“ Sad But True ”: Why Metallica ’ s Fans Continue to Fail Them ( and Not Vice Versa ) Twenty Years After the Napster Lawsuit
favorite record stores . We would then literally hand out the dubbed versions to our friends who may not have had a chance to purchase the record�yet . In the pre-digital era , as the bands and their record executives knew well , the loyalty of the fan base was such that whenever we had some extra money , we eventually did buy our own copies of all the albums released by our favorite bands . Often�if not , always , in the case of our favorite bands�we would be enticed into purchasing an album by listening to the dubbed cassette . Until we could buy it , however , we settled for an imperfect analog copy , which was a mere placeholder for the vinyl record package in all of its glorious machinations�from liner notes and lyrics to cover art , band photos , and acknowledgements .
We bought blank cassettes at our local Walgreens or Woolworth stores by the dozens�waiting for a sale , but always having a few on hand for that occasion when someone would bring over an album you had not yet purchased or heard in its entirety . Or , even better , a bootleg . “ Mixed tapes ” were those including a variety of songs by different bands that we made in order to play in the tape players in our cars , in the boom boxes at parties or on the beach , and in the cassette decks of our stereo systems stacked high in the corners of our bedrooms . It was , essentially , commercial-free radio�like the precursor to Pandora ( that is , if you opt to pay for the premium version ) �but with a lot more blood , sweat , and tears on the front end . The mixed tape was a work of art , and a labor of love�a treasure , really .
So , how can a copyright law professor square these “ sharing ” practices of the good old days with what she obviously perceives to be theft of copyrighted material when today ’ s fans practice P2P file exchanging on the Internet , using existing programs such as Bit Torrent and The Pirate Bay ? Well , for
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