>>I say downloading an MP3 and keeping it for more than 7 days on your computer is illegal. Plain and simple, there is NOTHING to justify stealing Copyrighted material.
>
>IF the MP3 is Copyrighted, I agree with you. But again, what's the difference between Napster and radio stations? I can record the songs from the radio. Should we ban radios?

The difference is that the radio station has paid a license fee to use the music, Napster hasn't.

I can use the same analogy with my book: the library can buy a copy (or I can even donate one) and hundreds of people can check it out. I got my royalties on that copy--I'm satisfied. Perhaps others who check it out will buy it, thereby selling more more copies. This is the radio station concept. I can also make sample chapters available for free, hoping that people will like it and want more so they'll buy the book -- like a musician making an MP3 of one track of an album available for free hoping to sell the whole album. And, like most who hang out here, I'll answer questions for free--essentially writing little articles or sections of chapters. That's like a recording artist who creates original MP3's to give back to society, not prostitute himself, be discovered, be original -- whatever their reasons.

But under no circumstances do I want the .CHM of my book freely downloadable, just so somebody doesn't have to pay the cost of the book. While I didn't write the book with the expectation that I'd become rich, I certainly didn't write it without expecting to be compensated. I think the solution with Napster (and it's spinoffs) is to find a mechanism to restrict uploading of copywritten songs to the artist/publisher--then the artist/publisher is in control. If the artist/publisher want to give it away, they can. HOW that mechanism works, or how to enforce it, I don't know. An additional solution for the "for pay" MP3s is to make them VERY reasonably priced -- $1 or less, perhaps even .25 a song --
heck, I'd buy A LOT more music than I do now (which is next to none). So would my kids.

FWIW, I didn't really think about it until I had my own copyrighted work. Now I have definite opinions <s>.

- della