With the ethical conundrum posed:
If a lamp were mislabeled at $15, despite its actual price of $100, would you pay $15 for it, or notify the management and pay $100?

This is supposed to illustrate why people will use Napster to steal copyrighted material. People will happily steal from a megacorp.

Answer Neither. The stores that I frequent tend to have explicit policies regarding mislabelled prices. Either:

  • The item is free (They give it to me free once in exchange for not having to give a reduced price several times; or
  • The item is the lower of the two prices.

Your fallacy is assuming that being willing to profit from a store's mistake is also a willingness to profit from the difficulty in enforcing copyright.


Noder's Note: For the record, I think that both the RIAA and Napster are in the wrong. I believe in copyright and intellectual property while still believing in fair use. If I download an MP3 of a song I have on vinyl, that is acceptable.