Justification for Illegal Downloading?

Often on this site, I will recommend songs for download or physically upload songs for readers to "right-click-and-save as." Is this moral? Am I breaking ethical laws? Is this what the artist would want?

I'll never be able to put words inside an artist's mouth, but I will say this. For every song to which I point my readers in for downloading, I expect the reverse to happen. Take a penny, give a penny.

In my eyes, downloading music is like trying samples in a chocolate store. Some chocolates are crap, others are decent, some warrant me pulling out my credit card and buying silly amounts whilst rushing home to clear out my freezer to make room for inappropriate amounts of pimple-causers. Before, the chocolates were never free. Now, you get to steal a little taste and spit out the shit.

Getting back to giving that penny..... Let's match our physical "take" with an equal or greater "give." If you try that sample and can't get enough of it, buy the album. Enjoy the album art. Buy a t-shirt at the merch booth or online. Go to the concert when the musician is in town. Assuming the musician is of age, buy that musician a drink. If the musician is not of age, buy said musician two drinks. If the musician is living out of a van and has no place to sleep, offer them a shower and couch.

** Do not combine the offering of your house plus buying the musician drinks. Either you come off as a strange creep, or your house will turn into a deathrockparty2009dancefunkpalace. **

Downloading allows the user to avoid mistakes. Why buy an album if you cannot accurately judge from a 0:15 clip of the single that MTV briefly airs. I remember Blockbuster music would allow the customer to bring the music to the front counter, where the employee would open the CD, pop it in a player and hand you headphones. This would allow the customer to get a sample and decide on the purchase. The bigger guys aren't necessarily against this "sample" idea, they just want a hand in it. Why not download some tracks, and if you are blown away, refer to the previous paragraph and spend some cheddah.

Don't abuse the power that technology has given us to download at our leisure. Already the record companies want blood.

- Echo