a) There will be no smack-talking about who has the best pizza when the OP is from... Chicago. Kay?
b) Some people here are under the impression that artists are all rich and downloading isn't taking from them. Mmmmm. Maybe back in the 90s that might have been kinda/somewhat true, but no longer. OK, if you want to steal Beyonce songs, she'll probably never notice. But for struggling bands that's money out of their hands.
Yes, digitalization means we need a new business model. Nobody can figure out what it is yet, though. Unless you're raking it in touring or you're licensing your songs for commercials.
That said, the other new threat to artists is things like Spotify. Problem being, they get paid literally fractions of pennies for airplay, which is unsustainable for them. Not sure what the answer there is, either.
Back to the OP: upping illegal downloading to felony status reeks of a) a DOJ that apparently has nothing better to do or b) a gov't that's really only acting at the behest of the industry.
Yeah, it's B, isn't it?
