Blog #5: Intellectual Property

1. Downloading a song you don't own from a major label artist.
- While I recognize that the act of taking music without paying is stealing I feel like it is up to the label to ensure that their product does not find its way into consumer hands before its release date. Once the files have reached the open internet they are "virtually" unstoppable and I feel as if prosecuting someone because they found music on the internet that the company was responsible for is ridiculous. If its worth so much in revenue spend some of it on security before it gets to the internet. Again, I don't think its right but either were the killings of the American Indians.

2. Downloading a song you don't own from a struggling independent artist (who doesn't give you explicit permission).
- If an artist isnt as financially set as another it definitely sucks when their material finds its way into the public domain but again I stress the importance of security and being able to account for every unit that is to be sold. Also, leaks don't only come from the outside of an artist's camp.

3. Downloading another copy of a song you already own.
- That's just selfish and ridiculous.

4. Shoplifting a CD from a store.
- Definitely bad.

5. Downloading a song to "try it out" - if you like it enough, you'll buy the CD.
- Let's clear the air, NOBODY JUST TRYS A SONG OUT. That's not how music works. You either like it or you don't, if you do you keep it and if you don't you wouldn't have said song anyway usually.

6. Copying a CD from a friend, or ripping a CD you own to your hard drive, and then giving the CD away
- No stopping that, that's just how the game is played and everyone knows it.

7. Making music you own available online to share with a couple of friends.
- Completely up to the individual.

8. Making music you own publicly available on the Internet, such as through KazAa or Limewire.
- Also up to the individual.

9. Creating and giving away "Mix CDs" of music you like to friends
- There are questions of how you got the music of course but once it reaches the CD the cat is out of the bag.

10. Creating and selling "Mix CDs" of music you like to anyone who wants to buy them.
- This is the only area in which I feel some moral obligation to lean towards the conservative side of this argument. Its one thing to obtain said material but selling it again as if you deserve the profit from someone else's art is completely immoral and evil in my opinion.