Chris Ruen has written a pretty intense and scathing article about the acceptability of piracy on Tiny Mix Tapes, The Myth of DIY. The viewpoint isn’t anything new, but coming from an artist and member of a community that targets the industry more the consumer, it’s somewhat arresting, and at least, really well written. An excerpt:

If you find meaning and beauty from a musician’s work and you want them to continue creating it — then you are obliged to support them. If you like the idea of record stores, the people they employ, the values and spirit they promote — then you also are obliged to support them. If you’re consistently doing one without the other, then on some level you, not Metallica, are the asshole. Out of basic politeness, I (probably) won’t say any of this to your face and neither will your friends, your record store clerk, or your favorite band. But it is the truth.

I’ll save my personal opinions on this one… they’re mostly known on this blog, I think. But I will quote Mr. P’s response to the debate going on the TMT forum about this article, because it sums up AW’s views pretty well:

I can only see an increase in music’s popularity with the rise of the internet, as all major shifts in media precipitate, but making a living off art in a country that has very little support for it in the first place (both financially and ideologically) is definitely an uphill battle. Public funding goes to sports stadiums, not music venues… I support both the push to support artists financially whenever possible (physical or digital) and the desire to look for new models, even ones that acknowledge/incorporate free downloading. I wouldn’t want fans to feel guilty for downloading when they can’t afford it, but anything that counters capitalism’s rhetoric of individual consumption with a sense of communal support is always a plus in my book.