Ok for part five we are getting into the business aspect of the music. I know my tone through out this blog has been that music used to belong to everyone for free until some greedy sucker decided to charge for it. The reality is that the laws are protecting the artists who take the time and trouble to compose these songs. Should they make as much money as they do? Probably not but that isn't the issue. Should they be role models while talking of smackin hos and smoking weed like a freight train? No, but again not the issue.
Should they be protected from being robbed? Yes. And that is what the piracy laws do. From a business perspective, it doesn't make sense to not protect your work from theft. Many court rulings have repeatedly ruled that sharing, downloading, and uploading music, movies, pictures, etc. is copyright infringement and can even in some cases become criminal infringement.
Try to think of it this way. If you go to all the trouble of making a big cake for the bake sale, you probably want to protect it from the locals (i.e. always hungry husband and heathen children) right? So you put a notice out that this cake is for the bake sale, maybe put a lid or cover of some kind on it. Then it's finally time to sell your cake at the bake sale only to find, as you lift the lid, that little gnomes have snuck in and distributed your cake, piece by piece, to the masses. The very masses that were supposed to buy your cake to raise money for the starving children in some unpronounceable country, now no longer want to buy your cake because they already had it for free. Now, because they aren't buying it, you not only lost out on the opportunity to feed poor starving children(!), but you also lost all the money it cost you to make that cake.
Does that make sense? People lose money when piracy of movies or music occurs. Sure it's mostly rich people that have lots more anyway, but it is still money that belongs to other people. It's like I tell my 3 year old, "If it's not yours, NO TOUCHY!!"
I don't whole-heartedly agree with the laws but it's not my job to. It's a law and that is what matters. Just because you disagree with a law doesn't mean that you can ignore it. Most laws do have a really good reason for being laws in the first place. Sure I miss the days of free (music) love, but I'm glad to know that if my kids ever want to become singers or actors, that their work will be as protected as possible.
That being said, there are sites that you can download music from that are perfectly legal because the songs are public domain, not protected by copyright laws. It's a little harder to find these sites and you aren't going to find new stuff on them, but I love the oldies anyway...
I feel that it is a different time now. Most artists make more money off their concert tours anyway. I think an artist should be out for five years before one can start ripping their material, gives the public and the artist a chance to see how much money they can make off of the song. Same goes for movies as well. When I go to a music/movie store and the same entertainment that was 15-20 dollars 15 years ago, is still 15-20 dollars, I'm like the guys off of NFL Countdown on ESPN, "Come on man". What am I paying for now? Their child support? Or their rehab? After five years if they are any good at all then they will have enough money from everything not just their work to live off of for the rest of their lives as long as the person doesn't get caught in an addiction that they can't control. If they don't make that much money, then they would probably be content with the money they make at a local venue.
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