I think O'Reilly hit this dead on. I download music and if I like what I download, I am going to go and buy the real thing. Musicians should be glad people are downloading their music. It means they are popular. Most people I know just download music to put on their laptop or to make mix CD's. If I like the group, I am going to support them. Someimes, obscure bands get helped out by downloading as well. I have downloaded some weird things and ended up going out to buy the cd. Most artists do not make oo much money off of the sale of their albums. They make their money on touring. The whole article is pretty much corporate america whining and complaining about money. Most of them are filthy rich anyways. The people that complain the most about piracy are the greedy artists that want more money, like Metallica. Many small, lesser nown acts
I also download a lot of live music from concerts. I dont see what the problem is with that. I like what some bands are doing now to prevent some piracy. Pearl Jam releases almost all of their concerts on cd. Phish was releasing 5 live cds, from their archives, a year. Dave Matthews Band releases some live CD's as well.
I like the point that O'Reilly makes about shoplifting being a bigger threat then piracy. It is so true. As a retail worker, I see so much theft not get caught. If the theft is not caught, the store onhands get screwed up. The cd will still be in the system but nowhere in the store. I have had this happen to me many times. If several people are looking for the same cd and you supposedly have some instock but can not locate them, thats several lost sales. piracy leads to sales. I want good quality when I listen on my home stereo or in my car, not the crappy quality from peer to peer sharing. In my retail experiences, book publishers should have nothing to worry about. When they pull books off the shelf. Thjey throw the books away anyways. Why waste the paper and just print them out at home. It would save the book publishers a lot of money in printing.
In conclusion, I think Itunes is a great invention. I like that it is monitored a little. I just think they should charge a little less, but maybe some day. I think it is good to monitor it, but at least let the crappy sites like Limewire exist. They have more obscure and live downloads. I like downloading, but I also like the real thing. Maybe all this downloading will be a slap in the face to wake up the corporations. They need to lower the price on cd's just a little.
