In my opinion, downloading a song you don't own from a struggling artist and downloading a song from a major label artist are the same issue. Eigther way a lot of hard work went into that song and even though the artist may already have a lot of money, the other people who worked on the song aren't rich and famous. Some bands that are already very famous such as Radiohead choose to put their music on the internet for free downloads. This is different because the artist in this case and everyone behind the record had to agree for the record "In Rainbows" to be put online for free, it was their choice.
Downloading a copy of a song you already own is in my opinion okay as long the copy you already have was bought legally and you are only downloading one other copy for whatever reason. This kind of goes along the same lines as copying a cd for a friend. I do this sometimes to make my friends mixes, this is a form of expression such as mixed tapes or collages. Also, if someone has taken the time (and money) to go buy blank cd's, which arent cheap, they are likely to be choosy about who they burn a cd for. This, in my opinion, is the real definition of music "sharing", taking the time, money and effort to make your friend a cd of music you think they would enjoy, like the mixtape of yesteryear, it is not stealing from anyone if the said music has already been purchased.
Downloading a song to try it out seems harmless enough, but it can be a slippery slope. Once you have the song and know how to download for free, it seems unlikely you will really purchase the cd. I believe that downloading an album online for free is just as much stealing as shoplifting that album from a store. When I was younger I pretty much ruined two consecutive family computers by using Kazaa and exposing the innocent Dell's to viruses. Though I loved getting free music, I stopped when I got my own computer last year. Now I only use iTunes, and as of today I have purchased 1,566 songs from iTunes, the rest of the songs in my Library are from purcased cd's. On iTunes it is an option to listen to the music in other people's libraries in my network and to let them listen to mine, a feature I utilize. However, the different between this and putting all my music on Kazaa for anyone to download is that on iTunes people can only listen to my music, they cannot copy or download it. There have been many times I have listened to someone else's music and then downloaded it for myself off iTunes.
After using Kazaa for years and switching over to iTunes I would never go back. I feel bad for exploiting the hard work of artists, producers and everyone involved in the past but I do understand the temptation of websites like Kazaa. My roommate has Limewire and I sometimes get jealous of all the music she downloads, but I am not jealous about how slow I know it is making her computer! Music is art and while I think it is great when artists like Radiohead allow people to enjoy their art for free, we the public should respect the other artists and people in the music industry for not illegally downloading music.
