Why We Steal Songs

Short little post over on BoingBoing where Cory Doctorow mentions that he heard a great song on a podcast, found the band’s MySpace page and “ripped” the song for his personal collection.

As one who has also acquired music in this way, I am not mentioning this to say what Cory did was wrong but instead to look at why he did it.

1) He loved the song.

2) He wanted to be able to listen to the song whenever and wherever he wanted.

3) The MySpace page for the band, The Weather Station, does not allow users to download their songs nor was their an obvious place for one to go and purchase the song.

So, once again, we see that piracy happens not out of a desire to break the law or get out of paying for something but because it is simply the easiest and most direct way to acquire something.

Would Cory have ripped the song if the band provided a simple, clear and reasonably priced way to legally download the song?  Well, I don’t want to speak for him but I suspect he would have gone the legal route – especially if he knew the music was going directly to the band.

Of course, the value of Cory mentioning the band on BoingBoing is worth far more than what he might have spent buying their music.

UPDATE:  Thanks to Graham Stairs who tells me that “FYI, the Weather Station EP can be bought at Soundscapes in Toronto and will soon be available digitally on Zunior.”  Thanks!

1 Comment

• 

  By Graham Stairs, March 19, 2008 @ 5:40 pm

  FYI, the Weather Station EP can be bought at Soundscapes in Toronto and will soon be available digitally on Zunior.

Other Links to this Post

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Leave a comment