After reading my post, I've realised it makes me look pretty pro-Napster. I might add that I have never used Napster. I never intend to. The only time I make tapes of CDs is if I want to listen to something on my walkman. Music artists deserve payment for their work. Even though a lot of the money from a CD goes to a record company whose policies I may not agree with, I think it's better that way than no money to the artist.

And yes, the differences between libraries and Napster make sense to me. Perhaps I should have thought it through more thoroughly.

Though, to play devil's advocate:
What about photocopiers? ;-) Should we ban photocopiers because they can be used to make illegal copies of texts? (Not *every* file on Napster is illegal, surely? There must be some people who use it to distribute their own, original work, right?)