Yes. Most of the people I listen to are dead incarcerated, insane or so obscure they haven't even heard their own records, so I'm largely guilt-free.

Do you feel more guilty about pirating music if the artist is a harmless puppy?

Yes. That's why i always make sure to murder the artist before I download any of this songs.

"his songs"

Aside from obvious things such as items that I disapprove of by their very nature (kitty porn, whatever), I would never feel guilty about downloading something. So I guess no.

Please define "stealing music". :-)

Please define "the artist" - for example, after Bob Dylan dies would I feel "less guilty" about "stealing" music from Robby Robertson if he lives on? Robertson gets royalties from many a Dylan recording and his creative input to those recordings is huge and original if not always credited.

My short answer: no.

My slightly longer answer: I still feel guity if there are still people alive who, though not commonly perceived as "the artist", still made a significant and creative contribution to the recording in question and as a result of royalty agreements would lose money as a result of my individual piracy.

I don't feel bad as long as I'm not just downloading/uploading music from random people... it's different, somehow, when you're sharing with friends or fellow Mechatters or Mefites. But I keep stuff like Kazaa and the like off my computer, because I never feel right about it somehow.

Do you feel more guilty about pirating music if the artist is a harmless puppy?

yes and no... I will, if I like a band enough, buy all their albums IF they are on an independent label, since I know the majors don't pay the artist shit in terms of percentage of individual albums sold.

But then, I feel justified in downloading music when I simply can't afford it because I use it while DJing, which will then expose the track to other people who may not have found it otherwise, and many of them often go on to buy the album/see the band live/get a t-shirt or something. Which may be bullshit, and it may just be my way of trying to outwit the guilt over not paying for independent artists' music, but I've felt that way about it for years.

Kitty Porn

selfnoise makes a good point - I'm not quite sure if I understand it myself, but passings songs to people you know and stuff is kind of like, popping in a particular CD and pealing off a track; "hey, check out this song."

The whole copy digital media thing is that once you have a copy you can run it any time, again and again. (I wonder if the **IAs are going to go after people with extraordinary memory next.)

Having digital media available to sample has led me to cough up actual money for digital media on physical media which I wouldn't have if I didn't "pirate" stuff. Sure, I hear songs on the radio but, heck, which song is it and which group is performing that song?!

Then again, I've not spent money on a CD once I realized that the CD wasn't worth buying (and yes, I've deleted tons of crap that I've d/led).

Oh, right - the being dead thing.

Aren't most artists that are affiliated with a label given a straight up fee and the label gets (most?) of the royalties?

Anyway, Spider Robinson nailed it (perpetual/too-long copy protection) in his short story Melancholy Elephants. (The link is to the full text from Baen's website hawking his collection of shorts By Any Other Name which has a few of his other short stories available [free] in full text.

porpoise, even if the artists got a straight fee, if their albums sold a lot then they'd command a higher fee for their next album, right?

The vast majority of my music downloads are from non-RIAA artists. And by vast majority, I fully mean "in excess of 99.99%". The RIAA stuff I've downloaded in the past I've purchased at least once, if not more than once.

The stuff I download is primarily experimental, ambient, electronic, industrial, errata, novelty, mashup or from similar veins. (I listen to a lot of other stuff, too, webcasts and here and everywhere.)

If at all possible, I've directly written to and asked the artists themselves if they mind if I "steal" their music. None have ever indicated in the slightest that they minded, and almost all responded positively along the lines of "You like my stuff enough that not only do you listen to it, but you also spent all that time searching it out and downloading it? And you kept it on your HD? Awesome. Thanks for being a fan."

The following is anecdotal, but: The only artists that I've actually heard complain about downloading seemed to be at least moderately rich, well to do artists, who didn't understand the internet, nor marketing, nor word of mouth, etc.

I'm not saying that there aren't small artists out there who do mind if you download or copy. Most likely there are many, in the vast spectrum of people out there.

But at least for the artists I'm interested in there seem to be few people or no one at all that minds all the sharing going on. Perhaps this also holds true simply for musicians that enjoy making music. Or perhaps that's just a fantasy I and others would like to believe in.

When I can I've bought music to support my favorite artists. But a great deal of the music I download I can't purchase if I wanted to, either because it's very popular - relatively speaking for my interests - and out of print, or a limited edition, or not released in my country, or never released on traditional media and publishing to begin with.

I really wish that artists would put up paypal links for donations of any size. I don't think I've ever seen an actual "tip jar" function on any artist site. (Corrections and links pointing to any are warmly welcomed.)

My mother used to catalog books at the library, and would bring her work home with her if it seemed interesting to my dad or us kids. That meant we'd get first dibs on any new records the library bought for their patrons, and that my dad would make a high-quality tape copy for home use.

I always just assumed that's what you do. I mean, it's music; it doesn't belong to anyone. I can hum or sing or perform for my windows any song I want. Someone wrote it, and they get props, but it's sound, yo, and that shit goes through walls.

I, uh, don't really make any sense at all. I think the RIAA needs to find another way to make money.