Kelly wrote:
The music industry did a lousy job in the beginning at handling this fiasco. Now it's a mess.
Kelly's comment is the crux of the whole "stealing music electronically" situation in this day and age. The record companies have nobody to blame but themselves. It's hard to fathom how ignorant and stubborn they were. But nobody is crying for the big record companies just like nobody cries for the big oil companies when they hit a rough patch. But behind the record companies are a lot of smaller artists who did suffer.
The only silver lining from this "fiasco" is that it has made record companies almost obsolete for most artists. They are strictly advertising houses now. So if you are a hugely successful artist, yes you use them for advertising/promotion. But nobody needs them to make a great sounding record anymore. That can now be accomplished in your living room.
"Morals" or "moral fabric" or whatever you want to call it are personal and variable and in a state of flux like they have always been and always will be.
- D.