Remember Janis Ian, folksinger since the 60s? She wrote an article about file sharing that is being widely circulated (it turned up on CNet today). She draws on common sense and her own experience to make an obvious point: people will buy music if they’re allowed to hear it first. If you give people music to download, they will go to the stores and buy more. And as she says, “There is zero evidence that material available for free online downloading is financially harming anyone. In fact, most of the hard evidence is to the contrary.” It’s about time for a backlash against the recording industry for the shortsighted and offensive way it has attacked consumers instead of attempting to meet their needs.
