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Links: Christian Music Filesharing
Posted by Steven Wu on Sunday, April 25 @ 15:21:04 EDT File Sharing
The New York Times has an interesting story about illegally downloading Christian music.
Christian teenagers are nearly as likely to download unauthorized files as their non-Christian peers. . . . [S]ome Christian fans might have a special incentive to download. The punk rocker who likes Relient K "doesn't feel comfortable going into a Christian bookstore," where the band's CD's are most readily found, he said.

Some Christians see file-sharing as consistent with their faith--especially with Christian music, for which downloading and uploading become high-tech ways of spreading the gospel. . . .

Christian performers might face a unique backlash if they came out against file-sharing.

"When you claim to be a Christian you're held to a higher standard, so if you say you need to have money, people will look down on that," he said. "It wouldn't bother me as much from a secular artist, who you expect to live in big mansions in California." . . .

Downloading Christian songs was still theft, he said, but "it's like stealing a Bible--why would someone have a problem with that?"

The most interesting thing about the article is its suggestion (replicated in the excerpts above) that the copynorms surrounding the downloading of Christian music are quite different from the copynorms surrounding the downloading of secular music. Has anybody yet addressed the larger issue that copynorms may shift depending on the genre of music?
 
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Re: Christian Music Filesharing (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Monday, April 26 @ 22:42:03 EDT
This is, indeed, an intriguing position. I'd have argued that permissive copying was more consistent with the overall theory of Christianity (if I may put it that way), although most Christian artists and performers I know in actual practice are just as possessive about their Copyrights as everyone else, mostly because they've bought into the "ideas as real property" meme. I once embarked upon (and have yet to complete) an essay, examining copyright from a Christian perspective, and was unable to find any strong biblical grounds for Copyright. It is within the power of a Copyright holder to make certain actions infringing or non-infringing; in some cases this translates to the difference between a criminal act and a legal act. Is it appropriate for a Christian (who believes himself to have been forgiven a great debt of sin) to create legal stumbling blocks for others? The parable of the unmerciful servant in Matthew 18 would appear to offer a strong guiding principle there.

If anyone can point to any other articles, similar to the NY Times article cited (which don't require a "login dance" to access), I'd appreciate it.


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Of course copynorms vary with genre (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Monday, May 03 @ 12:10:54 EDT
Two examples of copynorms varying by genre:

1) The hip-hop world is full of unauthorized bootlegs and mix-tapes. Much of hip-hop, after all, is based on sampling and finding new ways to remix or rearrange old songs and sounds to make new music. Although the record companies have tried hard to collect their royalties wherever possible, it seems like many big artists have no problem with mix-tapes circulating on the streets, since some of the biggest rappers regularly record mix-tapes that are never distributed by any method other than bootleg. Many of the biggest battles in hip-hop have been fought in the mix-tape arena.

2) The jamband genre (pioneered by the Grateful Dead and alive and well in the form of the Dead, Phish, String Cheese Incident, Galactic, etc.) has long encouraged fans to record and freely trade their live shows (as long as nobody makes money off of it). Some of these bands have lately dipped their fingers into the game with projects like livephish.com and sciontheroad.com, where you can buy any show directly from the band. But they almost all still allow "tapers." At most shows you'll still see an official section where the "tapers" (most of whom record to DAT or MD) all set up their gear--often including very high-end microphones perched high atop 10-20 foot stands to avoid crowd noise.


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Re: Christian Music Filesharing (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Wednesday, May 05 @ 14:56:53 EDT
Hello, I am an associate producer for a television program, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart in New York City. Currently, we are preparing a piece on file-sharing/illegal downloading of music, and I am specifically looking to interview someone who has downloaded Christian music and does not think that it is wrong. If you or anyone may be able to help me on this quest, I would be most appreciative. Thank you so much. I can be reached at csmith@thedailyshow.com
Sincerely, Campbell Smith


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