AlterNet: TECHSPLOITATION: Why I Infringe

Annalee Newitz doesn't like paying for copyrighted works. She has written an opinion piece called Why I Infringe to explain it to the rest of us. Her basic argument is summed up in the following paragraph:

"I only steal from the rich. Once I copied a Mountain Goats CD, because I loved it so much and couldn't find it anywhere. As soon as I did, I bought that CD and about five more by the same band. That was a situation where I was sure the artist, who works through an independent label, would actually get my money. I don't have that same feeling about creators whose work is owned by giant media conglomerates. And frankly, I really don't care if Danny Elfman never sees the money he might have made if I hadn't copied that Oingo Boingo CD. He's rich enough as it is. "

The problem with this kind of argument is that it just doesn't go along with reality. First of all lets look at how a CD or Movie or TV show get's to your house. 1. The artist comes up with something that he thinks he can sell. 2. The artist then sells the rights to distribute that work from step 1 to a distribution company (like a record label). 3. That distribution company makes a CD, and ships them through their distribution chain. 4. You buy the CD and take it home. Now, the artist and the label are responsible for the deal in step 2 and it has no bearing at all on whether I want to buy a CD or not. So the amount of money a person has may or may not be related to how much they get when a CD is sold. If the label has a better position in step 2 the label gets more money in step 4, if the artist is a big star they get more money. The basic point here is that the artist has sold the right to sell this work to a company who is making the CD. That may be an independent label or a big music conglomerate. It doesn't matter because when I buy the CD, that is the company I'm buying the CD from. It's very rare that an artist will produce the CD himself, and then sell it directly himself. That is usually only the case with really small bands, and ironically with mega-bands. This isn't the first time I've seen this statement. I had a conversation that went along similar lines with a coworker the other day. In her case, she said that the big bands already had enough money. I just don't get this. Isn't it a cornerstone of the American dream to make enough money to be rich? Since when did we put it in the constitution the phrase that the people would decide how much money a person should have? UPDATE: There has been some more discussion of this article on Politech, here is the posting with the original article, here is a posting with several responses to the article, and here is a posting with the authos rebuttal