Is it OK to download tunes you already own?
p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- There’s an interesting question posed in the Toronto Star about downloading copies of music you already own rather than going to the trouble of converting them to MP3s yourself.
Is that OK? – someone asks Ken Gallinger.
“In many artistic circles, the mere mention of P2P raises hackles for good reason,” says Ken, going on, “As a way to avoid royalties and production costs, P2P is theft, pure and simple.”
Avoid royalties and production costs? And how can something be called ‘theft’ when nothing has been stolen and no one has been dispossessed of something s/he used to own?
“Many used to justify this, a decade or so ago, when the price of CDs was so outrageous at places like HMV and Sam’s,” says Ken in his answer, going on »»»
But that argument, which never was valid, has evaporated (like Sam’s) now that commercial downloads are available cheaply and easily.
But thievery is not the only reason for using peer-to-peer to pass music around. Independent artists recognize that P2P is one of the cheapest, quickest and most effective ways to get their tunes into the hands of a wide audience. True, P2P users may not pay for the tunes they receive, but many go on to purchase subsequent collections, attend concerts and support these artists in other ways. In a city where most radio stations play 30 songs over and over ad nauseam, P2P networks provide a window through which independent artists offer their stuff to the world.
And there’s one more thing. In Canada, when you buy most blank digital recording media, you pay a levy that goes back to song writers, performers etc. as a form of compensation.
“So,” he adds, “there’s nothing wrong (ethically, not technically) with P2P per se, unless it’s used for a nefarious activity. And you can’t steal what you already own.
“It would be less controversial to buy the software, plug the old turntable into your computer and do the digital conversion yourself. But if you can’t, my opinion is that it’s okay to use P2P, so long as you just download songs you already own and don’t pass on the copies to anyone else.”
Phewww. That’s a relief. 
But the question of whether or not it’s okay for you to download MP3s of music you already own is moot to begin with.
Because in Canada, it’s still perfectly ethical and legal for anyone to download anything —- as long as it’ s purely for their personal use.
Uploading, however, is against the law.
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
Toronto Star – August 8, 2009
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August 11th, 2009 at 1:12 pm
” But that argument, which never was valid, has evaporated (like Samâs) now that commercial downloads are available cheaply and easily. ”
No, continuing to call it theft, when it is not, has never been valid.
A lie is still a lie no matter how many tell it, and how many believe it.
August 11th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
Again I refer to Stephen Colbert’s comments on this…
Paraphrased and not as funny… “That’s why I purchase a new CD every time I want to hear a song. And I have a huge airport hanger full of CD’s now.”
The labels would love this, probably as much as we would love if they would just disappear.
August 11th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
Isn’t this why P2P was ruled legal in Canada?
August 11th, 2009 at 11:49 pm
Buying a CD
—-IS—-
Stealing!
Money that belongs to the artist is instead channelled into the itchy hands of the corporate bigwigs, who are low on wig powder and need money to buy a time machine to go back to 1789 and get some from King Louis XVI.