>
>I'm sorry but a prison sentence for mp3 downloading sounds a bit
>extreme and not believable. Nevertheless, the fact that the RIAA
>would even consider that happening in the first place seriously
>depresses me. Taping music from a friend should never be on par
>with material theft. Nothing is actually MISSING when an mp3 is
>downloaded, is there?
I didn't read the law text, but I'd guess the punishment to be a fine rather
than a prison sentence. From the corporation's point of view, mp3 trading is
not like making a single tape copy for a friend. It's more like bootlegging
hit songs and giving out a potentially infinite number of copies for free on
tape to anyone who knows where to find you. That probably cuts into their
record sales by a percentage point or two (tape bootlegging that is).
Personally, I don't have a lot of pity for Warner Bros or any of the other
major labels, so I continue to support Napster.
What bugs me is that most of the time is that many news articles don't
mention that mp3 is simply a file format, and that the file format doesn't
exist exclusively to trade copyrighted material. I get a lot of dirty looks
when I mention to non-computer-savvy musicians that I make my tracks
available on mp3.
matt
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