The moral questions that arise out of issues of copyright, downloading music &c. are interesting and complex. So it would be a shame to leave the discussion at the point it ended in today’s workshop. In particular, it worries me that many seem to hold the view that we can make no clear moral distinctions between different cases of copyright violation (i.e. violation from the point of view of copyright law).
Consider two (rather caricatured) cases of potential copyright violation:
Person X, who is rather well off, downloads music by a little-know and financially struggling artist, who has expressed disapproval of people downloading their music.
Person Y, a student with no source of income, is lent a copy of an album by a popular and financially successful artist who has endorsed download of their music.
Now both of these may count as copyright violation. This is surely a problem; the copyright law may be unjust. But there are moral problems on all sides – for the artists, for the law, and for the fan/consumer. If we cannot see any moral differences between the actions of persons X and Y, we are not looking hard enough.
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