Legal & Ethical Questions in the PC Audio Age

Poverty is a really bad thing and people shouldn't do it!

Seriously - I know (I hope) when I'm committing illegal act like unauthorized copying of CD or driving 56mpg in 55mpg zone but we have to remember that we are buying from the crooks who in collude are setting very high prices of CDs. Free competition is a joke. I remember investigation started by one of TV channels on the price of the cornflakes. And then suddenly there was complete silence. Was TV station paid or threaten? One should be as honest as possible and if not - should be at least true to himself and admit it but on the other hand we live between crooks of such scale that all our wrongdoings are pretty much like driving 56mpg in 55mpg zone.

Did you notice that SACDs (impossible to copy) are in order of $30 while manufacturing cost the same as regular CD. Should music be only privilege of some but not all people. I know that we need only water and food to live (everything else is want) but I don't consider it living.

Well I didn't think I would start a big discussion but I do appreciate the concerns everyone is showing. I suspect that in our modern society the problem has something to do with our fundamental values and the ease with which you can get away with something in a big city where you don't deal with the same people everyday, as you would in a small town.

Today money equates to self esteem much more than the pride of doing the right thing or behaving honorably. Advertisers constantly emphasize and brainwash us that what we buy is what defines us - perfume, watch, whisky, car, cellphone.

The pro sports player seems to feel quite justified if he/she gets away with a dirty tactic and wins. The fans may even cheer a dirty shot. Although not new there is something unsettling about this swing in modern behavior. In the past playing like a sportsman was so highly regarded nobody dared cheat if there was ever the slightest chance of getting caught. Now there is so much emphasis about winning that even our kids feel the pressure - and they are on the slippery slope at a very young age playing their video games where you can shoot people and there are no consequences (and you can find cheats online to each game). From Nancy Kerrigan being attacked in 1994 with a bar to steroid doping in many major sports it points to an "ends justify the means" mentality (as we no longer value the means) It is ok to cheat if you win! If a Hockey Dad needs to abuse the referee then that is what it sometimes takes to win!

However, there is hope with some fine people showing us the way !

Frank, thanks for your well written reply. Overall, I tend to agree with you. It's a shame more folks don't think that way about ethics, it would make the world a better place to live.

Cheers,
John

Yes my tone was sarcastic. Yes, I own a computer, stereo, cds, tv, etc. and I am as unethical as the next guy. It's just that with all the terrible injustices in this country and the world, I find it very hard to get worked up about giving away cds.

To me, for one example, hard drug dealers are thousands of orders of magnitude worse than people who give away copies of cds. When the drug dealers are all dead or in prison, and all the stealing, robbing, killing, violence, fear, poverty, human exploitation and moral degradation they cause has subsided, then I will consider shedding some tears for the Rock stars and record companies.

Next, yes there is enough food in the world to feed everyone and how to get it to the people who need it without destroying the local economy and making people dependent on charity is a serious problem. But there are charities that work on this problem ethically and effectively.

I don't consider myself to be a highly ethical person or a role model for anyone. I am as flaweded as anyone on this list. I just thought I'd try to put the problem under discussion into some perspective and maybe redirect some of that moral indignation toward more serious injustices.

Kijanki,
Ethical relativism is still equivocating(sp?). Ethical behavior tries to avoid such things, such as saying well this is much worse. Do we all do things that are less than examplary, probably to some extent. It is the willingness not to that moves the bar towards a better world, not the thought that these scoundrals, thieves and worse are much, far more, worse than me.
Not claiming any ethical high ground just postulating a view that perhaps one can move towards, including me.