You know, I used to be one of the semi-little-big-shots, with gigs and gigs of crap that I ripped from the library's CDs, stole from Napster, got through email, got from FTPs, got through IRC, etc... but it got boring. Yeah, it was cool having new music to listen to. But I grew tired of everyone complaining about it being illegal. Companies screw over people in foreign countries making cheap, crappy wafers of silicon and copper (if you're lucky), and that's not illegal; record companies really fuck over the artists that have devoted followings but not screaming throngs of preppy little teenagers willing to pay $20 for 60 minutes of semi-techno crap... but what are we to do about it? What can we do? We can pirate! But that's illegal. And if the RIAA has any geeks working for them, they may find out a way to find each person that gets a certain song, and charge them royalties. BUT... there's mp3.com. I use them a lot. Classical -- no need to pay! Techno? No need to try to find the single copy of Play in the local Mega-Lo-Mart or Try'N'Save... I discovered drum'n'bass through mp3.com. The people there need talent or they're not making money. They've got something there called Payback for Playback. Each time a song gets downloaded, a small amount of money (10 cents, i think) is given to the artists. Each album? (albums are dual-session ECDs with audio tracks, then the mp3 tracks) The price of the album to the buyers! 100% Profits! People can (and have; i've seen the records there) make $5,000 a month! Certainly, that's not enough for a buttload of synthesizers and drum machines, or that antique violin the artists were looking for, but it takes so little time for the majority of these people to make this music, it can be a weekend-only thing and they can take another job during the week. The two-job income can be more than enough to live comfortably. So let's just understand that mp3.com doesn't pirate; it allows people that wouldn't ordinarily get a record contract (garage bands, basically) make enough money to get a leg-up in the industry... and that can be enough.