This is a question I've thought about for a long time. I've paid more money for the 350 songs in my iTunes than most of my friends have spent on their 5000+ songs. It's painfully easy to steal songs off of the internet or from friends, and the mentality of us humans is; "Hey, why should I spend $11 on that album when I can get it from *insert name here* for free?".

Places such as iTunes make all of their (bought and downloaded) songs copy protected, which is a good step in preventing the stealing of music, but I'm sure there are still ways to get around them. We occasionally see previews at a movie theater or at the start of a video telling us, "You wouldn't steal a car, would you? Then why steal music?". However, the two types of stealing are totally different. As a friend of mine said;

Well, actually, if you think about it; I'd love to put my hands on a car, wait 30 seconds, and then own it. The best part is that not only do you get to take the car, but the person you stole it from also keeps the car (since there are two copies).

He's totally right. I bet that if that was the case, pretty much everybody would be stealing cars. When I ask my acquaintances why they illegally download music, they usually respond with the simple statement, "Because it's free." It's free in the beginning, yes, but if you get caught, fines for the offense can be as high as several thousand dollars. When asked what they think about that, my acquaintances answer with, "Yeah, but I won't get caught." Is this true? I believe it is. The technology for finding and "busting" illegal music downloaders is there, but isn't usually put to use. If the threat of being caught with illegally downloaded music was larger, I believe that it would deter many people from downloading them.

This even affects me to some degree. On nathan8472.com, I wanted to put all of my GarageBand songs up so everyone could listen to them. When I finish them all, I'm going to compile a CD and sell it for a mere $5. However, those songs on nathan8472.com could easily be downloaded for no cost at all, and any person that did that would save $5. Because of that, I decided to simply post 30 second previews of each song. I didn't want to do that, but it's the only way I can be sure that nobody will steal my work.

I'm not entirely sure how to end this, so I'll end by saying that I admire all of you who are honorable enough to pay for your music and obtain it legally. It takes integrity to be honest like that.

Argy