Run… Run Far Away

It appears that the RIAA wasn’t bluffing. They’re suing some college students for sharing copyrighted material over their campus networks. More lawsuits are expected if companies don’t heed their warnings.

It’s nice that they warn you first. By now, everyone should know this is illegal. If something is for sale through legitimate retail channels and you obtain
it without paying, you could safely assume it’s probably illegal to obtain it that way. Let’s not kid ourselves. Stealing software, movies, or music is
wrong. Downloading full-version stuff is against the law because it’s a violation of copyrights. Please, admit it if you’re going to do it. Most people I know either don’t think it’s against the law, or they try to justify it by saying “It costs too much” or “the record companies steal from the artists!” Bulltish. You’re stealing.

However, I have often thought that buying used
CDs from Half might fall under the “music piracy” dragnet too. I paid for something, but the only person who got my money was the person who sold it to me. It’s still not illegal because it’s not a duplicate, but hey, I know for a fact that the RIAA hates used CD stores.

So there’s the solution: buy CDs from Half. I got some really good ones for $1.00 just because they didn’t come with the booklet. That way, we screw
the record labels and stay out of the courtroom.