Gearslutz.com - View Single Post - POLL: Do you think illegal file sharing is theft? Indicate if make a living in music
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Old 24th April 2009   #8
Mike6581
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Joined: Jun 2008
Location: Manchester, UK
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Downloading a song to decide whether you like it or not is as much theft as going into a shop and helping yourself to a bar of chocolate or a bag of crisps you've never tried before and determining whether or not you're going to pay of it on the basis of how it tastes. The only difference is that if you were to try this in a shop chances are you'd either get beaten up by the shop owner or get paid a visit by the boys in blue, in most cases both - certainly in my home town!

Though in all fairness I don't think there'd be anyone out there who'd mind if that was all people were doing, downloading the odd song off a site before deciding whether to take the plunge. Most bands actually pop a couple of their songs on their MySpace or official website so you can sample their work. The problem is that there's a significant majority of torrenters who don't stop at the odd song and will just download album after album, film after film, without ever so much as buying one CD or DVD.
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