In fact, Finckenstein stated, “I cannot see a real difference between a library that places a photocopy machine in a room full of copyrighted material and a computer user that places a personal copy on a shared directory linked to a P2P service," He went on, "In either case the preconditions to copying and infringement are set up but the element of authorization is missing." This leaves the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) scrambling to mount an appeal hoping a higher judge with change the ruling.

For now, everyone who wishes to share their music on the internet may do so without fear of lawsuits or arrests. Whether this practice is right or wrong is beside the point. The music industry should take a long look in the mirror and move into the 21st century. Whether it was the fear of radio or blank cassettes, it seems the industry always needs to be bitch-slapped into facing the future. One of the major problems with large corporations (for music, 6 corporations basically run the industry) is its inability to change its formula for the distribution of its product. Smaller independent labels have embraced the internet where they offer artists’ music free for download on many music sites (to gain an audience and CD purchased as a result). Flexibility is not one of the large corporations’ traits and they will always need that little push. Canadians are there leading the shove.

What the music industry should realize is that they will never stop people from sharing everything from photographs, movies, books, or CDs. Even if they could, they must understand that the resulting world, internet or otherwise, is one of limiting freedom, policing citizens like they are some major form of criminal organization and just plain pissing-off people who are, in the end, their direct customers. The industry does not seem to understand that the music is not theirs to keep locked up in a closet only to be let out when the price is right. Copyright has its limits. They need to embrace the new technology and take a more subordinate role with music in general. They should give the consumer what it wants instead of forcing on him an out-of-date formula for distribution.

At present, websites such as puretracks.com and others are showing that the industry in not totally deaf to consumer wants. But it is just not good enough yet. So, to let the industry know exactly what they should do, me being the egotist that I am, as well as being a serious audiophile, here are my suggestions, free of charge (“free of charge”, what a concept!)

First, music listeners are sick of having to buy CDs at a cost of $20-$25 in order to hear what are essentially one or two songs that have been worked hard on and 10-12 songs that have not. The CD single has addressed this complaint in a minor way, but even $5 for a CD single is overpriced. W can download the song or songs for free and burn them on a CD for a minimal cost. So, to combat this, give us what we want. Either make a CD with all the songs of high quality (even if you have to reduce the tracks from 15 back down to the LP size of 10) or put the singles out on the internet at a reasonable cost.

Puretracks.com sells songs for a buck which is too high of a cost. Sorry not good enough. That would mean that a whole album would be $15 dollars and you haven’t even needed to put any effort into manufacturing and distributing a CD. The cost should be 25 cents. If we have to pay $15 for a downloaded version of an album, we will buy the CD itself instead (or take it free off the internet). The difference in cost ($15 instead of $20) is not enough to offset the time it will take us to download the music and burn it onto a CD or transfer it to an Mp3 player.

Second, as the providers of this music online, you must relieve us of our nervousness using a credit card. Paypal doesn’t cut it either. The complications from paypal and unease of punching in credit card numbers into a system that, although unlikely, can remove our money without our knowledge is not in anyway an incentive to purchase anything online, music or otherwise.

The solution, don’t make us pay online. Phone cards are a great way to buy time on a cellular network. You go into you local store and buy a $10 or $20 phone card, punch in the pin number and you can talk freely on you cell phone for any number of minutes. You could do this with music also. Give us a convenient place to buy a $10 music card that allows us to purchase songs for download after we punch in the appropriate pin number on our computer.

As the holders of a precious resource, the ability to put us in a joyous mood from listening to bop Ella-style, or a somber mood from Sinead, an angry mood from Metallica, or a sleepy mood from Air, you must stop making it so difficult for us to get exactly what we want, where and when we want it, all at a reasonable price. Otherwise, Kazaa and our local used record shops will continue to receive our patronage without much thought whether Sony, Universal or Capitol is losing 20% of its market.