Everyone loved the music SHE had so carefully put together.
So, when BJ asked for a copy of the CD, I willingly gave it to her and told BJ to make herself a copy.
Later, when telling HER about it, SHE asked me if I felt okay about sharing the music that SHE had paid for, and that artists earn their income from.
I was embarrassed, ashamed, awkward, and realized I had done a dumb thing.
Of course, I should not share the music. So, I called BJ to tell her my feelings and to tell her that I did not feel comfortable in giving her the CD. No answer at her end.
Ten minutes later, BJ showed up at my door. She had not heard my phone message. And, she was holding the orignal CD and 6 copies she had made for me to share with others.
AWKWARD, because she was so thoughtful to make the CD's.
AWKWARD, because I had to tell her I had been careless about sharing it in the first place.
AWKWARD, because I know better.
I just spent one year in a land where they STEAL music, CDs, movies, ideas, even store fronts. And, I thought it was awful for the people in that country to so blantantly steal. Now, I had just done the same thing.
I explained to BJ my feelings; told her I thought she was thoughtful, I would pay for the cost of making the CDs, but I didn't feel comfortable accepting or using them.
Oh, BJ was so gracious and she undertsood.
Truthfully, it's not always to be honest. but it should be.
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7 comments:
The ease at which is to share makes the honesty or stealing factor a slippery slope. I have a few thoughts on the subject. Most musicians make a few pennies for each song they sell - the "industry" makes the rest. This is sad for the musician and horrible that the industry usurps them so much - so whenever I can and I see a band live, I will try to buy the CD directly from them (they get MOST of the money in this scenario). I think this is a good way, or if I have the music already, I buy a t-shirt (they make a very good profit on this, much more than if I bought the music on iTunes).
I wonder what most less successful musicians would say on the subject. Most musicians that have received money from me (in the form of t-shirt and concert sales) have done so because I heard a copy of their song (probably illegally). In the end, had I not heard the song in the first place, the band would not have received ANY money from me.
WOW, interesting comments, especially about the fact that you heard their song, probably illegally. Well, it is a slippery slope, but I want to get off!
I dealt with this constantly when we owned an edited movie store. Legally, you are allowed to have a back-up disc in case of failure for software. So we were careful that each edited disc we purchased an original. So we were careful, but our edited discs were formatted so that they could easily be copied.
I find that Mormon's strong sense of frugality crosses the line into entitlement in some of these music/movie/cd arenas. Pay 99cents for a movie rental and feel entitled to copy it 12 times and give it to everyone at Christmas.
We invested over a hundred dollars to edit each title we offered. In some ways we felt like Hollywood did toward the edited film industry. I wanted people to respect the work we did to offer clean movies.
Many people did! But I was totally shocked at how many other store owners simply bought edited titles without investing the in the original movie. Store owners! I thought there was no way for that industry to be viable when people weren't even careful about their interpretation of the law.
Holy novel! You hit a hot button with me. I'm proud of you for thinking twice and not taking the copies!
Yes, way to go Loni! Bill, is a sound and recording engineer, and is very sensitive to people stealing copyrighted materials, particularly, cd's and dvd's, but also sheet music, etc. There are members of my family that have made a habit out of it and it disappoints him a great deal.
Thanks, Nat and Amber, for your comments. You both have experience from the other side of things and you see how easy and how often people do steal music or videos. And, Amber, that entitlement that you speak of is so rampant it scares me!
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