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I was speaking with an Iranian Exile who is one of the most popular artists in the entire middle east. His music is not legally allowed to be played in many countries but he says that nearly everyone in many countries has copies of his music they got from the black market. He get's no radio play and can't even appear in his home country because he's banned. But he's not bothered by it because when he goes to any of those countries where he's allowed to enter, his concerts always sell out (and we're talking large rooms). He just recently sold out the Kodak Theater here in the US. He's got a great attitude and he seems to be doing just fine financially on nothing more than ticket sales for the shows.

Something to consider however: The fuzzy logic that people use to say file sharing is fine and that it's not stealing should consider that sneaking into a concert without buying a ticket would be the same basic offense. And if everyone did that ALSO, then Andy wouldnt' have any way to make a living at all. You can tweak the concept of moral equivelency and suggest file sharing isn't stealing, but it's certainly the same thing as sneaking into a concert without buying a ticket. That hurts everyone involved as well. If everyone sneaks in, then there's no way to pay the sound guy or the janitor sweeping the floor or to replace the spotlight bulbs that burn out or the even pay for the power to plug everything in, not to mention the artist themselves. Far more than just the artist themselves suffers when music isn't paid for. And the affect of the theft trickles down well beyond just that artist/writer. It causes labels to sign less artists. That pushes high level artists down into the smaller venues and local scene. That pushes those artists out of those slots into the coffee houses and dive bars. Those performers there end up back at open mics and the open mics stop being a place for the entry level folks to cut their teeth. This really happens in the real world all because of file sharing. And because artists can't develop their skills anymore, a lot of great music isn't made and a lot of potentially great artists are never allowed to grow into that role.

File sharing has lots of negative unintended consequences that goes well beyond just dollars and cents.

Brian