When someone steals something, the person who has something stolen from, has lost that item.

When someone illegally downloads a track, all it means is that maybe they won’t actually ever buy it.

I don’t see how the act of choosing not to buy something is theft. If I buy food that has seeds in it, that enables me to grow more food myself, then am I stealing from all the supermarkets that I won’t need to buy said food from in the future?

And what about the price? If music piracy is to be compared to theft, then lets look at the compensation. If someone steals a car, and then trashes it and gets arrested, I would imagine at the very least they have to pay back the price of the car, with whatever other costs on top, to the owned.

If someone downloads a track illegally, then exactly how much money did people lose? One can’t even put a figure on it. To start off with it depends how much the track costs on different websites.

What if I write a tune, and decide I will only let people download if for $50,000. If you don’t pay me $50,000, then you do not have the rights to download it.

Now, if someone then goes and copies it – would I have the right to sue them for the lost $50,000 in earnings?

Whilst I, and I suspect most people, cannot complete get a grip on the ethics and morals in piracy, one thing is for sure MUSIC PIRACY FOR PERSONAL USE IS ABSOLUTELY NOT THE SAME AS THEFT FROM A SHOP, AND THE MORE AND MORE IDIOTS THAT KEEP CLAIMING IT IS, THE MORE AND MORE YOU STOP MORE INTELLIGENT DISCUSSION ON THE MATTER.

And for the record, if music piracy is a crime because of lost sales, then every single second hand games shop should be fined for causing loss of earnings to games companies. The games companies make a sale on the new game being sold – but then afterwards, that same game keeps getting resold to the shop and to customers, with the game company losing out on a ‘potential sale’ each time.

No second hand music either. That’s a loss of a potential sale.

Whilst we’re at it, no second hand cars should be allowed to be sold – as there’s too much potential loss of sales from new cars.

Technically in a legal sense this is true, copyright infringement is not theft legally.

“Spencer indicates that “Theft is the taking of property without the owner’s permission (now listen up this is the important part) such that the owner loses his property in entirety.”

Which further proves the copying isn’t theft portion, since the “property” is not removed, it is merely duplicated.

“It takes the use of the product away from a licensed or authorized user or owner”

Then why is that person still able to use it? If I took away the use, in theory, you would not still be using it. Your logic is illogical to me.

“You do it, okay, but don’t justify it as being legal.”

I know for a fact there is a fine line difference between justifying a crime, and stating that one crime and another aren’t comparable.

I admit that I too am a guilty as sin downloader of mp3s. I feel like, unless I stop it and just stick to the radio or the purchase of any item (which I intend to, anyway), I’m gonna be like Brianna LaHara was: next in line to be sued by the RIAA or similar people for piracy.

Every CD, DVD, etc. states quite clearly:

‘WARNING: All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized copying, reproduction, hiring, lending, public performance, and broadcasting of this record (DVD, whatever) prohibited.’

But with all this ability to copy mp3s with something like say AudioCatalyst, people that do so are IGNORING the coyright laws!

Regarding the whole CD thing, I don’t buy every CD on which I can lay my hands even IF I had enough money to do so. I usually only buy CDs by certain artists I like (and there are about 14 at the moment, including Phil Collins, Celine Dion, Christina Aguilera (a truly phenomenal singer, by the way), Evanescence, Sarah Brightman, Mika Nakashima (from Japan – my favorite female singer!), Spandau Ballet, Andrea Bocelli – anybody like that).

Furthermore, I agree with Anne about the artist needing to make money. I’m aiming to become one myself (singer/songwriter), and while I did indeed for some time like so-called ‘P2P networks,’ I backed away from them because of the whole copyright issue. Now that I’ve bravely decided to join as a music artist all my own, I too live in fear of having somebody copy MY music and making it available for download without my permission. The record labels DO lose money, and the artists get next to nothing from it.

Correct me if I’m mistaken on this one.