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But Kazaa has such lousy selections.

I liked audiogaxlazy, I was rebuilding vinynl collection onto CD's without doing further damage to the vinyl.

Wonder what they would do with me.

99% of the stuff I down load I already own in one form or another.

Just cause I use my computer to store work in progress they think they own my computer.

They ought to pay me for preserving some of the stuff I have.

I'm in the same boat as you. I use WinMX to download clean versions of songs I already own on vinyl or cassette. I also use WinMX for "test driving" new music. I download lots of stuff and I either decide to buy the CD or I remove it from my hard drive. If it's music I like, I definitely want the CD for the cover art and lyrics. Also, I can burn cleaner and crisper MP3s off the original CD than I can download from the Internet. I like my MP3s at 160kps or higher and on the net, most of them are still 128kps.

I also use WinMX to download "live" versions of music I already own and also unreleased songs by favorite artists. For example, I recently downloaded a live Bruce Springsteen cover of Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here." Try getting that in a record store! (If I could, I would.)

Years ago, I used to tape hundreds of hours of FM music onto tape so that I could listen to new music at leisure. I would make a decision whether or not to buy the music and then I would record over the tapes another batch of songs. Online music swapping has made this process much more efficient for me. Now I can download only the music that I am interested in hearing and I don't have to shift through a lot of garbage like DJ chatter and commercials. The music industry has a very valuable resource here to promote their music. Pity that they cannot see the opportunities here to fatten their bottom lines.