stealing music, and the future of copyright

While this thread has been very interesting and has mostly been kept alive by red and martin the fact is that nobody is going to convince anybody to change their opinion about downloading free copyrighted material;

We can all agree that we will always disagree.

Let me pose one last hypothetical question of a religeous nature.

If I am a person who has never commited an act of theft from another person nor have I ever so much as swiped a candy bar from a convienience store but i have downloaded and listened to music without paying for it, have I violated the Commandment that says "THOU SHALL NOT STEAL?" Could my act of downloading a song tip the scales with St Peter that might send me straight to hell without passing go and collecting $200?

That possible scenario reminds me of an episode of Married With Children where the Bundy's dog Buck dies. Buck finds himself in the waiting room of Animal Heaven where he is greeted by a human host played by Ben Stein who is in animal heaven by mistake. Buck explains his case to Ben Stein until the animal counterpart to St Peter has time to see him.

Then Ben Stein tells Buck " Judge Cat will see you now"

Judge Cat judges Buck harshly for his chasing of cats and sentences Buck to go back to the Bundy hosehold and become their new puppy.

What happens to file sharers if "Judge Cat turns out to be a band member from Metallica or an executive with the music industry

 

If it were up to the individual somebody could justify even cold blloded murder by "not considering it a sin"

All of us would agree that murder or robbing a bank should be considered sinful activity, but if you believed that you will ultimately be judged by whatever diety that you believe in for your earthly sins do you believe that downloading a song without paying for it is a strike against you?

Should a Catholic tell the priest about file downloading in confession?

 

and yet musicians still happily played music.

a society where music can be exchanged freely is not worse.

 

did the lack of income from recordings make handel unable to find the means to compose his masterpieces?

isnt it true that many of the greatest musicians ever flourished before the modern revenue model existed? how many records did beethoven sell?

 

i ask again. minus the revenue streams from recorded music, why were these old dudes able to produce such gloriously uplifting tunez?

how come they were not put out of business by the fact hat they were not selling any albums? is it possible they performed live or found other ways to keep producing music?

or do you think the music they made was crap and society was not properly supplied with quality music? and only after record companies started selling music did enough money flood the system that brilliant musicians like mariah carey could enrich our lives?