Quote:
Originally Posted by Yamada
A person didn't pay for it, but took it anyway, it's theft. Then it gets really laughable (particularly in software) when the opining goes "I'll download it to try, then buy if I like".
Really?
Yeah, right.
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In my book it's only theft if the taking of something deprives someone else of that something. If that's not the case, then it cannot be classed as theft. IMO.
And I certainly don't see what's laughable about downloading stuff to try. I do that routinely with new music (i.e. music I don't already know). If I like it I buy the album, if not I delete the album. And it's not as if my music shopping strategy is exceptional; pretty much everyone I know do the same thing. Nothing strange or unusual about it; I don't buy anything else unseen or untried either if I can help it.
It used to be that around here there were 4 excellent record stores, all carrying different music and all with a row of turntables along one wall for people who wanted to listen before buying. I could spend whole days at a time in there. Later on the turntables were exchanged for CD players, but still you could listen before buying and I still hung around for hours on end. Then the stores started to disappear and today there's a single record store left with a singularly lousy selection and no possibility of listening to anything even if I wanted to.
Now you can say "yeah, right" until your throat gets hoarse, but I've been listening before buying for around 40 years and if/when I can no longer do so I will simply stop buying music. That would be no hardship for me seeing as I own some 7-8000 albums, all of them legally bought, but I doubt it is the result that the record companies want.