Notes on Chapter 4

First of all, in my opinion, I hate the argument for stealing music that goes something like this: "It's not stealing because I didn't take the songs from someone, I just copied it. We can both still listen to them." I hate this argument because it completely ignores the fact that the thief is denying someone, somewhere, their living. You may be not stealing the song, per se, but you are stealing money from them. By not paying for something they worked to produce, you are essentially stealing money from them. While I have long since sworn off stealing music, there was a time in my life when I indulged in a little sampling of music from kazaa. What I did is I would download songs from bands that I had heard about and that I thought I might like. I would listen to them and if I liked them I would go out and buy their CDs. I've bought at least 20 albums by this method, and I have deleted all of the original stolen songs since then, keeping only the ones that I ripped off of the CDs that I bought. While I certainly don't expect everyone else to have done this as well, I bring it up because of the vicious nature in which the RIAA has gone after people who stole music at some point. Even if they have deleted all of it, even if they never even listened to most of it, even if they bought dozens of CDs from artists as a result of sampling stolen music, the RIAA will still heartlessly drain the person for as much money as they can. I think that is wrong. I think the RIAA should use far more discression in the area of seeking compensation for stolen music.