Dumb Friend?

[hlmem]

I was speaking to a friend of mine about MP3s and how it is wrong to copy music.

His reply to me which I wasn’t sure if it was joke or if he was serious but he said to me, “Well, Jesus took one loaf of bread and made it last for more the one person. So in a sense he “copied” it for everyone to enjoy and the original seller didn’t get the money”

What do I say to this?

 

[Catholic_Dude]

I was speaking to a friend of mine about MP3s and how it is wrong to copy music.

His reply to me which I wasn’t sure if it was joke or if he was serious but he said to me, “Well, Jesus took one loaf of bread and made it last for more the one person. So in a sense he “copied” it for everyone to enjoy and the original seller didn’t get the money”

What do I say to this?

With logic like that your friend is better off taking a $20 bill, making multiple copies of it and “buying” the music he is looking for.

(p.s. for those who cant take a joke, Im fully aware counterfeiting is a serious crime and am not suggesting anyone do it)

 

[Liberian]

His reply to me which I wasn’t sure if it was joke or if he was serious but he said to me, “Well, Jesus took one loaf of bread and made it last for more the one person. So in a sense he “copied” it for everyone to enjoy and the original seller didn’t get the money”

Your friend’s logic sounds like that of a court that decided that a farmer was engaged in interstate commerce because he fed his own hay to his own cows. Had he not used his own hay, the court ruled, he might have bought hay from a provider in another state.

It also reminds me of the short-lived attempt by the Clinton administration to tax “imputed income”–the idea being that if you didn’t have a house payment (for example), that was extra money that you weren’t spending and so could be taxed like income.

If you want to press the point, Jesus received the bread in question as a gift. But even if you don’t, the bread seller was selling a set number of loaves of bread, not “sustenance for X people for Y days.” The music seller, on the other hand, is selling not the physical medium carrying the MP3 but rather the bit pattern that constitutes the music. It is the fruit of the creativity rather than that of the physical labor that was bought and sold.

• Liberian

 

[VociMike]

I was speaking to a friend of mine about MP3s and how it is wrong to copy music.

His reply to me which I wasn’t sure if it was joke or if he was serious but he said to me, “Well, Jesus took one loaf of bread and made it last for more the one person. So in a sense he “copied” it for everyone to enjoy and the original seller didn’t get the money”

What do I say to this?

I say your friend must be really desparate to continue his activities with a clear conscience.

But really, if God starts passing around mp3s, that would be His perogative. He did create everything in the universe, after all. Similarly, your friend is free to copy anything that is his sole and complete creation.

 

[teachccd]

I was speaking to a friend of mine about MP3s and how it is wrong to copy music.

His reply to me which I wasn’t sure if it was joke or if he was serious but he said to me, “Well, Jesus took one loaf of bread and made it last for more the one person. So in a sense he “copied” it for everyone to enjoy and the original seller didn’t get the money”

What do I say to this?

I would ask your friend if he wouldn’t mind others invading his resources that he uses to support himself or his family. In the story of Jesus and the multiplication of the loaves, Jesus gave His life back to the seller of the original loaf. Is your friend willing to do that? I’m sure that your friend’s question was in jest, however. God bless.

 

[carol_marie]

I would say you’ve chosen an accurate thread title.

 

[ricko]

The loaf of bread did not have a copyright on it, the music does.

 

[GoldenArrow]

I got in trouble in the confessional once. Story goes like this:

I confessed, “Father, I don’t know if this is a sin or not … probably not … but I have some pirated software on my computer.”

The priest says to me: “That’s a crime.”

“Are you sure?”

“You could go to jail for that.”

I say, “REEAALLY? Are your*** really sure*** it’s a sin? After all, it’s just a bunch of ones and zeroes.”

He says, “I’m sure because I’m a Software Engineer.”

In my shock, all I could say was, “Oh.”

He then proceeds to lecture me — something I deserved for arguing with my confessor — by saying that One’s and Zero’s are a language, just like English, and that stealing software is the same as stealing someone’s unpublished book and then distributing it with out the author’s permission. This argument touched my heart because I also like to write, and I actually have in my possession an unpublished science fiction manuscript that I authored.

I told him, “I’ll go home and take it off my computer tonight.”

I did just that. Immediately after confession, I pulled into the parking lot of Staples, tires squealing. I ran in, sweat dribbling down my face. I frantically found a salesman and asked him, I need Photoshop and Illustrator. That night, I spent 1100 dollars getting licensed copies of Photoshop and Illustrator. Nice thing was … it came with the full version of Adobe Acrobat reader and InDesign.

Tell your friend the same thing this priest told me: One’s and Zero’s are a LANGUAGE used to express copyrighted information, and that stealing Ones and Zeroes is the same as stealing someone’s song and distributing it without their permission. It’s a violation of creative rights.

God Bless!

P.S. Thank you, Father David, for being a GOOD confessor. I am glad that you were hard on me. I needed harsh words that day, and you saved my soul. God bless you!

P.P.S. To confessors: don’t be afraid to tell things the way they really are to your penitents. Sometimes we need a good swift kick!

 

[tparsons]

Here’s an interesting take. Back in the 70’s 80’s and 90’s and to this day we had and have cassette recorders. Now if you purchased the original vinyl (LP) and recorded it on to a cassette so that you could listen to it in the car or on a portable casette player would that be the same as downloading the mp3 from that exact LP only now it’s in a mp3 format and burning it to CD? Not that I’m advocating this but it is an interesting thought.

 

[SeekerJen]

Here’s an interesting take. Back in the 70’s 80’s and 90’s and to this day we had and have cassette recorders. Now if you purchased the original vinyl (LP) and recorded it on to a cassette so that you could listen to it in the car or on a portable casette player would that be the same as downloading the mp3 from that exact LP only now it’s in a mp3 format and burning it to CD? Not that I’m advocating this but it is an interesting thought.

I think if you actually pay for the music and then copy it to another format that is easier for you to use, it’s not a problem. The problem comes in when you start distributing copies for others to use without paying for them. So if you bought the file on, say, iTunes, converted it to mp3 and burned it onto a CD so you could listen in your car, no big deal. You bought it, it’s yours. If you burn a bunch of copies and give them to all your friends so they don’t have to buy it, then there’s a problem.

Of course, the above all goes out the window if you didn’t pay for the mp3 in the first place. In that case, it’s stealing, whether you give copies away or not. The original file isn’t really yours.

 

[tparsons]

I think if you actually pay for the music and then copy it to another format that is easier for you to use, it’s not a problem. The problem comes in when you start distributing copies for others to use without paying for them. So if you bought the file on, say, iTunes, converted it to mp3 and burned it onto a CD so you could listen in your car, no big deal. You bought it, it’s yours. If you burn a bunch of copies and give them to all your friends so they don’t have to buy it, then there’s a problem.

Of course, the above all goes out the window if you didn’t pay for the mp3 in the first place. In that case, it’s stealing, whether you give copies away or not. The original file isn’t really yours.

Gotcha!..That’s what I was thinking.

 

[Giovanna]

I was speaking to a friend of mine about MP3s and how it is wrong to copy music.

His reply to me which I wasn’t sure if it was joke or if he was serious but he said to me, “Well, Jesus took one loaf of bread and made it last for more the one person. So in a sense he “copied” it for everyone to enjoy and the original seller didn’t get the money”

What do I say to this?

Tell him that P2P files don’t feed the hungry.

P.S. He’s misguided. No need to call him “dumb”.