Not to argue PJazz, but so a "millionaire" buys the rights of a tune, his ownership of that property is of less value than anyone else property? I Illustrate, a small time poor farmer owns 100 acres of land and works hard to feed his family from that land, passes it on to his children, and many years later they have lost interest in working that farm, they walk away and a major farming corporation "snatches" it up in a tax sale, is it right to steal the produce from that farm just because the original owner no longer has ownership of it? Is not that corporation afforded the right to protection by the law for the investment in that property?

i agree with you that downloading a copy of a product like sheet music that you already own seems fair. Also if you play a tune in ASCAP or BMI, then the royalties are being legally paid. The intent of copyright law may have been to protect the composer, but that law has been extended or modified to include the owner of those rights and allows the sale or purchase of said rights, just like the sale or purchase of the above mentioned real estate property.

Because a law does not make sense to us does not make it less of a law. sure there are "dumb laws" but copyright infringement is no where near something like "It is illegal to wear a fake mustache that causes laughter in church." or "You may not fish on a camel’s back." I have downloaded may of the free midi files that include melodies, but i don't keep the melodies in tact, as i don't want the melodies to play behind the track bed. I use them because i can make a decent cover, most of which i add and subtract tracks to make them some what unique. I also do not play them for the public, or sell recordings of them i enjoy them at home. if I were to play them out at a venue i would either join BMI and pay the royalty fees or play at a venue that already does.

As far as the respect for PG goes i think common sense dictates that it is fine to have a discussion about these things, but the line may be drawn somewhere around posting copyright protected material, or posting the same materials on their forums.

and hey Mario if they arrest you for playing copyright protected songs for your wife and dog then we may end up being cell mates, hope we get a file in our cake and we make a run for the border like lefty and poncho!

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