The Morality Of Ripping CDs

By Daniel Miessler on July 24th, 2005: Tagged as Culture | Music | Philosophy

I just paid $18 for a CD that I know I can rip off of a friend for free. He has the original, store-bought copy sitting there for me to rip at will, but I chose to pay $18 for it instead. The cold, practical side of me is shouting obscenities over this, but I think it’s worth it.

Everyone has moral guidelines for stealing music; some think it’s absolute idiocy to pay for anything available for free. Others think that failing to pay for any content is a horrible crime. Like most, I have a hybrid system that incorporates both schools of thought. In general though, I do believe that acquiring non-free (as in beer) content without paying for it is wrong, and it’s for this reason that I elect to buy things even when I know they’re there for the taking.

I do, however, have rules that modify this general guideline to some degree. Here are a few of them:

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  • Certain bands, like Phish, for example, have a pretty liberal view on the sharing of their music. So for them I’d be more inclined to rip a few CDs that someone has while making note of the fact that I need to buy some of their stuff and/or go to a concert of theirs. I enjoy this model, but I also see why not everyone shares the approach.

  • Techno is a genre that I seem to have little trouble downloading off of P2P networks. I find that the genre is made in large part of hacked up versions of songs, i.e. versions customized by various DJs, so it almost feels like there’s very little “legitimate” IP coming out of the scene. There are exceptions, I’m sure, and one of them — Darude’s Sandstorm — I did in fact purchase.

  • Sadly enough, the way a given band interacts with the world also matters. Metallica, for example, is so low in my book that the only reason I’d object to someone stealing their content is because I don’t think it’s worth owning. This, of course, is because of their whole Lars-lead onslaught on their fans. I think their approach was both philosophically unsound as well as patently stupid. It’s not right for me to deem in less wrong to steal from them on account of this, but I do anyway.

    • So that’s basically it — the gist of my approach is to simply buy music whenever I can. If I do go with the “sample” technique, I do so with the solid intention of going ahead and purchasing said content assuming I like it. Contrary to what the RIAA says, all evidence seems to point to this helping the industry and artists, not hurting it.

    The bottom line is that if I know I like something, and I have the money, I’m going to drop the cash on it even if I can get the exact same content for free. I get made fun of for doing it, but I think knowing it’s the right thing to do is worth the ridicule.

    • http://jtpowell.blogspot.com/ Jason

      Just wanted to point out that your friend applauded your decision to purchase said album. ;)

    • http://jtpowell.blogspot.com Jason

      Just wanted to point out that your friend applauded your decision to purchase said album. ;)

    • Carl M

      … as do I.

      I’ve got a lot of music on my computer .. and every bit of it is from CD’s I own. I’ve built quite a collection over the years and have never been even tempted to simply “borrow” a CD from a friend so I can make a copy or to download any from the internet for free. Quite simply, I equate those actions to stealing … stealing music is not so terribly different from stealing something that you can touch. I certainly know that if I created something (like a software program that did some wondrous thing), I’d want appropritate rewards. And, if I created something with the purpose of making a profit (and let’s be honest … most bands do this and NEARLY ALL record producers do this), then I’d expect a fair profit. And, I would consider it theft if someone bought a copy and then made copies for all of his friends.

      This is not to say that I do not understand the “sample” philosophy. But, I would say that most who download music (even some who claim to live by this philosophy) do NOT truly live by it. When they’ve downloaded an album for “free” and then like it … do most of them really go out and buy it? I suspect that you are in the minority here, Daniel. (I would be much more willing to believe that the “sample” technique can help concert ticket sales.)

    • Carl M

      … as do I.

      I’ve got a lot of music on my computer .. and every bit of it is from CD’s I own. I’ve built quite a collection over the years and have never been even tempted to simply “borrow” a CD from a friend so I can make a copy or to download any from the internet for free. Quite simply, I equate those actions to stealing … stealing music is not so terribly different from stealing something that you can touch. I certainly know that if I created something (like a software program that did some wondrous thing), I’d want appropritate rewards. And, if I created something with the purpose of making a profit (and let’s be honest … most bands do this and NEARLY ALL record producers do this), then I’d expect a fair profit. And, I would consider it theft if someone bought a copy and then made copies for all of his friends.

      This is not to say that I do not understand the “sample” philosophy. But, I would say that most who download music (even some who claim to live by this philosophy) do NOT truly live by it. When they’ve downloaded an album for “free” and then like it … do most of them really go out and buy it? I suspect that you are in the minority here, Daniel. (I would be much more willing to believe that the “sample” technique can help concert ticket sales.)


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