old shit, a D.I.Y approach to being able to create and share - bedroom production - the very thing that kick started both Punk and the 90's dance explosion.

I could go on...