Copyrights

I agree that an artist spends a lot of time crafting a work and should be compensated, preferably every time a work is sold. However, what's different with Wall Street than with art and music, is that the work on Wall Street explicitly revolves around money, it's about earning lots of it, etc. What is the point of art? Do you make it for yourself, do you make it to share with others? Copyright policy has the potential to hinder the sharing of art, while technology has the ability to overcome that. For example, in Cameroon, the dollar is really strong, and everything is really cheap when compared to here. You can buy a big meal for $3.00. However, a legitimate copy of an album costs about $20.00, which is pricey even by American standards, and is pretty ridiculous to expect an average Cameroonian to spend that much on a cd. Artists and people from recording companies say that it's necessariy to charge this much, to cover costs of production. On one hand, art is worthwhile and important, but for many it doesn't hold a candle to food, and other things you need for nourishment and survival. People have been able to go past this, and purchase bootleg cds for $2.00. Pirated music is one of the only ways many people there can access music. While it's important that the artist finds adequate compensation, is the answer really making it so that only rich elites can access the music and art? should it be like, you're working class, that's tough, you don't get to have access to the ideas and expressions in art and music. It's a difficult situation, because both sides are in the right, at least in my opinion. The solution will not be something easy as we need to stop all pirating, or that we need to make all music free. Some sort of compromise, or new alternative way of distributing music, etc. needs to be found.