Downloading Music Ethics

so, here's my dilemma. for my new years resolution i gave up downloading free music thru blogs, filesharing and what-not. but, i made up my own rule that it's ok to download an album that you've already bought. or bought a long time ago and lost. this way, its just like getting your album that you've bought off of your own FTP site or something. just wanna see what other people's thought are on this.

You shouldn't be so careless as to lose an album. If you have a copy, drop it in the dray and hit import.
Talking about illegal file sharing is against the rules here.

cant even talk about it? sheesh. and sorry, i have over 500 albums and ive moved a couple times so i lost one here and there.

Forum Rules:

Illegal Activity: We choose to follow United States law in regard to what is permissible to be discussed here. Therefore discussion of illegal file sharing, cracked programs, requests for serial numbers, and any other breaches of copyright or other illegal activity are not allowed in these forums.

well, i think your missing the point. i said i USED to download music. anyway, thanks for your "insight."

I think when you buy the disc you own the rights to listen to the music on that disc. It'd be like going to iTunes and say, I own this album, let me download the files for free. Or telling the record companies to give you the album on vinyl for free if you owned the CD version.

Or, I could be completely wrong.

mcjacksonnelson said:

well, i think your missing the point. i said i USED to download music. anyway, thanks for your "insight."

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Yes, you said you used to but you're asking if you can "make up your own rule" as you put it and download albums you own or once own, right? That's how I interpreted it.

bryphotoguy said:

I think when you buy the disc you own the rights to listen to the music on that disc. It'd be like going to iTunes and say, I own this album, let me download the files for free. Or telling the record companies to give you the album on vinyl for free if you owned the CD version.

Or, I could be completely wrong.

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That would be why it's legal to rip mp3's and listen to them on your iPod, or your car stereo etc. Historically it was fair use to have a backup anyway.. until the DMCA, which really was a blow against consumer rights that way

Actually, the DMCA doesn't prohibit ripping CDs as there is no encryption to bypass as you would have to do on a commercial DVD. The RIAA recently tried to use the DMCA as a means to prohibit CD ripping, but it failed miserably.

Ethics just seem to be so variable as there are some people who have no problem whatsoever when it comes to downloading music, whereas for others it goes completely against their morals.

Kash said:

Actually, the DMCA doesn't prohibit ripping CDs as there is no encryption to bypass as you would have to do on a commercial DVD. The RIAA recently tried to use the DMCA as a means to prohibit CD ripping, but it failed miserably.

Ethics just seem to be so variable as there are some people who have no problem whatsoever when it comes to downloading music, whereas for others it goes completely against their morals.

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No, but the DMCA does prohibit having a backup of legally owned media (dvd's), for which there was no historical precedent. Although now that there's precedent I imagine the next audio media will be encrypted too.

Kash said:

Actually, the DMCA doesn't prohibit ripping CDs as there is no encryption to bypass as you would have to do on a commercial DVD. The RIAA recently tried to use the DMCA as a means to prohibit CD ripping, but it failed miserably.

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Beat me to it.

Kash said:

Ethics just seem to be so variable as there are some people who have no problem whatsoever when it comes to downloading music, whereas for others it goes completely against their morals.

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Right and I don't think we can comment on his dilemma. If we think it's ethical, he'll probably start downloading again. I guess on the other hand, he's already downloaded so even if we think it's wrong, he'll probably "make up his own rule" to make it OK to download illegally because he's already done it once before.

mcjacksonnelson said:

i made up my own rule

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Can I do that, too?

there we go. this is the kind of dialogue i wanted to get started. its just a very interesting topic. i bet in 20 years there will be two camps sort of like Pro-choice and Pro-life.

Well, you can also examine that ethical != legal

Dysfunction said:

No, but the DMCA does prohibit having a backup of legally owned media (dvd's), for which there was no historical precedent. Although now that there's precedent I imagine the next audio media will be encrypted too.

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Your argument is flawed.

You state that the DMCA prohibits having a backup of legally owned media. That's completely incorrect as it has a provision which allows for Fair Use. Having a backup copy of a movie itself isn't what's illegal, it's the breaking of the encryption that makes it illegal.

Now, we're talking about audio discs, which don't have encryption on them and will never have encryption for one very simple fact. Not a single CD player out there has the hardware to decrypt any encryption that may be put on a CD, unlike DVDs where every player has the means to decrypt the disc. If the recording industry were to encrypt the discs, it would essentially force everybody to buy new players that can decrypt these discs. You can imagine the fallout from such a poor decision.

You state that the next form of audio will have encryption. You must have forgotten about this little tidbit called DRM.