Feel free to write your opinion on this controversial matter.

Just feel that it is morally wrong to use copyrighted material illegally. If it is not worth the money then I do not purchase it, but I also would not own an illegal version either.

it would be so expensive to load my ipod with "paid for" songs. It is just to easy to download them for free. I will pay for E's cd though.

Recently in Canada a bunch of Musicians, The Bare Naked Ladies being part of them, got together to ask that the right to download music continue to be legal in Canada. The memorable quote that one of them said was

"we want to see our fans at concerts not in a courtroom." They realize that money made off CD sales goes mostly to the Record comapnies.


As for software I have to admit to having more then my fair share of "illegal" software. These things are super expensive! Sorry I can't afford it. I'm not justifying it but it's my own personal choice to make.

I used to be a BIG downloader.. don't do it anymore though.
But I just don't wanna pay for an entire cd just so I can listen to a couple of songs. (probably why I've only bought 2 cd's within the last year)
I have downloaded art programs before as well. If the companies offered free trial versions that included everything so I could test them out.. I would've done that instead, but since the ones I wanted don't.. I just downloaded the full versions to determine if I wanted the program or not.
I'd usually delete them the day I downloaded them.. I'm picky with my art programs and don't wanna waste space on my comp for programs I'm not gonna use.

Most of my music I download from Limewire, but that's because I may only listen to it once maybe twice. Yesterday I got a song I couldn't buy anywhere.

For all of my true favorites, I go out and buy their CD's to support them. Will do so with Elliott. With my fav's I know I will enjoy the entire CD, unlike others. Mostly I just listen to the radio.

Sometimes I honestly think they are pushing it with the copyright laws though. If these big companies are given too much power, they would have you pay for every copy you own for yourself. Try to make a copy of an old VCR tape to your DVD. No, I'm not totally for these copyright laws.

I guess I'm not very respectful of copyright laws because I use torrents a lot. I do it because a lot of times you buy an album for one song, and it turns out the rest of the album sucks. Then you can't return it because it has already been opened, so you have just wasted $15 for one song. If i download something I really love, then I buy the real thing through half.com.

I don't download movies though. I pay to see those in theaters. The experience is completely different.

I do have one of those "illegal sites" downloaded on my computer, but I am not one of those that download billion of songs for my IPOD. I don't even own one. I am a single mom and usually can't even afford to buy a CD so the fact that I download a song here and there does not take away from them making money on me from CD purchases. I do buy one every now and then and usually I listen to it once because I only like one song. I only try to buy greatest hits. I usually download songs that stay on my computer that I listen to in the morning when I am getting ready for work instead of the radio. And I don't even know how to burn a CD. I did buy MMFL from Itunes for Elliott even though I also have it downloaded elsewhere.

I understand that performers worry about it taking away from their millions but from what I see from my friends, they still buy CDs, even the ones that download.

I agree. There was a time a while back when I downloaded songs like crazy, then after thinking about it, I felt really bad. Plus, people were selling alot of bootleg copies of movies around my campus, and I knew it was wrong. So, now, I'm working on (slowly, but surely) buying all of the songs that I downloaded for free before. It might take me a while, but it'll be worth it in the end I think.
I also feel strongly about things like plagiarism of copyrighted material. We had a whole lecture on that at my seminary, and they showed how "easy" it is to plagiarize copyrighted material. It was really an eye-opener, and made me more aware of what I do (to be more thorough and careful in all I do).