For me, one of the sticking points has always been whether or not I am getting paid for my work. It doesn't matter if I would have never gotten any money anyway because the person who got the copy would have never bought it anyway. So what? The fact is, I went to work and didn't get paid at the end of the day. I often ask people who try to defend pirating albums what they do for a living, and how I can get in touch with their boss so I can explain to this employer that they have an employee who thinks it's OK to work for free. In the case of someone who is selling or trading pirated albums, not only am I not getting paid, but someone else is getting paid for my work.

Sean M, I'm glad you are ethical about your downloading. I don't have a problem with that. But you must surely know that the vast majority of people who download albums, or copy them in other ways, do so in order to get the music without having to pay for it.

As for out of print albums, I have a problem with copying those as well. Our first album has been out of print for several years. We were trying to decide whether or not to release it on CD when we found out that one of our "fans" was making LOTS of copies for others of our fans. So now a lot of the people who might be tempted to buy it already have it. And we aren't releasing it, and we aren't getting paid for the work we did making the album, and a bunch of people have something of ours for free. Yes, some of them would buy the actual product, but most aren't CD collectors -- they just want the music and apparently don't care how they get it.

Someone asked about lyrics posted to Mudcat. Yes, it is unethical (and illegal) if the material is under copyright and the owner hasn't given permission.

John Peekstok