So basically, because the record companies lobby government, the public should engage in illegal behaviour.
News flash: most of corporate America engages in lobbying -- many industries far more aggressively and successfully than music. So if you think the music industry should be shunned for engaging in this activity, why not be consistent and avoid taking aspirin, paracetamol (pharmaceuticals: avoid), avoid using toilet paper (yes, those evil consumer staples companies also vigorously lobby government!), throw away your bank cards, ditch your car, turn off the lights (energy companies, y'know)... you get the idea.
Two wrongs don't make a right. I agree that the corporate interests play too large a role in the formation of public policy, and skew the process for the worse. But liberal democracies give us a forum to address that problem; that being recourse to our elected representatives. What you're advocating is a selective and self-serving lynching of certain industries.
As I mention elsewhere, if you don't agree with the music industry's practices or prices, then you have the right not to purchase (and listen!) to the music. Nobody's forcing you to listen to music -- you do it out of your own free volition because you like it, it gives you pleasure, it, in other words, has value for you. If you feel so strongly about the evils of the music industry that you can't fathom subsidizing some Big Bad Label by buying a CD or download of your favourite artist, pick up a guitar and play that whenever you want to hear music. But don't come here with some hare-brained argument that by stealing music you're doing a "Good Thing". That's just self-serving bullshit.
News flash: most of corporate America engages in lobbying -- many industries far more aggressively and successfully than music. So if you think the music industry should be shunned for engaging in this activity, why not be consistent and avoid taking aspirin, paracetamol (pharmaceuticals: avoid), avoid using toilet paper (yes, those evil consumer staples companies also vigorously lobby government!), throw away your bank cards, ditch your car, turn off the lights (energy companies, y'know)... you get the idea.
Two wrongs don't make a right. I agree that the corporate interests play too large a role in the formation of public policy, and skew the process for the worse. But liberal democracies give us a forum to address that problem; that being recourse to our elected representatives. What you're advocating is a selective and self-serving lynching of certain industries.
As I mention elsewhere, if you don't agree with the music industry's practices or prices, then you have the right not to purchase (and listen!) to the music. Nobody's forcing you to listen to music -- you do it out of your own free volition because you like it, it gives you pleasure, it, in other words, has value for you. If you feel so strongly about the evils of the music industry that you can't fathom subsidizing some Big Bad Label by buying a CD or download of your favourite artist, pick up a guitar and play that whenever you want to hear music. But don't come here with some hare-brained argument that by stealing music you're doing a "Good Thing". That's just self-serving bullshit.