Reply To: Piracy good or bad

Jeremy, the musicians I'm talking about are touring musicians, people who've made their careers performing on stage and still earn their living that way. The piracy issue has seriously affected their earnings, because as less and less money comes in from royalties, the artists they play for can't afford the salaries and benefits any more. Live performances are fairly constrained in terms of earnings, being squeezed by expenses on the one hand and how much you can charge for tickets in any given market. It has nothing to do with opulence, but with paying an ordinary mortgage and sending kids to school.

It isn't a matter of “the occasional teenager.” It's thousands upon thousands of teenagers, twenty-somethings and other demographics. They aren't learning to play guitar (or trying to launch a career), they're just downloading music, movies and programs for free because it's easy and they haven't been taught to care one way or the other.

And really, “something valuable acquired for nothing, without the consent of the giver” is the basic legal and moral definition of theft.