What do you mean about "fair use?" "Fair use" is actually a term of art that has a very specific definition in the copyright arena. It was a poor title for the doctrine because its so susceptible to a lay interpretation of the words. And what exactly is not "playing fair" that they have done? Whatever "unfair" approaches that they have undertaken, the original problem was created by the end users violating copyright law.
My first comment was tongue-in-cheek. Now its turned into debating the merits of this issue. I don't really think there's anything to debate. How can it be argued that we should be permitted to have intellectual property for free? It can be argued that "everyone does it" and that its "not serious," but its clearly illegal and I don't think there are any good arguments as to why anyone should be entitled to this stuff for free.
I'm not arguing about it now because you had stated prior that this wasn't a holier than thou statement. That was the basis for the original argument.
I was merely stating as ways of unfair tactics provided by the RIAA and MPAA, regarding their legal terms basically bull heading people into proving a point. The justification of what they are doing to provide an outlet and scapegoat one person is incredibly stupid. I will state this again, prior to you saying tongue and cheek and not holier than thou, I had an issue. That issue no longer exists.
I know it's illegal, I knew it was illegal the day I downloaded the original Napster. My thoughts are contrived from this whole thing with the RIAA. A cd's worth is not 15 bucks and most times not even 10. The money paid for those cd's only go to a fraction of the actual artist. The artists, make money on the shows people attend. I would basically care to bet there certainly are bonuses to the artist involved if certain sell goals are met, which is why they would gripe. The quality of today's media is so garbage, and regurgitated, it's not even funny. Paying 15 dollars for a cd, that has 3 songs out of 15 worth listening to is even more crazy than just downloading it(prior and in some cases where people don't have a computer to use Itunes).
However, I do know it's illegal and understand the repercussions of what could happen. The original debate I had wasn't about if it was legal or not, it was about other people telling others it's illegal even though they have downloaded in the past. At this point in time, that argument is moot.