possibly (Score 1)

To piracy of software, there are good and bad to it. good: allows people to test software to see if it's worth the price tag to pay for it. Who wants to pay $400+ dollars for Photoshop, just to find out it may be extremely difficult to use for them. In some cases, it's very good. I was able to borrow a copy of MS visual studios pro 6 from a friend, so that I could teach myself how to program in the languages that the software package offers (vb, vc++, etc.)..I'm not making money directly from it, but I AM teaching myself how to code economically... What beginning programmer has $500+ for something as invaluable as visual studios 6... I'm working on getting MCSD (solution developer).. After I finish college, I'll have a lot of doors open up for me, one of the reasons being that I have experience in these programming languages that companies want. Do they (the companies) that I'll be looking for employment at really care if I learned my skills on pirated or legally purchased software? No. They're only concerned with the fact that I know how to do what they need me to do, and not on how I learned my skills. Similar lines can be drawn for music: good: it allows the consumer to sample some of the songs before they spend $15+ tax on a CD.. only to find out that they only like 2 or 3 good songs.... If they really like the band, they'll want to seem them live. bad: it IS possible to 'download' entire cd's... yes, the artists do need to get paid for their work.. (if they didn't, they'd have to get day jobs and not make the music that we love so much). If I go onto Napster and download all the songs of an artist and make my own cd-r of an album... Will I help put the artist on the street? Doubtful. I can always go compensate by seeing them perform live. (polestar.com, IMO, one of the best ways to find out about concerts in your area). If I download a Metallica track from Napster, will Kirk or Lars be holding up "homeless, anything helps.. god bless" signs anytime soon. Again, doubtful. Since the black album, none of their material has been worth paying for anyways. To Lars and all the other musicans griping about services like Napster, I have one thing to say: If you're going to complain about people downloading and not purchasing your music.. at least compose music people would actually want to spend money on.