(no subject)

[darkoshi]

When I asked my foster sister what she'd like for xmas, one of the things she suggested was some reggae music. So I browsed the reggae songs available for download on Calabash and Amazon, and purchased several that sounded good to me. I made her a mix CD out of them.

The Terms and Conditions for both those sites though, say that the music you purchase is non-transferable. So by downloading music as a gift for someone else, I'm already breaking the terms. It's really stupid that the terms seem to make it illegal to buy a gift for someone else. I don't really understand why when you buy MP3s online, it should be any different from when you buy software online. With software, you're generally allowed to transfer it to another person as long as you remove it from your own computer and no longer use it yourself. Wasn't there even some court case which caused those to be the default conditions? I think it was adjudicated that the software companies aren't allowed to stop you from re-selling the software when you no longer want it, just as is the case with any physical item you may purchase.

So anyway, I'm already breaking the terms... and now, after making the mix CD, I'd really like to keep a copy for myself too, since I like the music. So what is the ethical thing to do? I don't want to cheat the artists out of any royalties they might get from 2 purchases as opposed to one. On the Calabash site, it used to be that you couldn't even buy the same song twice, as it kept track of the songs you've bought... now it appears to let you, although I haven't tried it. The amazon site appears to let you buy the same song twice as well.

Hmmm.

Comments

[fayanora.livejournal.com]

The record companies actually get most of the money. And they charge way too much for music these days. There really should be no reason for most CDs to be more than $10. The RIAA are the *real* pirates, charging through the nose for music and bringing the law down on people who, hating the absurdly high prices, understandably "pirate" music. The artists themselves make most of their money from concerts and related merchandise, not the albums.

But if you're really torn up about it, so what I do: keep the "pirate" copy and put a legit copy on your list of things to buy later.