Some words from the trenches
I quite like to download a tune here and there simply because there is damn little way to become acquainted with a variety of artists—at least not from the highly formatted radio stations. But, I do not care for the usually low quality MP3s. I find an album I want to listen to, and I buy the CD. I love online/free books for the same reason. Especially with high $$ technical/reference/text books, I want a dead tree. Hell, I've bought the real thing at $50–$80 when I already had the full text on my hard drive.
For the musicians point of view, see http://janisian.com/article-internet_debacle.html and consider the Grateful Dead's policy of encouraging people to record their concerts and share those recordings with others.
cheers,
gary
Biting the hand that feeds IT
