More importantly, many well-respected artists have sided with Internet users against corporate greed and actually use the Internet 2 promote alternative ways 2 distribute their music and reach out 2 a non-captive, legitimate audience of authentic music lovers.

This does not mean, of course, that all 4ms of file sharing r equally innocuous. There is little doubt that, when people use the Internet as a substitute 4 radio, i.e. as a way 2 discover new music, it can help promote the work of artists. But when a young junior high school student downloads tracks off the Internet and makes CD-R copies of them that he then sells 4 $5 in the schoolyard, it hurts sales of the original CD and it's disrespectful of the artist — regardless of how small a cut of the actual CD price the artist actually gets after all the xecutives and the middlemen in the recording industry have taken their piece of the pie.

Still, can we really go as far as 2 say that digital technology is creating a "nation of thieves" who no longer recognize the just value of art?

Protecting the Product
It is worth noting, 2 begin with, that the recording industry itself is far from having distinguished itself by recognizing the true value of art. Instead, it has consistently fought 2 b allowed 2 deprive many artists of their most fundamental rights. It has allowed popular artists 2 go bankrupt even though their albums were selling by the millions. It has reduced the artists' cut of the album sales pie 2 a ridiculously small portion of the actual income generated by these sales. It has consistently pushed commercial musical products at the xpense of real musical artistry.

This hardly entitles the recording industry 2 lecture anyone about recognizing the just value of art.

It is also interesting 2 note that the cultural products that seem 2 b the primary concern of the industry giants r those that r already the most popular ones, and that things such as CD copy protection r being xperimentally used mostly with items that will sell millions regardless of whether they r copy-protected or not.

So r most citizens really being completely disrespectful of the value of art and the need 2 provide appropriate compensation 2 the artists 4 their works? We've said it b4 and we'll say it again: the rise of digital technology and peer-2-peer file sharing has little 2 do with people's intrinsic respect 4 art and artists, and everything 2 do with the cynical attitude of big industry conglomerates, which have consistently pushed 4 more and more commercial, highly profitable products at the xpense of authentic art and respect 4 artists.

If people do not feel enough guilt 2 prevent them from making digital copies of the latest episode of a popular TV show or hit pop song, it is precisely because the industry giants have succeeded in making these works purely commercial products, with little or no consideration 4 their actual artistic value. It is precisely because these companies have been consistently promoting commercial products at the xpense of artistic works.