Adventure, on the high seas: Surfing with pirates

It’s possible the recording industry will figure out a way to make downloading copyrighted material impossible once-and-for-all, eventually.

But, it’s unlikely, and it’s less likely that it will happen within the next ten to fifteen years.

So. What are you going to tell your kids about downloading pirated music?

We didn’t grow up with this question. Our parents aren’t savvy enough to search and download the hottest tracks or live cuts from their favorite artists. They don’t know what “file-sharing” means, they’ve never heard of “ftp,” and they probably don’t need to download songs anyway, because they’re still struggling with the switch from vinyl to CD.

But I know these things. I can rip tracks from a CD and distribute them to millions if I so choose. I have the ability. I also have the ability to download music, or video, for free, and by so downloading, committing a crime(?).

So what do you tell your kids?

“Stealing is wrong…except the new Weezer cd, I love them, but I’m not paying twenty-bucks for twelve tracks.”

“Don’t take what doesn’t belong to you…but it’s ok if someone else took it and then let you have it for free.”

“Shoplifting is a crime…but you can sit here at the computer in the study and take whatever you want.”

Hypocrisy. This is worse than “Do as I say, not as I do,” because I’m not really sure I’d say “don’t download.”

What is right and what is wrong? I can’t even commit in writing to which side of the argument I believe in. But I have no trouble acting on the unvoiced beliefs.

Quite the dilemma.
-t