#25 Argh! Piracy!

Yes, I still use CDs and I often burn my own mix CDs for the car. I even (gasp!) burn an entire album onto a CD-R so that my original purchased copy can be retained snuggly at home in its appropriate case, not having to face the risk of scratching and my own clumsiness. I guess since I was in high school and beginning college I've been fairly comfortable with burning music (as well as other files) onto CD; I've never found it too much of a challenge, but keeping all of my music files organized and appropriately labeled has sometimes been annoying.

I personally think the "music business," and the Recording Industry Association of America in particular, needs to get with the times. As a librarian I believe in giving credit where credit is due and certainly want to protect the rights of intellectual property holders; but, I also believe that our understanding of ownership (especially diffuse ownership in the age of the web) and the processes of recording human creativity and ingenuity have totally changed over time. I find the RIAA's position to often protect the recording industry and record labels over the rights of artists and musicians; it isn't a surprise that several artists (notably Radiohead and Trent Reznor) are circumventing recording labels entirely and making money from their craft by mobilizing online distribution of music and music-associated paraphernalia (such as t-shirts, collectible sets, booklets, etc.). I'm certainly not a pirate - but I understand that until the recording industry can learn to better compete with, challenge, or make use of (often illegal) online music distribution, that the debate (and alleged problems) will not cease.