Daniel Mount (www.southerngospelblog.com) has posted a great article about piracy in Southern Gospel music with insights from the artists here:
http://www.southerngospelblog.com/archives/310?
Daniel makes many excellent points in his article and I highly recommend that you check it out. Below are my thoughts on the issue:
I’ve had the opportunity to be around many local groups that instead of selling their product, they give it away and tell people to feel free to burn and distribute copies as the see fit. This action can lead people to think that this practice is common for all artists and they don’t realize that they are actually committing a crime. They see these Christian artists freely sharing their music and think that full-time artists can do the same. You’ll have to understand that where I live, there are MANY local artists that only sing part-time and they are in financial positions where they do not depend on income from sales to keep the group on the road………never mind that most of the projects are low quality and probably cost at most $1000-1500 to get the completed recording in hand.
It is hard to get people to realize that copying a CD or sharing digital files isn’t really spreading the gospel. These people truly believe it is and they sometimes refuse to accept that it is an unethical practice, let alone illegal. They usually feel that they are doing some good deed by giving a copy of a recording to someone, but basically they are doing nothing more than telling people that they have no regard for the law and that Christians can break that law by stealing from SG artists so that someone doesn’t have to shell out fifteen bucks for a CD…….not a good witness, IMO.
I believe ignorance of the law is no excuse and that people that try to play the ignorance card are just as accountable for their actions as those who willfully break the law. I certainly have no problem correcting people that feel the need to “share” Christ through illegal file-sharing. I’ve had people contact me and argue that there is nothing wrong with this practice because some albums are out of print and not available for purchase any more. I can’t count the number of people that ask me for copies of some of my older projects. They even get irate when I refuse to take part in sharing my files. Some people can’t grasp the fact that the law is the law.
It seems that lately, there have been a number of older CD projects popping up for sale on eBay. I’ve won a few auctions myself, only to be disappointed by the fact that the artwork is an obvious reprint and the CD inside is nothing more than a CD-R that someone has burnt from the original. Along those same lines,? a local seller of SG music recently had a stockpile of older projects available for sale in their store. I questioned where they were purchased and the store owner, whom I’ve known for many years, gave me the name of the company that is distributing the CDs, which were obviously not the original releases. I was able to get the distributors contact information, so I called them up. They claim to have the rights to the original masters of the projects, so they were re-releasing them to the public. I also asked to be put in contact with someone from the company to further question them on these “re-releases” that they were producing. I wasn’t really surprised when no one would return my calls and I couldn’t get past a receptionist while making my inquisitions.
I can’t say for sure that this company is doing anything wrong, but it certainly makes me question them because no one would return my calls to discuss.
If you’re not certain on where I stand on this practice, here it is. Illegal file-sharing is WRONG! It takes away from the artist’s ministry, plus, it takes away from the participant’s witness and testimony for Christ. DON’T DO IT!
Again, please visit www.southerngospelblog.com to read Daniel Mount’s article on Piracy in Southern Gospel music. Excellent topic, Daniel!!!
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