Is It Freedom to Do What You Want? Or, Is This a Crime?

Perhaps most of us do not think twice before we download music and the consequences of our actions. Without realizing it we could be breaking the law! And because we break the law, we could be held liable for huge amounts of money in the thousands of dollars for serious damages. Music must really be a very important commodity for people to be breaking the law, don't you think?

Here is a scenario: Someone you don't know sends you an e-mail message with a copy of a song or a musical piece, and you turn around and you e-mail it to someone who e-mails that same copy that you sent to all of his or her friends. This downloading business easily spreads like a wildfire! Suddenly you receive a notice of infringement from a law firm that is representing a recording company! The above scenario is considered a crime. It is stealing somebody else's property. Also another one could be like this --although you don't offer musical recordings to others but you join a network of people who share files, which download music that are unauthorized copies of all the musical work that have been copyrighted. That is still considered theft of somebody else's musical creativity without his or her permission. Is it just an act of downloading or copying music, or is it an act of stealing? I ask this question to all of us in this bloggers' group because it seems to me that technology has made this act of stealing or digital copying much easier than before. So if it's really possible for us to copy music for our own benefit with paying for them, is it legal? Is it ethical? We want to enjoy music, but then we also want to be fair to the music creators.