Raedwulf, pfr, et al - please read Dave's OP again. Despite the title saying he was asking a question about ethics, he actually asked about copyright law in the body of his post. Now read my several responses again please. I answered his question about copyright law.

On the subject of performers giving their CDs away, or encouraging buyers to copy them and pass them on, that's absolutely fine - the performers own the intellectual property, and they are perfectly at liberty to give permission in that way. I've done it myself, on numerous occasions, it's a nice thing to do and there's a cool feel-good factor results from it.

The question of ethics is an individual thing - I stated my own ethical viewpoint, that I only make copies of CDs for my own personal use (e.g. in the car, to avoid leaving originals where they could be damaged, or an enticement to a car-breaker), and that I neither make copies for distribution to others, nor do I accept such copies. Those are my personal views on the ethical issue, and I really don't give a flying fuck how 'daft' you think it is, or how unlikely it is that someone doing it would 'get caught' - my ethics, my decision.

I'm happy to leave it to others to decide where their views on the ethics of the issue reside.

Out.