I used to feel kind of bad about it, but after that one South Park episode, I really didn't anymore.

No. I didn't know LimeWire was illegal but I use it all the time. You're not hurting anybody

dont wanna pay for the whole album when i just want 1 song

If you download music, burn it to a CD, then sell it for profit, that's where I feel it is wrong.

Yeah, that's crossing a line. Wow, I'm agreeing with MajorDork. I always have this strange feeling whenever that happens.

um.... you could just use iTunes and buy one song. I don't use LimeWire for other reasons. It's full of viruses and I love my computer toooo much to take a chance.

if you go to pakistan and india you will see that's all they sell. Pirated stuff. We buy it anyways. I guess I don't know how to answer the question. The answer that I would like isn't up there.

izz ma birth rite!

I actually prefer to have the cd and usually buy my music but if there's only one song i want then i'l limewire it. I try not to though, mainly because it gives my computer viruses.

really when ur pirating music...ur taking money away from the record company that steals money from the actual musicians.....so to give money back to the musicians, i go to their concerts.....

If I like the music enough I'll go out and buy the CD

But oddly feel no guilt.

I believe downloading music is legal here in the Netherlands. Uploading is illegal though.

But the thing with downloading music (and tv-shows, especially those) is that I discover so much more than that I would were there nothing available online.
With things like Youtube I can spam a friend with a 'hey, listen to/watch this!' and so we get eachother addicted to various artists or shows. That would never happen if I could only buy CD's, 'cause I'm a poor high schooler and I only have so much money, so I wouldn't check out half the stuff I can now.

Besides, if I love these musicians/shows enough I buy the CD"s/DVD's. Take Supernatural. It's not on TV here, so if I hadn't watched it online I would have never heard of it. Now I own all the DVD's available here.

For all legal purposes the statement i have picked is completley untrue!!

haha nice touch Zerstoren, i'll second that just in case. i have a mac (hearts) so i don't have to worry about silly things like viruses and spyware and can download to my heart's content. i do, however, feel occasional twinges of guilt. downloading music doesn't just hurt the artist and the record company - if that were true, i'd be guilt free because i sure as hell need that $20 more than they do. in the wake of the WGA strike, i would think that people would be more aware of all the other people who get hurt by this issue. there are the producers, the backup singers, the album artists, the list goes on and on. these people only get a fraction of the profits from album sales, and with those in decline, the little people are the ones who suffer most.
so, that's something to keep in mind. but there's also the fact that if i actually paid for music the money would be coming out of my food budget, and i figure i'm a lot more likely to be arrested for stealing food than music.
(of course, this is completely hypothetical and i've never actually downloaded any music or other media in my life. ever.)

Artists lose A LOT of money in CD sales if everybody started downloading music. And many of them eventually run out of money and can't produce more music. I download about half of my music and the rest I buy the CDs. That way I don't feel any more guilty about it :/

3000 people lost jobs in the music industry last December. Downloading music is hurting a lot of people from the artists to the little guys in the industry.

Copyright is a human right... I used to do it a lot more, I’m trying not to and to buy more cd!

I can't afford to pay 20 dollars for a cd. especially if i only like a couple tracks off of it. and i sure as hell ain't buying an Ipod so i can use itunes or whatver. effs that

Having free music out there does so much for advertising. That's why some artists volunteer their stuff for free now--they know it will pay them back in the end. I can't tell you how many times I've seen some rare vid on youtube or somewhere, then gone out and bought the dvd/album because of it.

i do it but it's not like i'm making money off of it. i just download from limewire and put it on my ipod.

I do it less than most ;)

I dont really think about this...

I do not. Music is meant to be shared.

I’ve been guilty in the past and thus feel kind of hypocritical saying yes…but that’s the answer I’ve got to lean towards. I know that music seems like something that should be free to listen to and share, but the music industry is a business like any other. Why should one expect to obtain its products for free? There are plenty of legal ways to listen to music without dishing out money, anyway. I know, you figure “but it’s a rich as hell industry and the least person within it is probably a thousand times better off than the average person.” But…you know those struggling musicians and artists you always hear about? Well, there you go. Think of them. They’re trying to make their living like anybody else, and need support.

It's not about the big cats or the millionaire artists (South Park made hilarious points about THEM--without more money they may have to wait a few extra months to install their gold-plated barbecues, or to give their children private islands for Christmas!) It’s about the thousands of other deserving artists and everyone else within the industry. That said…it’s probably just a matter of time before a far higher percentage of people are caught and punished for this, if the fact that they’ve really been laying the smack down on YouTube videos containing copyrighted content recently is any indication. Again, I’m guilty there too, and I’m not saying that it’s wrong to upload, say, a fan video with a song that is purely for fun and not for profit (which would of course be theft.) It’s one of those blurry areas and tricky questions. I hate it as much as the next person when the audio’s been removed from a video due to a copyright claim. The user didn’t claim to have created it…sometimes there really is no other way to see the stuff…really, where was the harm in people being able to hear/see the video? Was not the purpose of the music or whatever in the first place to be put out into the world and enjoyed? You can argue all this and more…yet still come back to the idea that it is a business and must be paid for to some extent.

