Upon reading the article examining StrangeSearch in Wednesday’s Daily, I found that I wanted to clarify my views on MP3 use.

The fact that I have a large number of MP3s does not mean that I condone or participate in the piracy of music through the distribution of copyrighted MP3s. In fact, I disagree with those who would download copyrighted works and then not purchase them at some point in the future.

This is depriving those who have worked so hard creating the music of their right to be monetarily rewarded for this work. It also seems to be turning record labels and musicians, who would not necessarily have a problem with people downloading and listening to MP3s in order to decide which CDs to spend their money on, against MP3s.

In accordance with these statements, I want to emphasize the fact that the vast majority of the MP3s that I have on my machine, none of which are shared, are either ripped from CDs I own, are no longer covered by copyright law, or are from groups who have approved the distribution of their music in this form.

Any copyrighted works on my machine for which I do not own the CD are simply there so that I can determine whether I like the music enough to go spend my hard-earned money on the CDs. I feel that these are the only correct uses of MP3s.

In closing, I’d like to urge those who have MP3s of copyrighted works they do not own, to do the right thing, to support the artists whose works they are listening to by purchasing their music.

Through this action, perhaps we will still be able to convince the music industry that MP3s can be a positive aspect of the music scene.

Theo Peterson>

Sophomore

Computer engineering