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Should file sharing be considered illegal?

Or is it a distribution revolution?!

I share my music with all my friends for example, should I be hauled off to jail or fined for that? Why can’t I lend my legally bought CD's to whoever I choose? The way I see it, the first artist to truly embrace this new form of music distribution will not only reach a previously unassailable audience as well as have their music spread wider!

What about open source software? Like Ubuntu Linux, arguably far better than windows vista it’s totally free and yet due to its nature of distribution is one of the fastest growing operating systems. Can anyone else see an opportunity here?

Peter - file sharing per se, is just that, the sharing of a file. Allowing your chums access to copy writed material however, which when you purchased it you agreed to keep for your own use, strikes me as unfair on the artist. You are giving away their right to earn money by their intellectual and/or artistic ability, and it is illegal primarily because of this. So whilst you purchased it as an item for your own use, you must also abide by the laws of the land. The comparison with Ubuntu Linux is erroneus because thew riters of the Open Source Software have deliberately given up their intellectual rights to their work, whereas the recording artists have not, and nor do they intend to. One of our longer surviving artists Sir Cliff Richard is in the process of attempting to get the copy write period extended beyond it's present time period. Anyway, my three pennies worth for your edification and delight.

i have no sympathy with big artists - radiohead and prince have both released albums for free recently, but nowadays albums are increasingly released to publicise tours, which makes them the money, rather than the reverse. which is fine for artists like those two, but must be hurting the labels in terms of smaller artists who've yet to command that kind of stadium-filling fee for live tours.