I always thought that if they charged about a cent per song, there’d be no problem. Anyone in the world would gladly spend $1 for 100 songs, right? I know I sure would! I’d even buy an iPod then. So they’d gain millions more customers, make billions more dollars, and everyone would be happy! XD Or, something like that. ^_^

Who really cares

But then, all of the music I've downloaded illegally has been stuff I've bought on cassette or CD, but lost the original or had no way to burn it.

Singers don't just make money off of cds - they make money of concerts, paraphernalia, commercials.

If I'm buying only a few songs, I'll use iTunes (side note: to greekthegeek - iTunes automatically formats songs specifically for iPods. If you don't have an iPod and you buy a song off iTunes, you can't put it unto a regular mp3 player - I've tried. You have to un-format it which is the equivilent of trying to make toast by setting it on a glass stove top: a long, boring process and it's not very satisfactory). If I'm getting a lot of songs (not necessarily from one cd or artist) I'll download. Why buy ten separate cds when I only want eleven songs?

If the soundtrack isn't being sold in your country or is not easily accessible, then that artist sucks as a marketer and it's fair game. But if you know for a fact that you could buy a CD, just buy the fricken' CD, man.

Of course, no one will come to bust down your front door for cheating once or twice. But if you have more than fifty illegally downloaded songs on your PC, you're stealing.

All you do when you pirate a song is take money away from the rich (which they dont need), the corporations, and saves the poor money that they could for more important things (you and me)

As long as it's for your own personal use and you're not selling it, then I don't see the problem. It's no different than copying a song from the radio onto a cassette tape. The music is there, people are gonna take it.

Absolutely not! I can't even take this question seriously.

I pay through the nose in utilities. I've paid nearly thousands for a personal computer. I have to fork over two hundred and change to acquire Optimum high-speed internet service; and after spending all of that money, do you people really think I'm going to agree with any notion that pirating music is, somehow, wrong? No, I'm sorry. I'm not one of those people.

I'm one of the 99% making the 1% rich and for once, I'd like to log onto computer and watch/listen to music for FREE. I shouldn't have to pay more money to be entertained on the internet. It just does not compute.

Mixed feelings. I agree with jlhfan624 about how music should be shared...but I also think it's wrong to take the money away from the artists who worked hard on the music and rely on music sales so they can keep making music. But then again, I'm guilty...

No, I don't. For one, I agree with Bri-marie... Musicians don't make their money from selling their music, they make it from concerts and such and also for releasing singles and having a certain number of people listen to them. Also, the corporations (the record company) tend to pay bugger all to the musicians, so really they are the only ones missing out. Also, I only advocate 'good' musicians... To me, a 'good' musician is someone with talent, that doesn't care about the money, that just wishes to release their music to people.

@MajorDork74 Totally agree. If you just have it for you to listen to then I don't see a problem. Especially if you eventually go out and buy the real album later on.

@JTYork120 That's another good point; why buy a whole album if you're only going to listen to one song. Sure you can buy it from iTunes or whatever but it's usually over priced and if something happens to your iPod you're kind of screwed.

@blackpanther666 I very much agree, artists make more money from concerts than anything, and tickets to those are commonly way more expensive than the albums. They also get a lot for their autographs and what not.

Honestly there are many worse crimes to worry about than the occasional glee cover of Justin Beiber's baby being downloaded for one's personal entertainment. But I do have a CD collection so after I download the song I usually end up buying the album anyhow.

@Zanhar. The way I see it, is that the artists that have sold out to make money, rather than make music, deserve their stuff to downloaded for free (especially Justin Bieber - I don't hate him, but I sure don't like his music). The artists I generally listen to are artists that have already been famous for lengthy periods of time, while the record companies that produced them just get richer and richer for doing absolutely nothing. It feels fair enough to me, to download music every now and again - plus, I have already spent lots of money on cds in my younger days of being a music fiend.

Oh I totally agree. The ones with their hearts in the music, they are in it because they have fun with the profession deserve the money. Where as those in it simply to get riches, while they may sing good they can handle a couple free downloads. JB can handle it, he's already very rich.On the other hand I listen to a remotely unheard of genera--symphonic metal--and feel obligated to buy the CD's as they make less. This band Delian, I love them, but no one has really heard of them. Bought 2 of their albums. They need the cash to keep making music. But Bieber has enough to do so and more.

I also spent ridiculous amounts on CD's. There's this one I want that costs $40. I'll come up with it some time. But for now I have to just download it.

Heh, yeah, that's true. Well, if you like symphonic metal, have you, by chance, heard of/listened to Dream Theater? They are flippin' awesome. I don't suppose you happen to listen to Two Steps From Hell, too, do you?

Yeah, expensive CDs are hard to get, but awesome once you do. For example, one time I found a 25th Anniversary Edition of The Clash's London Calling, with a DVD and another album that is quite rare to get hold of. So, I saved up and bought it. Plus, it happened to be in perfect condition, as well.

I've heard of them never listened. I'll have to check them out. I'll have to check them both out. My favorite bands currently are Within Temptation, Delian, Nightwish, and Epica.

Definatly something to brag to friends about. xP

I used to listen to Nightwish quite a bit - in all honesty, I don't listen to much metal these days, but I used to listen to a bit. I really liked Opeth for a while. But, yeah, Two Steps From Hell is a definite check-out, because they are brilliantly talented and their music incorporates the idea of fantasy/mythology in it, as well. It's really amazing.

I love the fantasy type style