Illegal Music Downloading: Crime...or Karma?

Illegal music downloading. What does that mean anyway? Seriously, I’m not completely sure I understand the full extent of that term. Is it illegal to simply listen to streaming music without technically downloading it onto a hard drive or CD? Is an illegal music download one that you do download to your hard drive, but you don’t burn onto a CD? Do you have to pay someone for it to count as an illegal music download?  Do you have to sell it to someone?   Just what does it mean to illegally download music?

See, here’s the thing. What I don’t get is how it can be considered a crime to borrow music someone else has gotten. Isn’t that the same thing as making a cassette of someone’s album twenty-five years ago? Isn’t it the same thing as making a copy of someone’s CD today? If that’s not illegal, then how is downloading music illegal?

But maybe I’m wrong. Maybe it’s only illegal to pay someone in order to download music. Since they don’t own the music, they are violating copyright. Except…isn’t paying to download music the exact same thing as walking into a used record store and buying an album that you didn’t originally purchase; that the owners of the store didn’t originally purchase? Am I missing something here?

But, opponents might assert, those who run illegal download sites didn’t even pay someone for the music they are selling, so it’s not really the same thing. It’s as if the record store owners were selling albums they stole. The illegal music download sites got their music illegally. But they had to get the music from somewhere, right? It’s kind of like the first cause argument for the existence of God. You can’t make something from nothing, so therefore some superior being must exist if you go back in time far enough.