I have tons (well, 65.8 hours) of worship music on my computer, about 90% of which is pirated. Seriously, I have maybe seven or eight CD’s that are legitimately purchased copied down, and the rest is pirated, either from CD’s that other people let me copy, or from Limewire.
Does this make me a bad person? For those that are truly creating music for the Glory of God, wouldn’t they want that to reach as many people as possible? Didn’t Jesus turn over the money changers table for basically the same thing? Would the true worship leaders really mind my having their music for no monetary cost? Or is this a case of muzzling the ox while he’s treading the corn? A lot of the stuff I like isn’t carried at the music stores around here (but I suppose you can buy just about anything from Amazon).
That is my current dilemma. Thoughts anyone?
As far as I’m concerned pirating music is called stealing. It’s also against the law. Either makes it wrong. Whether it’s worship music or not does change that fact.
Being in possession of illegally downloaded music constitutes a sin in God’s eyes and is therefore not justifiable in any sense. Yes, Jesus did turn over the money changers’ tables, but he didn’t pocket their money in the process. Stealing money is exactly what you’re doing when you pirate an artist’s music.
Worship artists are also entitled, legally and otherwise, to be compensated for their work. Whether they care or not if somebody pirates their music is irrelevant. Stealing is stealing.
I don’t know you, but it sounds like you’re doing whatever you can to justify having stolen music. No one should ever attempt to justify a sin.
Rich’s comment was a bit harsh, albeit somewhat accurate.
Yes having pirated music is against the “law.”
Let’s ask Rick if he EVER received a cassette tape or a CD from someone that compiled a few songs for him. He didn’t buy the music. What about the DVD purchased from “the guy” at work? Oops, I guess that glass house is in trouble.
I am a guitarist and play in a praise band. There were times that I wanted to play a particular song by a Christian artist and couldn’t find the sheet music except for having to purchase their entire song book to get the one or two songs I wanted. A giant waste of money.
I praise God that there are musicians that video tape how they perform the songs for me to learn from (thank you YouTube.) It’s a shame that only a few Christian Artists are willing to freely share their music for other praisers and worshippers to enjoy.
It’s all about the money in the long run. Once their accountants get in the picture, “sharing” goes out the window.