Originally Posted by Quicksilver

That's why i posted this first. Most people don't have a clue what copyright law entails or what the spirit of it means. All they think is you go out and buy something, that's it, it's mine, done. But it's not that simple. What people don't understand is that what you buy is a performance not a piece of plastic. What that means is that you get to use that performance for your personal use but duplication and distribution in any form of that performance is bound by copyright law. So one has to know and understand what the law says regarding the distribution of said performance. Each individual is not allowed to make up their own rules regarding duplication and distribution.

In the past if one were to duplicate a performance it was almost sure to be huge effort to copy and distribute performances of any quality or quanity. One had to go out and spend a great deal of money buying duplicating equiptment to do the job and few people had the resources to do so and If they were caught doing it they were prosecuted for doing so.

These days digital duplication means that flawless copies can be made of the original right at home then sold in ever greater quantities than before. Because of this ability to produce flawless copies and the internet as an effective distribution vehicle there is a real threat the economic position of the recording industry.

So the real deal is that it isn't right for people to take the performance property of song writers, producers and so on and pass it around without regard for the law. Obeying the law in this matter is showing respect for the creators of the performance and all the other people who signed contracts to get paid for their part of the performance.