Jailhouse Blues

  Now that you've gone to the library and you have the CD's that you want, you put them into your computer to listen to them. All of a sudden a message pops up, "Do you want to download this CD onto your media player?" It would be nice to be able to listen to this music, without having to borrow the CD repeatedly, but would this constitute as stealing...

Is it illegal to download CD's from the library onto your computer?

  Technically, yes. Stealing is bad, I'm going to put that out first and foremost. Now, the chance that anyone is going to come knocking down your door and dragging you away is about zero to none. It's all how about how your conscious thinks about it...

• Stealing: This is stealing because the artist took all the time to produce this CD, and I'm taking their music for free.
• Pay It Forward: If I had to go out and buy this CD then I would've never gotten it, so the monetary issue isn't as big of a deal. Now that I found I liked this though, I have to find some way to support it.

  There are going to be a few different way you can "pay it forward." You can actually can buy one of that group's CD's. After I found out I really liked Fleetwood Mac and Dave Matthews Band I started collecting their CD's.

   You can also go to live concerts. I know that when I'm in Chicago I'm going to be watching for a Dave Matthews concert because that's one show I need to see at some point in my life. I'll also go and watch the Chicago Symphony and Chicago Lyric Opera, when I have the time and money, to support such a great music.

  A lot of the CD's I borrow are Deutsche Grammophon, and usually by the Berliner Philharmoniker. The ways I've found to support these are when I do buy a classical music CD I'll usually try to find it by Deutsche Grammophon, because I know their high quality and I do owe them for a lot of great music. For Berlin, I'm going to join the Digital Concert Hall once I get to college and get high speed internet. Living in the country, we have a slower internet speed that doesn't work with the Digital Concert Hall.

  Finally, I don't want everyone to download all their music for free, but broaden your horizons and take in this music, without draining your wallet. Once you find what you are into, support it and make sure it's always there for others to enjoy like you have. Now, let's just hope the music police don't come breaking down my doors and hauling me to the slammer for writing all this...