Quote Originally Posted by bernie's bender View Post
It isn't an issue of faith. It is a legal issue. So long as folks are willing to admit that they are in violation of existing law and that they understand that they are stealing under the current law... I stop there.
I have made copies of out of print records for people before.
But under your rigid definition... this is illegal.

Like Mike said, it is a matter of degree. I don't think anyone contests that songwriters should receive their share of profits of people who benefit from their music financially. However, when it goes beyond that to "you should not only pay me when you buy the recorded music, pay me for the sheet music, pay me when you play the song professionally (all legitimate), you should pay me $15 more for each video you upload that contains a portion of one of my songs despite the fact that your only 'profit' is a good feeling." It feels like unreasonable, insatiable greed, and I think it's going beyond the boundaries of what is protected by law. Like "Hmm, maybe we can get some money out of 'em for that too...let's go for it, they'll probably fold when we throw our lawyers at 'em..." That's why we have "fair use" laws - to prevent that kind of thing.