The major corporate record companies have been guilty of piracy for decades. In some cases the small ones too. The have made millions (billions?) of dollars on the backs of the working musicians and then handed the musicians a bill and said "You sold 10 million records but you're broke". In other words they stole all the money generated by the musicians intellectual property.

Now before I attack the other pirates in this situation let me say this. There is nothing wrong with individuals sharing music or any other intellectual property. That's why we have public libraries in free countries and you can share music with any of you're friends on the internet. It's called email!

We have shared intellectual property with one another for decades and it has never threatened any ones ability to sell and make a reasonable profit from their art. As long as there is a free market (not free merchandise) and a demand for a product the average guy and the big company can both make a reasonable amount of money.

I couldn't care less about the major corporations loosing money. It's their fault. It's the direct result of unbridled greed and stupidity and it's happening in a lot of other industries for the same reasons.

On the other side of this issue are the other pirates.
They are NOT the individual down loaders.

They ARE the owners and operators of Internet server systems that are doing the same thing as any other greedy profiteer. They steal from one person and sell to another.

The problem is that the owners of these server systems (any of the Peer to Peer, Bit torrent etc.) that provide my intellectual property (without my permission) for free to a mass market are making money off of my work.

If you think they aren't you are a damn fool. What other reason would there be?
Who do you think runs these things? The tooth fairy?

They are making huge amounts of money from corporations who pay them with advertising dollars.
In some cases individuals pay them for the right to unlimited access AND they get paid ad money.

The visitor traffic generated by giving away other peoples property (without their permission) is in the tens of millions per day!

Cut off the money supply. You eliminate the problem or at least a big part of it.

I don't know if it's possible but I wonder if some one could take legal action against (sue) the *%&^! that are feeding the system not some college kid that loves to collect music.

If you are a musician who doesn't care about selling you're records, fine. I don't care. That's you're right to do what you want with you're stuff. I on the other hand want some way of making a buck on my hard work.

I also have the right to sell my intellectual property for a reasonable price and give away some free samples
- AS I CHOOSE! - Free stuff is good for business.
But if it’s all free there is no business = no money = lots of crappy music to listen to.

If it's good and people like it they will buy it but if they can get all of your stuff on a massive scale for free... you're screwed.

This is just a fact of human nature. If I can get all of your stuff I want for free why the hell would I pay you anything for it?

I am NOT a member of the privileged social class who can afford to give away their art for free.

I am NOT some talent less nut who makes a bunch of noise on an instrument, records it and gives it away because it sucks. They invested nothing of themselves in their art.

I don't mean amateurs. I mean people who don't have a clue how bad they are.
They just create a sh_t storm of garbage on the net and make it more difficult for fans to find good music.

That's how I became great at what I do. I had to work at it. I had to spend MY money and My time.
I had to become good enough to get someone else to plunk down their hard earned money to hear it.

I have digressed from the main issue. Please excuse me.

As it stands there isn't 1 problem. There are several. The corporations (pirates) are pushing the politicians (pirates) to do something about this issue (piracy).

I have every confidence that they will totally screw things up
and make things worse. That's what they seem to be experts at.

I hope this all works itself out over a short time without too much political corporate interference.

I’ve read a lot of hype from people on both sides of this issue who take up the extreme positions on it. One side wants everyone to pay too much money for access to digital music or any music.

The other is willing to accept a situation that will (in my opinion) only change who walks off with most if not all of the money.

The losers will still be the fans, the musicians, and the music.

I will say this. I don’t trust extremists in any form on any subject.

They are either ignorant of the facts or looking to exploit the situation.

One thing is certain. We are in the midst of a major change in the way this market functions or dies.

I hope the change is for the better for the majority and not for the few.

TroubleMaker