[Baron Munchausen]

Originally posted by Jmenschenfresser:
This sounds a lot like the ordeal with Napster and Metallica, for those who followed it. Some said they were splitting hairs when they endorsed tape swapping, but sued for mp3 swapping. Their reason? Well, tape swapping is among fans, and broadens their fan base. It's local. It's small. It's grassroots. There's no mass rip off. No outside corporations involved. They claimed tape swapping gave them their original start.

Seems to me this is the same thing. By giving, loaning your copy, you are really just opening SE4 (and Shrapnel) up to new people. Word of mouth is more loyal than anything in my view.

What I am trying to say is, you have Lars on your side.

I think you will find that tape swapping eventually leads to CD sales. The quality of a tape is poor to begin with, gets poorer with use as the tape wears out, and copies are even poorer. So you will be eventually forced to buy a CD if you start with tapes. Digital copies in the form of CD copies or (gasp!) downloadable MP3 files are different. They don't 'wear out' in any signifigant sense. The sound quality is just as good the 10,000th time you play it as the 1st time. Apparently CDs do break down after a while (decades, though) but you can easily make a new copy on new media that will be just as good as the original.

It's not hard to see why Lars likes tape copying but not CD copying.

[ June 26, 2002, 23:57: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]