I believe music is more than "information", when I buy an album, I'm not buying the sheet music but the recorded of someone more talented than myself performing that music.
How do you apply "information wants to be free" to music like this?
How do you apply "information wants to be free" to music like this?
You're arguing for the existence of a soul.
Yes an MP3 is literally and pedantically information, however it also has an additional worth to me that I find rewarding to pay for. I believe people who enjoy music but use this argument to acquire it for free are deluding themselves.
1) Information wants to be free
2) Everything is information
... I don't think we can have a useful discussion.
I thought I detected you heading in that direction. Yes, people do try to make that argument.
Sheet music is like an instruction manual. Follow the instructions, you can make something. I consider instructions to be information. Recorded music, on the other hand, is a performance. A performance is art, while sheet music describes art?
I don't have technical definitions, this is just how I see it.
How do you differentiate? An .MP3 is just another data file, trivially copied, with the added downside that government has decreed that under certain common circumstances anyone can play it while paying him less than a pittance for it. I'm not advocating this view, just noting the painful reality thereof.
It's always struck me as just a way to absolve yourself of guilt for pirating music.
I think the real phrase should be "Information is just information, people want it to be free."