said by whiteyonenh :

"The relative cost of stealing a bar of soap from an hotel might be small, but if it came to seven million people nicking the soap each year, which is what we have in the music industry, I'm sure that hotel chain would do something about it."

Seriously, if someone nicks a bar of soap, it's no loss to the hotel chain, as they'd have to replace any bars of soap between check-in's anyways. Would you want to use some unknown person's bar of soap? Also, as far as the music industry goes, how do they even know that these people are customers to begin with, who says they'd buy their shitty music anyways?

said by whiteyonenh :

Seriously, if someone nicks a bar of soap, it's no loss to the hotel chain, as they'd have to replace any bars of soap between check-in's anyways. Would you want to use some unknown person's bar of soap?

said by wifi4milez :

I think he is probably referring to the unopened bars of soap. I guarantee you that the ones you dont use (still wrapped in plastic/paper) are not replaced when you leave. I agree that the analogy isnt the best for the very reasons you describe however.

said by BF69 :

So your logic is that if you wern't going to buy it you can steal it?

said by james :

No, his logic is that if you werent going to buy it, you can COPY IT.
Your logic seems to be that making a copy of something is the same thing as stealing even though stealing means no one else can buy the item you stole.

said by BF69 :

I want a song. I pay for it. I have it.

You want a song. You don't want to pay for it. You DO NOT

said by karlmarx :

Well, in your scenario, you are the communist

1 person is smart
1 person is not!

We are all basically capitalist here. and the GOAL of capitalism is to get the MOST amount of goods, for the LEAST amount of cost. So, if you are PAYING for something you can get for free, by definition, you are not a capitalist, thus, you must be a commie!

said by karlmarx :

...if you are PAYING for something you can get for free, by definition, you are not a capitalist, thus, you must be a commie!

said by BF69 :

So it's fair that I paid for the song and you got it for free just because you did not want to pay for it? Once again people like you have yet to explain the fairness of that.

said by mod_wastrel :

If you are not paying for something because you took it for free, by definition, you are still a thief.

said by BF69 :

Once again people like you have yet to explain the fairness of that.

said by james :

And I say if you're exploiting artists, lying about statistics and manipulating the market you're a thief. Here's a tip: the internet has made the middle-men and producers absolutely useless, and they're the ones who have been exploiting artists and shoving crap like the spice girls and boy-bands down our throats. Bands don't make money from CD sales or radio-play, that's just publicity for them so they can sell merchandise and seats in stadiums.

said by james :

So if I grow my own apples are you going to complain that I'm getting free apples?

said by KrK :

You're trying to change the argument. Is it fair you had to pay and they got to copy it? No, not really.

However, *just because* they copied it doesn't mean that anything was stolen. That's the point. You can't count a loss that you never suffered.

said by BF69 :

I mean how dare the labels spend millions of their dollars producing and promoting these artists and giving them millions of $ in advance with only small % chance of that investment actually returning results then have the balls to asked to be reimbursed and perhaps take a profit too? Those devils!