First of all, welcome to JU. Hope you enjoy your time here.

As for the question you ask, I believe a lot of people DO want something for nothing. I think it is a big part of what is wrong with western society particularly. (Of course, there are plenty of good things about western society too but for the sake of this discussion, I'm talking about the negatives).

I am a musician/composer/producer living in Australia. I work in a day job because music, at the moment, doesn't provide the sort of financial support I require. At the moment, I work a normal 40 hour week and then spend a large percentage of my spare time working on the band, which is anywhere between 15 and 25 hours a week, depending on what we're doing.

We're planning on recording our first full length album in the near future. We'll be paying for this ourselves. We will organise promotion, touring etc and try to get our music heard by as many people as possible with the idea of using whatever money we make (after expense, of course) to go towards our next recording, tour or promotional activity. If some unscrupulous person was to upload our recrding to one of these free sites, then it would have an detrimental affect on our earnings, which in turn could prevent us from being able to carry out the next project etc.

People who support these sites aren't just losers. They're selfish theives who have very little respect for the hard work talented people must do to get their products recorded. These vultures who steal music deserve everything they get.

I totally understand where you're coming from. But . . .

I use uTorrent to download some stuff sometimes. But I do have a personal rule - if I like it enough to keep it, I purchase it. If I don't like it enough to buy it, I dump it off the computer. So while that doesn't justify my temporary owning of a pirated file of a CD I quickly go out and purchase, it has saved me from buying a lot of stuff that I would've been disappointed with that just went out the Recycle Bin.

Yeah, yeah, "supporting the artist" and all that. That's why I buy as many CDs as I do - to support the artists that I believe are making a lot of high-quality music. But I don't want to support music that I don't enjoy - by purchasing something just to turn around and sell it back (for a pittance) so that the retailer can mark up my used copy to a disgusting price and make more money off it.

Time out, dymaso...I gotta touch this one for a second.

Now, everyone points out, and rightly so, the theft of material that runs rampant on sites such as these. But do you take time to consider the writing that is routinely stolen or the images that are routinely nipped by web designers without so much as a how do you do? As a writer, I guarantee you I work as hard crafting my words as you do crafting your music. And yet when the debate is raised, little to no consideration is given to the writer.

Yes, music theft is wrong. However, there are many of us who use these sites to "sample" work we might not otherwise have found. Example: I was intrigued by a Jane's Addiction cover of "Ripple" a favorite song of mine. Since that's a song that could be easily mangled, I had to hear it first. I heard it, loved it, bought the CD. Had I simply seen the track name on the back of the CD cover, I would have had no way of knowing it was even the same song.

Gid,

I appreciate what you're saying but there aren't websites devoted to ripping off web designs and making them available to all and sundry. To be quite honest with you, I've never heard of the sort of theft of which you speak, although I have no problems believing it happens. I would react exactly the same way if I were a writer, graphic designer, games designer or movie maker. Sites that provide those with the opportunity to partake in theft should be shut down, end of story.

While I appreciate there are some who use such sites as a way of finding new music and then going and purchasing a copy for themselves, there are also many who simply copy them down to their PC or listening device without any consideration for those who make the music. Maybe I did come over a little hard but it DOES affect me and I have a vested interest in stopping this kind of theft.