My article was titled “Copyright is Crucial for Culture” by Rick Carnes and Coley Hudgins off the LexisNexis database. This article discussed how important copyright is and how downloading is bad for the artists and record companies. Importantly, Carnes and Hudgins argued that “legal access to culture is cheaper, easier and more democratic than ever”. One example of this is “digital 45s” – which referred to vinyl records that spun at 45 rpm and were bundled with a hit single on one side and another single on the other side; they used to be a “bargain” at $1.99 in 1981. That is $4.72 in today’s dollars – yet Apple still offers two selected songs from the same artist for $1.99 or less – a real bargain compared to 1981.

Not only is the price cheaper, music today is easier to access. Most music can be browsed, sampled, and ordered from the convenience of one’s home. Thousands of tracks of music can be carried around in a devise that weighs only a few ounces! And to top it off – music can be streamed for free at sites like Pandora. “Culture has never been more convenient, and we're getting more of it for our money”.

All of these examples of how music is cheaper and easier to access than ever before in legal contexts, yet pirates today go beyond of all this by saying they should have the RIGHT to steal music: “Why is it now, when works of art have become so inexpensive and accessible, that some people do rhetorical gymnastics to rationalize their desire to have those works for free?” They are stealing content for which the artist only wants credit and download music tracks that they could stream for free.