I was having a discussion on the ethics of piracy with a friend the other day and my argument was that there’s nothing wrong with pirating music if the artist (or, in the case of a band, the song’s composer[s]) are dead. The way I see it, artists deserve to be paid for music they made that I enjoy, but for example, if I’m a fan of Miles Davis, I have no qualms with torrenting his entire back catalogue, because he’s dead, and I feel no moral obligation to put money in the pockets of his family nor those of the recording studio, especially considering the way recording studios have been taking advantage of musicians and consumers alike for decades. Our copyright laws need to be completely revamped to invalidate copyrights after a certain number of years, or the holder’s death, so that their works can get put into the public domain, to contribute more effectively to the cultural capital of our society.
I also personally believe that there’s nothing wrong with torrenting old works of extremely rich artists that have already made them more than enough money (so, for example, I don’t feel bad torrenting the Dire Straits discography, but every time Mark Knopfler puts out a new solo album I still buy it). The $15 in my pocket goes a much longer way for me than it does for someone the likes of, say, Roger Waters, so I don’t feel a moral obligation to contribute a raindrop of money into the ocean of his wealth if I want to listen to The Wall, knowing that it’s the fourth best-selling album of all time. I’d much rather use the limited disposable income I have supporting struggling contemporary artists that haven’t broken into the mainstream.
