burn baby burn

is it wrong to download music? when napster first came out i downloaded a lot of music. not as much as some people but i probably got a good 600 songs off it. after napster closed i stopped downloading music, not because i thought it was wrong but i didn't like the other sites. they say i am taking away from the artist, that i am practically stealing money right out of his/her pocket. this is where i disagree. what i download a song for free and let a friend listen to it. that friend in turn goes out and buys the cd. here is a good example: my best friend derrick burned me a copy of Boy Sets Fire ( my favorite group at the moment ). he thought i would like it and boy was he right. i have since then bought around 5 cds of theirs. sounds like a fair trade to me. i buy cds all the time because i love the art work and extra stuff that is found in the original cd. there are some cds that i would never buy on my own. so is it wrong for me to burn that cd? i don't think so. i wasn't going to buy it anyways so no money lost there. now i can see if everyone just downloaded songs and nobody bought the cd then that would be bad but that isn't the case. music artist are putting more extras in cds, bonus features for buying it. also i think that one of the best ways a new artist can get on to the scene is by putting his/her stuff out there for download. sure you might not make any money but people will hear of you, hopefully grow to like you. another thing...i love to find random people to listen to. and nothing sucks more than buying a cd that is terrible. most ( i assume ) people don't buy cds like this but i do sometimes. i have on more than one accasion downloaded a song and then rushed out to buy the cd. once again fine trade off. well...lunch calls.