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Date Posted: 05:41:40 03/02/03 Sun
Author: Weird_Enigma
Author Host/IP: 209.252.119.2
Subject: No guilt for cheating Big Music
In reply to: Weird_Enigma 's message, "The feeble effort in trying to sue music downloaders" on 05:38:43 03/02/03 Sun

No guilt for cheating Big Music
Most of the artists have money to spare, but college students don't
EMILY BRILL
Knight Ridder

PHILADELPHIA - There's a revolution afoot. According to a recent study conducted by research firm Ipsos-Reid, 28 percent of Americans 12 and older have downloaded a music file off the Internet. That translates to 60 million downloaders.

So here's a news flash for Big Music: It's over. We have cut you off, and guess what? We don't feel the least bit guilty.

Why? Because the overwhelming majority of the artists who fill our hard drives are considerably well off, as are the people and companies who manage them.

"Why should I feel guilty?" asks Princeton University freshman Molly Fay. "Most of the artists I download make more money than I ever will. Who am I to care if I cheat them out of a couple of bucks?"

But money isn't all of it. There's a big difference between stealing a hot dog from a street vendor and downloading an MP3. We don't have to look anyone in the eye, and when we "take" a file, we're not removing it; we're copying it.

Another reason there's no chance of us returning to the music stores: making our own CDs is just way too convenient.

"The majority of my CDs are definitely my own mixes," says University of Pennsylvania freshman Merrill McDermott, adding that since she likes a lot of different genres of music, "downloading is the only way to obtain that eclectic mix" she's after. None of us want to have a decision as important as what to put on a CD made for us by a bunch of executives in a California conference room. We aren't revolting against the artists. We are revolting against the nonartists, the people who take art and make it fit into a Doritos commercial.

Music industry efforts to curtail our use of file-sharing programs will be futile. Kids are always one step ahead and can defeat almost any technology with another. More important, the music industry gives us too great a reason not to buy music. They charge us $20 for albums that cost about 13 cents to make -- albums that have, perhaps, two songs we actually want. That's a whopping 15,385 percent gross profit -- and I mean gross.

Fay captures a prevailing sentiment: "If having MP3s means that some suit won't be able to buy that third BMW he was craving, along with the house in the Hamptons, because the rest of the population saves necessary money by not purchasing music from a store, then I'm all for it."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Emily Brill is a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania.

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