D Louth - Copying etc
Couldn't disagree more. Home taping, within the context of this thread - that is, not for selling at car boot sales! - is no more killing music now than it was 25 years ago. The fact that it runs counter to the record industry's view of how it would like things to be, matters not one jot.
Copying music is convenient, (pop a copy on your iPod), sensible, (you do back-up your data, don't you?) and, when shared with friends and relatives, allows you to experience the work of artists you may otherwise not be exposed to, (a good thing).
But the most compelling argument for non-profit copying is that each of us has only a finite budget with which to buy music. If you and ten friends all buy the same album then one artist has benefited. If you all buy a different album each, and share them, then ten artists have benefited and ten people have heard ten different things. This then has the knock-on benefit of allowing ten artists to make a living, rather than one artist to make an outrageous living! I know this is a somewhat simplistic way of looking at what is a complex, real-world business but it is no less compelling.
It is also not true to say that music quality is suffering. Far from it. Granted, mainstream 'pop', for want of a better description, is probably being recorded and mixed for the mp3 market, but how much of that do you actually want to buy? There are an increasing number of on-line retailers offering very high quality music downloads who are servicing the very market we wish to see. Linn, HDTracks, Reference Recordings, 2L, HDTT, Music Giants, Bowers & Wilkins, to name a few. Although most of these are currently not available to UK citizens, (BPI please note - get a grip!), it is a very encouraging trend!
My view on home taping will always be that, provided it is kept amongst friends, it may very well do more good than harm! If transferring what you have already purchased, for listening via different sources, is illegal then, quite obviously, it shouldn't be. Laws should be enacted for the benefit of society as a whole and, where society sees laws to be fair and reasonable, then people will happily abide by them. Where laws are enacted for the sole benefit of businesses then there has to be a much more compelling argument for them other than 'because we want you to buy more copies'! We will always subvert bad laws precisely because we view them as unfair and/or unworkable. Where we do this, then it is the duty of Governments to change them or run the risk of criminalising its citizens!
As for downloading what you already own - well that's a grey area if ever I saw one. On the basis that ISP's can be asked to reveal the details of their 'downloading' customers, it would make for an interesting court case! But I suspect the 'handling stolen goods' argument would be difficult to defend.
But it has to be said it is also mighty convenient!