If you've followed this site for any length of time, my opinions on intellectual property, DRM, and the music publishing cartel should be no secret. While I'll fully admit that the guy hanging out in the NYC subway hawking DVDs of the newest movie releases is a legitimate crime, I think that college kids who download the latest boy band music from file sharing sites or get their TV shows from BitTorrent instead of broadcast television are no real threat to the profits of music and television production corporations. I personally make it a point to check RIAA Radar before buying any music to ensure that I put no money into the pockets of the recording industry.
Last week, I bought a copy of MC Frontalot's new CD, Zero Day from his website. Although I have yet to receive the disc in the mail, I've been listening to it for about a week now because he makes DRM-free mp3 files available on his site.
What brought up the line of thought for this post is the fact that a couple years back, a friend of mine gave me a disc full of Frontalot's music. And I liked it. Since then, I've bought three Frontalot CDs, including one that was on the disc my friend had given me. That's three disc sales that Front has gotten that he wouldn't have without the "piracy". Although it's unrealistic to think that this happens every time, I think it does happen more than litigious corporations might imagine.
That's all I have to say about that.