Why do so many want music 'for free'? Don't musicians deserve to be paid for their work like everyone else

I am a professional classical musician, and also have been a teacher and music director for 37 years. Yes, teachers may make temporary copies of copyrighted works WHEN WE OWN THE ORIGINALS and wish the student to be able to write on them - rehearsing choral music, for example. I cannot buy ONE, and make 100 copies. I must own a sufficient class set. I am also allowed to copy no more than 10 percent of a volume if it is for illustrative and instructional use, to be destroyed at then end of instruction. This is considered to be Fair Use - and is legal - and I feel, moral. And generous, I might add.

We cannot record our students and produce CDs to sell without paying for permission to he copyright holders. This is pennies per unit, but does add up. Therefore, we cannot allow parents to videotape such performances. Do we not enforce this when a parent only takes casual, "show Grandma" shots? Sure - but if our feet were held to the fire, we would have to pursue this.

So - the OTHER side of my life. If I play a professional performance, I cannot be recorded with out my express written permission - and a contract to reimburse me. I do NOT make illegal copies of my HUGE music library (print or recorded) to share with others - heck, if they are in the business, the should own their own. I impress upon my STUDIO students that they must show up at competitions with LEGAL copies - when I am a judge at competitions, I *MUST* deny students the chance to play if they have *illegal* copies (yes, there are legal copies - another issue).

Both of my lives would cease today, were not the legal and financial interests of other artist protected. Only a microscopic percentage of professional artist live in multi-million dollar mansions - and of those living in such spaces, VERY FEW deserves that title *artist*. Some rapper who rants about criminal activity, guns, drugs, and then demeans women and other ethnic groups? THEY get to benefit financially, when I teach inner-city kids that the gangsta lifestyle is a dead end???? When I only get to spend less than one dollar per kid per year on LEGAL music, and those idiots are exalting their stupidity?

If anything will turn our foolishness around, it will be the arts. WHAT IS ART is another matter - and part of the confusion about why it is OK to *steal*. If we think and artist is overpaid - can we steal? If we LOVE an artist, and think it is some kind of compliment - can we steal? If we HATE the artist, and think it is a punishment - can we steal? If we are poor - can we steal? If we are wealthy, and greedy - can we steal? And should these question have the same answer? I think so . . .

Del - Thanks for bringing this up. So many of us have repeatedly reminded people that it is illegal to download music without paying for it

Perhaps, as a topic of debate, we can put our heads together and explore some avenues.

The biggest problem is we are dealing with people like Edward H, who are in the mind set that downloading "illegal" music is not stealing.

They think that if a musician, composer, writer, lyricist, or artist is any "good" he/she is living in a 10 million dollar home anyway, and won't miss 99 cents.

But in the real world, we know that nothing could be farther from the truth. So many very talented individuals, sacrificing time that could be spent with love ones, working several jobs, just to make ends meet.

Somehow, we need to find a way of restoring dignity to these professions.

I can't help but wonder, why isn't more being done with these websites? Why are they being allowed to operate?

It is the internet. It has fostered an idea that everything is for nothing. But I lived in Yorkshire long enough to know that 'thou does owt for nowt unless thee does it for thee sen' (You don't do anything for nothing, unless you do it for yourself). The answer which talks about artists living in mansions is looking at the question from a pop perspective - I doubt that many classical musicians have that lifestyle. It is also symptomatic of the disregard many have these days for the law. 'Oh yeah, it's stealing/breach of copyright, but I don't give a s**t'. Trouble is, that if people do not get rewarded for their work they will end up not giving a s**t and not working, so there will be less and less new music/performances to download. Anyway, anyone who uses Limewire is daft - it is well known to be full of viruses (virrii?) and trojans. I wouldn't point my mouse anywhere near it - or any other file sharing site, for that matter. It is only asking for trouble.

And, oh yes, the buying second hand argument is fallacious. In that case the artist has received his/her royalties. It's like saying selling a second hand camera on e-bay equates to walking into a camera store and walking out with it without paying.

I am very fond of explaining human behavior, so here is a list which I have written up:

1. We have checked out library books for so long that we don't think anything of it.

2. Now that the Internet has been in common use for at least a decade, we have gotten free information off the Internet for so long that we don't think anything of it.

3. We expect the composers to appreciate the free publicity when we perform their works.

4. We have heard of Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart so often that we forget that not all composers are dead and not all music is in the public domain.

5. We have heard so many schoolteachers use the "educational purposes" plea.

6. We have seen so many recital programs with no copyright permission notices printed thereupon.

7. We pay for TV's and radios, but we don't pay every time we use them. In our minds, that disestablishes music as a purchasable commodity.

8. In our noise-polluted world, we not only hear music when we're not paying for it, but even when we don't WANT to hear it.

Don't get me wrong. I respect the copyright law. I am currently composing an opera based upon a book which I recently read. I shall ask permission from the copyright owner before publishing that opera.

I've seen what happened to that poor Harry Potter fan, and I don't want the same thing to happen to me.

>>OK, I've have enough!! After reading the zillionth posting in this forum, I want to know why people think they have a right to get music 'for free', whether sheet music or recordings.

I completely agree. May I suggest that we ignore all posts on Yahoo! Answers that ask for "free music" and no one bother to even open those posts?

It's the same reason so many assume gutless artists will paint for free.

Because they do not ask to get paid and will not say no to a request.

When you're dealing with a social moral pathology like this, you have to take the big view."How is 99 cents going to affect an artist who is living in a $10 million dollar house? " Is exactly the same argument that is used to justify every socialist aid program proposed by government. The rich won't miss the money, and the poor are so deserving because they are poor, and it's never their fault. It's true that collecting that buck is not worth the effort, but the buck snowballs into millions, and has effects far beyond the individual artist (given that every famous person stands on the shoulders of many supporters.). What we are seeing is the socialization of intellectual property. Given how many artists support the socialization of physical property for "support of the arts", "universal health care" and other regimes of theft, it's really hard for me to cry over their lost opportunities as the means of artistic production rot away. I cry for my own, a bit, and I try not to contribute to the problem. But the classical music world deserves what they're getting, deserves it good and hard. Why shouldn't the "less fortunate" (i.e., fortunate enough to have Internet access, not fortunate enough to land enough babysitting gigs to pay for every piece of music they want) try to get something for nothing? It's what their parents and grandparents have been doing in the voting booth for years.

MusikFind: I disagree. Silence is acquiescence. Instead, I think that all requests for recordings should be directed to the free downloads at www.riaa.org.

I despise it to the fullest. I buy all of my music. As a classical musician (we're a dying breed) its direly important for people to be honest. I also support live performance and non synthesized music. It's like listening to an LP versus a CD. There's no substitute for quality. To have quality, everyone needs an income. And not all musicians are rich to those of you who posted. And even those who are deserve payment for their creativity.

VERY good question; and even though it has been asked before - no matter how many times - it deserves to be asked again, here and elsewhere.

I think it derives from the onset of globalization, and the cultural value of outright greed that seems to have infected our world culture.

I call it the "Wal Mart" syndrome. "If I can get something cheaper, or for nothing, why should I care about who might consequently be financially, adversely effected?"

"Am I my brother's keeper? Apparently, no longer.

Alberich

Unfortunately, the current generation has no concept of "copyright". The idea of having to pay for music is alien to them ; they do not see the point of having to pay.

PS. Yes, I agree.