I have some live recordings of concerts I downloaded free on the net, without permission from the musician. Is it a sin to keep them if the musician wouldn’t have made money anyway? I have the studio versions of the songs which have a studio version, and I paid for them.
I hesitate to use the word “sin” unless I know a lot more about the situation than you’ve provided here.
Questions I would need to have answered are:
- Who uploaded the recordings? Did the artist or his agent upload the recording or was it some fan who recorded a concert he/she attended? If it was a fan without the authorization of the artist or his agent, then you could have a problematic situation.
- If the music was uploaded with the consent of the artist, are you complying with the site’s terms of service. For example, on YouTube, there are some videos that may be downloaded. However, if YouTube does not provide you with a “download” button, you are not allowed to download the video with some third party tool – you are only allowed to stream it (see TOS 5b).
- Is the music covered by copyright law or has the copyright expired on the music.
I recognize that there are some, but not all, artists who use online distribution as a method to generate revenue, That makes it a little more complex than a simple “yes” or “no” answer.
Granted, chances are that you have violated the artist’s intellectual property rights, which is a form of theft. But before getting worked up, I think it would be prudent to do a little research.
The other thing you could do is to ask. You could write the artist or his publisher and ask if you may download that music – and if any compensation is needed (and if so, how much?). If they write back and say it’s OK, you’re in the clear. If they write back and say “no,” then you could just delete the files.
In the future, you should do some research and ask some questions before deciding to download something so you don’t violate the intellectual property rights of somebody.
But before automatically declaring something to be sinful, we need to look at intent. Running a person over with a car is certainly grave matter, but it is only a sin if you intend to run that person over with a car. If you honestly did not know that what you were doing was wrong, then I would think that calling it “sinful” would be sort of rash. You should still fix the situation (either delete the file or ask if it’s OK and then comply with what you are told), but calling it “sin” is another matter altogether.
