Catching up with the music theftsters of the Internet

To the Editor:

So all the little thieves, cheaters, theftsters and music "sharers" are beginning to feel a little heat from the music industry ("Net music swappers fear wrath of industry, The San Francisco Chronicle, 25 July 2003). Great. It couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of whiner-babies.

These middle class babies are the first to assert their own property rights if a burgler enters their house or apartment with an eye to stealing their possessions, but they have been happy, even self-rightousess about sharing the creations of musicans without a penny of compensation.

Copyright infringement. moi? You say, "No problem?" Well, if you study the history of the French Revolution of 1789, the revolutionaries in a fit of euphoria decided that the copyright laws were too middle class, so they abolished them. Within a few years, the only literature being produced in France was either pornography or political tracts. So the French finally came to their senses and restored their copyright protections for authors, musicans and other creative persons.

If you don't want to pay the "high" prices of commercial CDs, go out and make your own music. Nobody is stopping you. And after you've gone to the trouble and effort to make and record your own music, you can "share" it with folks all over the world, with no compensation to you. Groovy, huh?

Yours truly,

James K. Sayre

25 July 2003