[kalimus]

Originally Posted by CamaroSkooter

20 years ago music didn't suck nearly as much as it does now. You got a lot of quality music for what you paid. Now, the prices may have dropped a little, but the quality dropped a lot more.

Not to mention, I have very frequently seen CD's in stores, all priced exactly the same, some with 14 songs, others with 9, all with a run time of less than 30 minutes. Seriously?!

All justifications. Valid statements, but justifications all the same. Same can be said of almost any product you buy these days. Quality has declined on many things.

But let's go back to my example. If I bought the album first, and then downloaded it later to get the quality digital version, I'm still considered a "thief."

You didn't answer my question, but ok. This was not your original example. In this case, you have bought the tracks on that disc prior to downloading them. They are now yours. I wouldn't see any reason why you couldn't re-download those tracks as many times as you like.

I'm not sure what "quality digital version" you're talking about though, unless you're downloading lossless. If memory serves, you can rip lossless from disc anyway. Even before that, I ripped my CDs at 320kbs, which is still higher than most of the bit rates that downloaded songs are.

Sure, some might say why not just buy the digital version and download it from iTunes or Amazon or whoever. The problem there is, I've yet to find a digital distributer that doesn't include some form of Digital Rights Management attached to every music file they sell. This DRM always limits where the file can be transferred to and what type of device it can be played on.

I have never had this problem with DRM. Ever. I've only had an issue when trying to replay it on a different media player in its source format. I've never had an issue with burning MP3's to a CD (as MP3) and having them not play in a normal CD player. In fact, this is why DRM doesn't work, because you can burn it as an audio CD (vice MP3), and then rip it back to the drive like you would do with a standard CD, stripping the DRM from it.

Whereas I can purchase a CD and that CD will play on any and every CD player I stick it in. When the music industry figures out how to handle digital rights management in a non-invasive way that is much less hassle, I will be much more willing to quit "illegally" downloading music. But until then, I will continue with my ways.

You say "illegally" like what you're doing isn't illegal. It is. Just because you disagree with it doesn't make it any less so. That's what I do when I say "speed limit" That said, I agree that DRM is worthless. It's been pretty widely accepted that it doesn't do what it intends to do... not sure why the music company is still trying to push it. Lining someone else's pockets probably.

Disregard all the red. It really makes me "sound" so angry! Maybe I should try yellow. That's the color of a milk dud box, which is of course the most apologetic of the boxed candies...