Illegal Music Downloading: Crime…or Karma?
See, here’s the thing. What I don’t get is how it can be considered a crime to borrow music someone else has gotten. Isn’t that the same thing as making a cassette of someone’s album twenty-five years ago? Isn’t it the same thing as making a copy of someone’s CD today? If that’s not illegal, then how is downloading music illegal?
But maybe I’m wrong. Maybe it’s only illegal to pay someone in order to download music. Since they don’t own the music, they are violating copyright. ExceptâÂ?¦isn’t paying to download music the exact same thing as walking into a used record store and buying an album that you didn’t originally purchase; that the owners of the store didn’t originally purchase? Am I missing something here?
But, opponents might assert, those who run illegal download sites didn’t even pay someone for the music they are selling, so it’s not really the same thing. It’s as if the record store owners were selling albums they stole. The illegal music download sites got their music illegally. But they had to get the music from somewhere, right? It’s kind of like the first cause argument for the existence of God. You can’t make something from nothing, so therefore some superior being must exist if you go back in time far enough.
Those providing music for illegal downloads got their music from someone and those people got their music from someone and if you go back far enough then somebody at some point must have paid for the music. or were given it for free. So we’re back to the argument that really all you are doing is buying an album from a friend instead of taping it for free. It is illegal to sell somebody a used album? Obviously not.
So where is the crime here?
Perhaps there is none. Instead of thinking of illegal music downloading in legal terms, maybe it’s time to think of it in spiritual terms. Maybe, just maybe, what we’re talking about here is a case of old-fashioned karma. The weasels who run the record industry have been raking in unfathomably large profits off the backs of both artists and fans for decades. It may be difficult to view uneducated, semi-literate multi-millionaires riding around in expensive cars and living in huge mansions as tools of the man, but look at it this way. If a singer or rapper is raking in twenty million dollars a year, just think how much the company paying him makes.
Karma is the idea that bad deeds in this life are punished in the next; just as good deeds are rewarded in the next. The music industry has been due for some really bad karma for some time now. As just one example of how big a group of weasels these people are, simply go back to mid-80s when they decided to make the vinyl album obsolete and force music lovers to buy not only a whole new platform for listening to music, but all new equipment.
But that’s not the worst part. The technology used to make a CD cost ridiculously less than it cost to make an album. Beyond that, it also took less material. Less paper. The shrinking of the format obviously meant that less effort would be made to create memorable album artwork, so that expense went out the window. In other words, it was considerably-considerably-cheaper to make a CD than a vinyl LP. And yet guess which direction the price of a CD went in comparison to the price of the LP version of the exact same album?
Upward. Significantly. At the time CDs first came onto the market, the average price of a vinyl LP was around $9.99. Usually, they were on sale for up to a dollar or two less. At least where I lived, which was Atlanta . The exact same album on CD cost anywhere from $12.99 to $15.99 depending on where you bought it. You have to remember, of course, that at this time not every store sold CDs. In fact, I can actually remember the novelty of all-CD stores; shops that sold only CDs and little or no vinyl. Funny to think of it now, but most of these stores were roughly the size of a hotel room.
I heard at the time, and I honestly don’t know if it’s true or not, that when CDs first came out, they cost less than five cents to produce. I mean just the blank CD, not an actual album. The vinyl disc on which an album would be recorded supposedly cost over a dollar. In all honestly, I haven’t verified if these figures are myth or reality, but I have some suspicion even if the actual figures are off, the gap is probably about right. The point being that despite the fact that it cost less to create a CD than an LP, it cost more to buy a CD than an LP. Karma was due.
Now, I know the argument is going to be that illegal music downloading hurts the artist by taking away their royalties. And, yes, that is a problem. Musicians, for all their tree-hugging, charity-benefit-organizing, posing-with-Kofi-Annan liberalism, love money. Most say they would do it for free and I do believe most of them would do it for significantly less. How else to explain why groups that used to play to sold out stadiums still hang around long enough to play county fairs? But if all the money dried up, I have a feeling so would music. And even if illegal music downloading does hurt the weasels who run the business, it also hurts the artists, and eventually it trickles down to hurting those of us who love the music.
On the other hand, maybe if the weasels would be willing to part with a little of their profit by giving a little more to the artists and coming down on the prices of CDs and so-called legal music downloads, an arrangement could be worked out. There will always be people who simply want to get something for nothing, just like there are weasels who will always do whatever it takes to squeeze the last penny of profits out of their business.
I have a suggestion for making people want to buy music again. The music industry could learn from the movie industry. (Which is also full of weasels, but not as many.) While the delivery system for movies has moved to provide consumers with more content, the music industry has provided less content. Think about it. When you bought an album, you not only got it for the music, you also got it for the album cover and the liner notes and all those other goodies.
With the shrinking of the album into the CD, consumers actually lost a viable art form. On the other hand, the movie industry took the unlamented VHS tape and turned it into the DVD, adding in special features to make it more attractive to consumers. And on top of that, they didn’t even jack up the price. Heck, DVDs actually cost less. I can remember working at a video store when Ghost was first released on VHS for a list price of $99.00! The average price of a new release on DVD today is typically not much more than a CD. What’s up with that?
If the music company weasels would just be willing to take a cut in their ugly profits and make CDs worth buying, I guarantee you people would buy more. Obviously, illegal downloads would continue, but if there was a reason for actually owning the CD, many of those who now download music would probably go back to them. Otherwise, there’s going to be a lot more bad karma to come. The music industry has a lot to make up for: ripping off musiciansâÂ?¦overcharging for productâÂ?¦disco.
Unless they take pains to make amends, the karma is only going to get worse before it gets better. It is hoped that the music industry will learn from the recent news that Tower Records is once again filing for bankruptcy. Before long, the weasels may joining them in court. Too bad the Republicans they elected to Congress made it harder for individuals to personally file for bankruptcy.
But that’s karma for you.
