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Is downloading music freely from the internet wrong in terms of biblical morality?

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  • #16
    Thanks to all those who gave their opinions on this.

    I will now painfully delete all my music. (I might buy it on the internet once I get a credit cart though.)
    -The universe begins to look more like a great thought than a great machine.
    Sir James Jeans

    -This most beautiful system (The Universe) could only proceed from the dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being.All variety of created objects which represent order and Life in the Universe could happen only by the willful reasoning of its original Creator, whom I call the Lord God.
    Sir Isaac Newton

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    • #17
      Originally posted by GioD View Post
      It depends on your broader view of intellectual property in general, with it being wrong if you accept the existence of intellectual property and it being acceptable if you deny it. I actually avoid downloading free music when the artist doesn't want me to (I'm also a vinyl junkie) but don't see anything wrong with it as I reject IP.
      I have a hard time accepting this reasoning. Regardless of what one thinks of IP (I reject it as a legitimate concept as well) it is still a fact that downloading copyrighted music is illegal in most countries, personal opinion notwithstanding. I would assert that as long as copyright laws do not go against any teaching of the Bible we as Christians have no right to disregard them, even if we'd reject the concept on which they are based as illegitimate.

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      • #18
        what about music / other content posted on youtube ?

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        • #19
          Originally posted by Quantum Weirdness View Post
          Seriously, I want to know. Would it be stealing as defined by the bible?
          No it would not be stealing.
          It's not even considered stealing under civil law (though it is illegal).
          If it is immoral, it would be so for some reason besides being theft.
          But I'm not sure what that reason would be.

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          • #20
            Originally posted by Joel View Post
            No it would not be stealing.
            It's not even considered stealing under civil law (though it is illegal).
            If it is immoral, it would be so for some reason besides being theft.
            But I'm not sure what that reason would be.
            piracy.

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            • #21
              Originally posted by Joel View Post
              No it would not be stealing.
              It's not even considered stealing under civil law (though it is illegal).
              If it is immoral, it would be so for some reason besides being theft.
              But I'm not sure what that reason would be.
              It's immoral for Christians simply because it's breaking the law.
              It would be different if intellectual property laws we're somehow in opposition to biblical ethics/morals somehow, in which case it could be argued that the Christian thing to do would be to oppose them, but I have a hard time seeing how one could argue that case.

              So in short, until IP laws change downloading music/videos/games illegally from the internet will be immoral for Christians.

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              • #22
                Originally posted by Sparko View Post
                piracy.
                Piracy is robbery and violence on the high seas. That's how it's used in the U.S. Code as well. As far as I know, civil law does not refer to violations of copyright law as "piracy". That use of the word is modern slang, and is misleading at best. Inventing the new definition for "piracy" is a marketing tool to portray the defined thing as something bad, and doesn't actually make it immoral.

                Originally posted by Chrawnus View Post
                It's immoral for Christians simply because it's breaking the law.
                It would be different if intellectual property laws we're somehow in opposition to biblical ethics/morals somehow, in which case it could be argued that the Christian thing to do would be to oppose them, but I have a hard time seeing how one could argue that case.

                So in short, until IP laws change downloading music/videos/games illegally from the internet will be immoral for Christians.
                I'm not convinced that that is a good biblical interpretation. I see no biblical reason to think that states have the power to alter morality (to make moral things immoral or immoral things moral).

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                • #23
                  zoom right over yer hed. ARRR!

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                  • #24
                    Originally posted by Chrawnus View Post
                    It's immoral for Christians simply because it's breaking the law.
                    It would be different if intellectual property laws we're somehow in opposition to biblical ethics/morals somehow, in which case it could be argued that the Christian thing to do would be to oppose them, but I have a hard time seeing how one could argue that case.

                    So in short, until IP laws change downloading music/videos/games illegally from the internet will be immoral for Christians.
                    Let me get this straight : if it is unlawful then it is un-christian?
                    i hope that moral is above law. This is a very slippery slope.

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                    • #25
                      Thought Paul was saying that we needed to be good citizens. Didn't he talk in other letters about there being a difference between getting in trouble for being bad and being good? I don't know... Computers didn't exist back then!
                      If it weren't for the Resurrection of Jesus, we'd all be in DEEP TROUBLE!

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                      • #26
                        Originally posted by Ferodaktyl View Post
                        Let me get this straight : if it is unlawful then it is un-christian?
                        i hope that moral is above law. This is a very slippery slope.
                        No slippery slope is necessary if the understanding is that Christians are to obey the law unless doing so directly causes them to violate a tenet of Christianity. So if the Nazi German government is compelling you to not hide Jewish refugees in your basement, you don't have to obey that law. On the other hand, there is no biblical right to download free music so there is nothing wrong with having to obey that law.
                        "I am not angered that the Moral Majority boys campaign against abortion. I am angry when the same men who say, "Save OUR children" bellow "Build more and bigger bombers." That's right! Blast the children in other nations into eternity, or limbless misery as they lay crippled from "OUR" bombers! This does not jell." - Leonard Ravenhill

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                        • #27
                          Originally posted by KingsGambit View Post
                          No slippery slope is necessary if the understanding is that Christians are to obey the law unless doing so directly causes them to violate a tenet of Christianity. So if the Nazi German government is compelling you to not hide Jewish refugees in your basement, you don't have to obey that law. On the other hand, there is no biblical right to download free music so there is nothing wrong with having to obey that law.
                          This.

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                          • #28
                            On the other hand, there is no biblical right to download free music so there is nothing wrong with having to obey that law.
                            St. Kevin of MacLeod said differently in his Royalty Free Gospel.

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                            • #29
                              Originally posted by KingsGambit View Post
                              No slippery slope is necessary if the understanding is that Christians are to obey the law unless doing so directly causes them to violate a tenet of Christianity. So if the Nazi German government is compelling you to not hide Jewish refugees in your basement, you don't have to obey that law. On the other hand, there is no biblical right to download free music so there is nothing wrong with having to obey that law.
                              So, if the law says don't share, there's nothing wrong with having to obey that law ?

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                              • #30
                                Originally posted by KingsGambit View Post
                                No slippery slope is necessary if the understanding is that Christians are to obey the law unless doing so directly causes them to violate a tenet of Christianity.
                                It's that 'if' that I doubt. I don't see the Bible saying that states have the power to make moral things immoral.

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