by H.W. Holdings

Created on: September 08, 2009   Last Updated: October 04, 2011

What is not taken into account when the issue of illegal downloading is raised is the fact that musicians make a lot less than record companies do off of the sale of recordings. The acts themselves make far more from touring and hocking merchandise.

A lot of us are just making digital files of music we have already paid for which is on vinyl or cassette. Digitising a music collection with illegal files is not that difficult if you have the time to put in to it. First you catalogue the LPs in your collection before you throw them out or try selling them.

Then you download a software package from a site like Limewire and search for copies of all the songs you want. Some choose also to download a software package from Itunes because it configures their ipods for them.

Some of these people have Gmail accounts to use as a kind of online storage locker. The great thing about a Gmail account is that it allows so much in the way of storing files. Gmail can allow a user to store his or her back-up files online and take up no space in their computers memory.

But I did not write this as a "How to Steal Music Online For Beginners" article. What I am concerned about though is the effect upon the world economy when something has value and is then reduced to being free. Record companies and middlemen aren't the only ones that get hurt although music thieves would have you believe that they and a few millionaire music acts who can easily afford it are the only ones losing out.

We are facing an unprecedented financial crisis, one which goes beyond that which the Great Depression did all because of this attitude that everything should be free. A lot of things are overpriced but having them be free for everyone is rather an extreme opposite.

People do not set a value on goods merely to make a profit. Cost-recovery figures in too.

Hypothetically speaking lets say for the sake of argument that file sharing is cutting in to music industry profits and hurting artists attempting just to cover the costs of recording and touring.

I have no sympathy for music industry middlemen. They are the same people as Alan Klein who swindled the Beatles and the Stones. When Led Zeppelin announced they would be taking ninety percent of the gate in 1972 they screamed bloody murder but were cast aside. Other bands did not have the nerve to try to run their affairs as forcefully or they just couldn't.

I know a number of musicians and most of them need money wherever they can get it particularly to finance new work. I would hate to see any of them have to start up a webcam site and do sex acts for credit card pervs.

How would you stop file sharing? Would you for instance upload a bunch of Yoko Ono songs on Limewire and title them with chart topping hits until everyone there gets frustrated and stops using it?

Joel Tanenbaum was convicted and forced into bankruptcy for stealing music. One steals. One gets get caught. One pays a huge penalty. There is a good way to stop illegal downloading, yeah? But Tanenbaum was far from being a real criminal.

The internet is subject to international law so it is not really like a pirate radio station operating off of a boat in international waters subject to no laws. In 2008 an estimated 40 billion files were illegally filed-shared (world wide), and this puts the piracy rate at around 95 per cent.

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