Jewish World Review August 5, 2003 / 7 Menachem-Av, 5763

Michael Graham

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The sweet and down load

http://www.jewishworldreview.com | "I still wouldn't pay. Ninety-nine cents a song -- you could buy a soda for that." — 16-year-old online music thief Andrew Pira.

If you're one of those contentious conservatives who misses the combat of Clinton era, and you long to once again watch a bunch of spoiled, self-deluded hypocrites defend the indefensible, just wander onto any college campus and whisper quietly "stealing music is wrong"

Oh, and wear your helmet.

If the Baby Boomers, represented by the Clintons, rejected traditional morality, the Next Generation is defined by their lack of any morals to reject. For many twenty-somethings, worrying about morality is as rare as an Eskimo worried about being too hot. The thought simply doesn't occur.

The typical file swapper doesn't bother to offer excuses. Digital technology has made music theft so easy and convenient, and who could possibly resist when in the thrall of powerful artists like Beyonce and Matchbox 20? Am I being mean? OK, then the complex musical stylings of Ludacris and Linkin Park. All right, all right…then it's the life-changing lyrics of 50 Cent and the Limp Bizkit.

I guess that explains why people aren't willing to spend money on the stuff. Now if someone could explain why it's worth stealing…

And stealing is precisely what digital file sharing is. I won't add an apologetic "that may sound harsh, but it's true!" like Mary J. Blige did. What's harsh about it? Of course it's true. Every American who has a copy of a Mary J. Blige song that they didn't pay for and she didn't personally give them is guilty of stealing, not to mention misdemeanor bad taste as well.

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Far more compelling than the music they're stealing is listening to the prattle of self-justification some downloaders use to defend their blatant crimes. I've been in dozens of arguments and cruised numerous websites, and all their arguments can be reduced to the following:

1. These musicians are already rich (what, so it's impossible to steal from Bill Gates?).

2. The money really goes to a corrupt music company, not the deserving artist (so it's impossible to steal from Microsoft as long as you don't steal from Bill Gates?).

3. CDs are too expensive and don't give you your money's worth (so is nearly every government program. Does that mean I'm allowed to steal food stamps?)

4. If they really don't want me to get it, they should figure out a way to stop me (an argument picked up, perhaps, from Kobe Bryant in a Colorado hotel room).

5. And finally — my favorite — I already paid for the music once. I can do whatever I want to with it.

If the typical college dimwit expended as much intellectual effort on logic as he does defending larceny, we would have a nation of Einsteins.

This last argument, the "I own the music" is nearly always the last line of defense: Is it a crime to loan out a book? Is it a crime for me to put my favorite songs from CD to my MP3 player? Then what's the big deal if I participate in a multi-million member syndicate to swap thousands of copyrighted songs for free, generating millions of new copies of existing music without paying a single penny to the rightful owners?

Uh, do I really have to say any more?

Just for the record: the difference between loaning me your favorite book and giving me a digital copy of your favorite CD is that, when you're done, there's only one book but there are two CDs. And the difference between making yourself an MP3 copy of your Radiohead CD and making one for me is that, when you're done making me a copy, there are two different people who think Thom Yorke is a pompous ass.

Perhaps the most bizarre defense I've run into is the guy who said it wasn't stealing until you sold it. In his universe, Robin Hood wasn't a thief, because he gave all the stuff away.

The recording industry is currently under fire for turning to the legal system to stop all this stealing — Hey, there's a novel idea. The Recording Industry Association of America is actually pressing charges and sending out subpoenas, inspiring some concerns that they are going too far.

In fact, the RIAA isn't going far enough, as evidenced by the utter indifference to their enforcement efforts from the criminals themselves. As one Wellesley College sophomore put it: "I'm definitely not going to stop until I [personally] know someone who's getting sued."

And she won't. Neither will the millions of other ethically-unaware Americans who have helped drive down CD sales by a whopping 25% over the past three years. It doesn't matter how hard the musicians work to cut a deal. There are several music marketing websites where MP3s of nearly any current song are available for a whopping 99 cents or less! And still the music gets stolen — most often by affluent suburban kids with computers on their desks and cash in their pockets.

Why? Why steal what is so easy and cheap to buy? It's not because they're "going to buy the CD anyway" or they "like to reward the really good bands" by eventually paying for something. The average American music thief steals music for the plain and simple reason that he can. Period.

All the rest is pure Justin Timberlake, which is to say, "cr-p." Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in Washington and in the media consider "must reading." Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.



JWR contributor Michael Graham is a talk show host and author of the highly acclaimed "Redneck Nation: How the South Really Won the War." To comment, please click here.

Up

07/15/03: Keep your eyes on the lies
07/08/03: ‘LIBERIALS’
07/01/03: Our Strom
06/24/03: Like white on Rice
06/20/03: Security begins at home
06/16/03: DEAR HIL—
06/11/03: Madame Hillary's Lessons for Young Ladies
06/03/03: War games
05/28/03: A few small reparations
05/22/03: Springtime for Hitler?

© 2003, Michael Graham