i steal files and feel bad about it, so bad that to atone i practice severe self-flagellation as i listen to 'my' stolen Beethoven
Your ignorance is showing. This is an astonishingly foolish notion. More absurdity. Have you never created s single thing in your life that was valuable? Who cares. The issue is being able to make a living off one's creative work. Amateur musicians do and no one has a problem with that. But professional musicians, like professionals in any field, SELL their work. You can either buy it or walk away. You choose to steal it and attempt a lame justification based upon obscure amateurs for the most part trying to get a name by giving music away. It is the artist's choice to sell or give a way his work, not yours. What a silly notion. It simply does not work like that in the real world. A man is worthy of his hire. What do you do for a living? Do you give away the fruits of your labor, assuming you produce anything at all? You really don't understand professionalism, do you. I am not surprised. Yes, people play golf because they like to. But professionals play golf because people are willing to pay them. Take away the pay and the PGA disappears. Likewise, professional musicians make a living on their music. Yes, people will still sing and play guitars, but if stealing music were permitted, then professional music would decline. Composers could not compose for musicians who could not play for producers who could not record music for users, electronic or otherwise. Because it wouldn't pay.
Beethoven's music is in the public domain. You only steal performances from current musicians playing beethoven. Why not steal 78RPM recordings, they are all in the public domain by now.
For you!! Not for the people you have stolen from or any third party. Only for you. Thus, copyright laws. You have no right to copy a copyrighted work. Period. End of story.
me and the millions of others that steal it. you can say i have no right all day, i still can and do steal, along will millions of other thieves. we cannot be stopped. i am not sure what you think is the relevance of saying i have "no right". i do what i want, i take what i want.
You asked, you got the answer. Pirates are lawbreakers and have no right to steal from creators. But you can be loathed and pitied. True, there will always be thieves, there always have been. I'm a better man than that, however. I'm talking about copyright law, which places the right to copy in the hands of creators. Legally, you have absolutely no right. Morally you have no compass. That is the motto of all three-year-olds. We're so proud of you, Scooter.
telling me i have no right is like the international community telling the US they had no right to invade iraq. it doesnt matter what people say when they have no power or authority to prevent something. its meaningless.
If music is new and / or I really like the group then I will pay for the download and buy the concert tickets. If it is music I would never ever buy anyway, like Whitney Houston's Greatest Hits, I will get an illegal copy. Copyright law should be like drug patent law. After so many years, it is public domain. No one should have to pay for a Beatles song anymore.
Copyright is exactly like that, it eventually becomes public domain. But it certainly extends to the lifetime of the creator and beyond a number of years so that his survivors can collect. It has changed over time, but currently copyright protections lasts for authors life plus 50 to 99 years in almost every country. In the US it is now life plus 70 years. Ringo and Paul are still alive and the wives and children of the Beatles will be around for another generation. Then it becomes public domain.
