[babyface00]

Theft is theft , and theft is wrong

Are you talking about what consumers are doing to music files, or what record companies are doing to artists? (or both...)

[genefromjersey]

Both !

If you are a performer yourself, you have some idea of what musicians, etc. go through before their efforts begin to return any money. ( The old adage : " Don't quit your day job ! " is painfully true to MOST . )

I'm not a musician or entertainer myself. If I can hit 4 or 5 chords on a guitar, or pick out the bones of a melody on a mandolin, etc., I'm having a really good day; but fooling around on an instrument or two has given me an appreciation for the genuine- trying-like- hell- to- make- it performers out there : most of whom , if they EVER make an album, will have to finance and market it themselves.

What gives me - or anyone else - the right to rip them off because it's technologically feasible ?

If I have THAT right, then I also have the right to walk up to any point of purchase display, and help myself to any tapes or CD's that catch my eye..if no one is watching : my rationalization being " the store charges too much ".

Is that the new face of morality ?