"Edith Frost(Edith Frost, Roller-skating enthusiast)":http://edithfrost.com/ made a "very interesting post(Edith Frost - Some sort of statement)":http://www.edithfrost.com/archive/2003/08/01-some_sort_of_state.html on her site concerning her feelings about filesharing. Pretty much everyone has "weighed in(Boy on a Bike - RIAA)":http://www.anklebiter.net/log/archives/000128.html on it, so I'll just briefly state what I think. I own a lot of CDs. A LOT. I went on a bit of a buying spree at some point, so I now have a decent sized collection to show for it. Consider that they each cost a minimum of $14, and I probably have purchased at least 500 total, and that's around $7,000 that I've spent on CDs alone (I won't even bother to think about tapes). How much of that music did the actual artists get? "Not much":http://www.negativland.com/albini.html, apparently. Nevermind the fact that CDs cost about $1 to make en masse and the price for CDs is outrageous. So, at this point I don't feel bad at all about downloading music to see if I'm interested in it. If I like it, I'll go see the artist on tour (or buy CDs directly from them, if possible), in order to support them as much as possible, since they are truly exploited by major labels for in many cases doing what they love.

I don't like the idea of supporting labels that are forcing their musical tastes on people. Just because it's on MTV "doesn't mean it's good(My rant about MTV and selective video playing)":http://www.plastic.com/comments.html;sid=01/08/06/1635210;pid=2;cid=6. Find music you like, "avoid the RIAA(RIAA Radar on MetaFilter)":http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/27125 if possible, and support the artists as best you can.