How do YOU feel about your music being pirated?

[BONES]

See 99% of the stuff I download is "nostalgia", songs from my past that I miss hearing. Now I have downloaded about 30 or so songs and 1 album. However in order to get those same songs I probably would have to get 20 albums at least...for one or two songs?

I can see the argument being made that "you might find something you like" and that is valid. However I have like 500 Cd's now and I'm getting older, sorry but if I listen to everything I would miss out on listening to songs I like...that's not shallow, it's taste and logic.

Well I have around 800 CD's and I still enjoy them all. I couldn't imagine making a "best of" disc out of them because it would remove the context. I'd put Gates of Steel on a compilation and as soon as I heard it I would have to whip the compilation out [pun intended] and put on Freedom of Choice because the whole album is well worth listening to. Certain songs might provide the highlights but its the whole album that provides the lasting pleasure for me.
In fact I do make compilations to make carting stuff around for DJ'ing easier but I never listen to them.
Sometimes I buy compilations to help me find new stuff but once I have tracked down the stuff I like I never listen to the compilation again.
Of course, I also have a fairly impressive collections of 7" and 12" singles but mostly they are bands who never got around to releasing an album. I find if I listen to Ski Patrol's Agent Orange or Those Helicopters' Technical Smack it just makes me hungry for more. Its almost sufficiently frustrating that it spoils the pleasure. I have also found that by making compilation cassettes out of my singles I have given many of them a context which has become a permanent association in my brain, hence bringing up those two very different sounding bands together.
So yes, I definiteloy think that if you can compartmentalise your CD collection that way that it shows, maybe not a shallower appreciation, but certainoly a lesser appreciation for music.

[Hink]

I hear yah BONES....there are many albums that I gotta listen to from start to finish. But I grew up in the 70's, an FM radio kid, now I'm older and some songs bring me back to then...it isn't the context or the song itself sometimes, but the memory associated with the song....my life has always had a theme song playing, but it's a constantly changing theme...sometimes you need themes of yore...

[shamann]

Wrong of me to revive this thread, I'm sure, but was just reading a good bit on Chinese pirate mp3 sites over at Jeff Harrington's blog, Beepsnort.

A quote I found pertinent: The web's chaotic audience takes and takes and takes... when will it give?

It sums up a frequent refrain that we hear about freeware and free sample sites, why give stuff away when gratitude will be so readily abused? I give stuff away, and to be honest I just don't have the answer. And, while I try to be respectful and supportive, I'm sure I've abused someone's gratitude by mass downloading, etc.

Also interesting to consider the errant costs of supporting pirates once they became a burden on resources.

[BONES]

The trouble is that P2P makes people feel like they are giving as they have to make files available as well as downloading more stuff. The fact that nothing they give belongs to them in the first place is a fact that I'm sure they remain blissfully unaware of.

[whyterabbyt]

Nah, not wrong to revive, shamman, apart from my fit of pique t'other day, you're one of the few people (like BONES, and Dystonia, and a coupla others) actually thinking about it rather than kneejerking (IMO).

There's a lot of people saying 'this is wrong' and 'this is right' but there's far too people actually thinking about why they're saying that. Its not an easy answer, and Im f**ked if I know how it'll go.

[BONES]

I think it all depends on educating people. kaden's point, whilst not terribly useful, is also not completely invalid. The genie is out of the bottle but that doesn't mean that everyone has to accept the current situation. It will always be hard to control but if people can be made to understand that they are stealing and that it can hurt the artists involved, especially those who are struggling already, then you will probably be able to rely on the majority to do the right thing. Making a point that you can be held responsible for your actions will deter even more people but there will always be a percentage who will keep doing it anyway, like shoplifting or joy-riding or smoking dope or anything else.