Only in Communism (Napster - Should Music Be Free To Share?)

Member Name: R_Easton

Product:	Napster - Should Music Be Free To Share?
Date:	20/10/01 (25 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: free

Disadvantages: quality/quantity will be reduced

I have thought about this and I have arguments for and against free music downloading from Napster etc.

My actual opinion is that you should be able to download music freely. But I also believe in a money-less society and communism. Neither of these will happen until greed and selfishness (I’m not showing of my ego by claiming I am not affected by these, that would be lying, but please don’t moan about me being a hypocrite) as these stop communism from working. This was shown when many countries became ‘communist’ earlier this century and were much less prosperous then the ‘west’ capital societies. I believe this was due to people not working to their full potential, as they had no reason to (they get ‘paid’ the same whatever)

If music were truly given away free, and it was easy to access, then the musical artists wouldn’t make any money at all. They would have to have other jobs and so the quality/quantity of their music would decline. Artists have to be paid unless no one is being paid, like in a communist society. I think true communism can be only achieved when humans have ‘evolved’ to a less selfish form.

A common argument in favour of free music (I’ve seen it said by others in this forum) is that MP3s aren’t very permanent. It is true that many people just download Internet music to see what it’s like. “Try before you Buy”. I will admit I have done this myself. The problem is that many people aren’t downloading for this reason. Some intend to keep the music on their computer and with a CD-R drive (£50 minimum) and some blank CDs (less than £1 each) you can be pirate-copying CDs and this really makes a mess.

As a last word I think music should be free, but only if everything else is.

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