gineva

Question

Hello Rabbi, I am not sure if you are familiar with internet music sharing but there are serious ethical issues that I need to deal with here. Basically, If Mr. A has a song on his computer, and I want it, I can go on a program (with his permission) and download it so I have it. Nowadays, millions of songs are traded every day on various sites along the internet. This is all good except some Musicians are claiming that it is theft because I am not purchasing the music from a store. Technically, they do lose the penny or however much they make off of a record sale. Here's my question....while the issue is still in discussion, can I download from a free website someone else's music, or do I have to get it from a website that costs money and gives some cash to the musician?