Sean, have you actually read the other 200-odd posts? It's obvious that sites like THTM benefit music consumers, it's the consequences for musicians which is the issue. Also no-one's doubting the sites' intentions, merely the effects.

You believe you ought to have the right to do what you like with albums you've bought. The fact is, you don't. That's clear under copyright law in most countries, and in the small print. You've only bought a right to listen to the music - you can do what you like with the physical media it came on, but your use of the music itself is limited.

Those who favour music sharing like to think they're standing up for downtrodden musicians against the big bad record companies. The fact is, in the folk world, that's nonsense. Contrary to what Gedi seems to think, there aren't any fat-cat record producers getting rich by exploiting musicians. In the UK anyway, folk record producers are virtually a cottage industry, and many artists produce their own albums. Rip them off, put them out of business, and there won't be any folk albums in future.

If you want to explore new artists, most of them have demos on their websites, on Myspace or Youtube. You don't need to rip off their albums. As for maybe going to their gigs, the chances of a downloader from a global site being able to get to a folk musician's gigs is remote. I guess from the language you use that you are American - the person who hosts THTM is I believe Japanese. Are either of you going to travel to the UK to see, say, Ann Lister (who was one of the first artists to contribute to this discussion)?

Most record labels don't have the resources to digitise their back catalogue. The Nic Jones situation is exceptional - here the person who owns the copyright to Nic's (and other artists') albums is for some unfathomable reason simply refusing to release them except as occasional CD-R copies. If you read the thread, you will see that there is a consensus that it may be acceptable to post albums which are no longer available, but only after a conscientious effort has been made to contact the copyright owner. There can be no justification for posting currently available albums.

To reply to your final point, it's easy to envisage a "a world in which, if you weren't lucky enough (or alive enough) to snatch up an original vinyl copy of a record, you just...don't have it". That was the normal situation until just a few years ago.

The reason no one in the folk world is likely to become a millionaire is that many of their so-called "fans" will spend more on their beer in an evening at a folk club than they're willing to pay for a ticket to get into it, and prefer to download their albums rather than pay for them.

To repeat it for the umpteenth time, copying an album for a mate is one thing, making it available for hundreds, perhaps thousands, to download is different. Legally they are the same, but downloading has a hugely greater impact.