The San Francisco Chronicle editorializes in support of file-sharing theft of copyrighted materials over the Internet.

The Editor

The San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco, California

To the Editor:

Your recent lead editorial, "Headphone cops," (The Chronicle, March 29) was a real hoot. In it you suggest that theft and stealing is fine if it is done over the Internet under the euphemistic guise of "sharing." How would you feel if someone put two quarters into one of your street vending boxes and took out a dozen copies of The Chronicle and shared them with friends, neighbors and passersby? You would undoubtedly call that act stealing and then try to have the perpetrator arrested and prosecuted. If someone walks into a Safeway grocery store and tries to "share" the food without paying for it, they will will arrested for theft. If someone walks into a bookstore and takes several copies of books published by your Chronicle Press without paying for them, then they are thieves. It would seem to matter whose ox is being gored...

Your editorial then absurdly states, "For years, however, there wasn't any choice..." (but to steal music via file-sharing over the Internet). Excuse me, exactly when were music producers required to sell their products over the Internet? Pray tell who passed that particular law?

There are many juvenile rationalizations for this massive ongoing file-sharing theft on the Internet: "Oh, CDs are too expensive," "It's easy," "It's a rip-off, man," "Somebody bought a copy..." Well, it isn't yours, it belongs to the copyright holder, fair use excepted; however, free distribution to thousands of non-payers hardly can be construed to be "fair use." If you don't want to pay for someone else's copyrighted music, go make and record your own music, no one is stopping you (and there is the additional bonus: it will be your copyrighted property, from the moment you create it!).

Yours truly,

James K. Sayre

29 March 2005

End.

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