Tinroad: A complex issue for me.
I agree that this is a sorry state of affairs. I have had my work literally pirated by bootleggers in the Far East, Long Island and Trinidad! It really hurt when I proposed re-issuing an LP by legendary bassist Chuck Rainey as a CD, and he matter-of-factly told me that he'd been autographing "that" CD for years on his annual trips to Japan! So yes, I am somewhat poorer because of that kind of piracy.
My feelings are mixed about Napster, however. Much of the music available was recorded before the inception of the SR (Sound Recording) copyright law, some is in the public domain (more than 56 years old), and some is remixes of music that has been intentionally made available by the creators of those mixes. New music, available as singles on Napster might actually be driving demand for the complete collections available in stores.
I don't even want to touch the subject of the inequitous relationship between artist and the labels. Many of those artists, who are embittered by not receiving ANY compensation for their performances, owing to the "recoupable production costs" concept, seem to enjoy the fact that people are taking their songs from Napster. Suffice to say that the old system needs to be overhauled so as to make the distribution of the wealth more equitable.
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