My son (age 9) sees all these songs on itunes and asks how I get them.

Because he has some favorite songs he'd like to get.

Should I tell him I can get them off itunes for him and pretend I haven't gotten them mostly off Solarseek and blogs and torrents?

Subscribe to a music service, get his songs for him, and stop using the other sources?

I want to model integrity for my kid, yet many of the songs I have on the Mac are obscurities I'd have to seriously track down through places other than subscription services to find.

What would you/have you done when a young child starts/started to notice that there's music on the computer that doesn't just magically appear there.

I certainly don't want to encourage a 9 year old to illegally download.

Leaning toward stopping using Solarseek/Soulseek all together until the kids are older or until I have a computer in my bedroom with enough memory to store music.

Then there's the remnant of the church-raised Phil who wonders if maybe I should stop all together.

Anyway...

Birth control.

I think you should tell him you ripped them from cds. He might not know what you have and don't have on cd. Or tell him a friend of your ripped them from old records you let him borrow to "digitize".

If he wants certain songs, I think it might be a cool way for you two to hang out. DL off of itunes, and then burn it to a cd.

Well that would have worked 9 years ago, I suppose.

Don't lie to him. Either stop pirating or let him pirate.

Note: I don't have kids.

I only use iTunes now so I can't help you there.

I've found myself downloading a couple of songs for him from some shows he watches. That part he finds nifty.

I was recently surprised to learn that it's spelled "quandary."

I'm with shmoo. Presumably the reason you would keep it from him is that you think unauthorized downloading is wrong and don't want him to do it, which is probably as true for you as it is for him.

it's something that is technically illegal but really shouldn't be.
i told my kids it's illegal. i don't download and burn stuff to sell. it's for personal entertainment. i buy the albums i really enjoy. i'm not trying to justify anything. technically i'm a thief. the world is certainly not a perfect moral place. we all make these decisions for ourselves and maybe that's the bigger lesson for your kids.

i would advise never lying to your kids.
a minor fable based on their age and maturity isn't bad but on the whole it's just not a good practice.

I don't think downloading is wrong so much as don't want to model to my son that it's okay to break the law.

You can see why the law would and maybe should protect against the the type of downloading you do, right? That is, if everyone downloaded for "personal entertainment," nothing would ever get sold? I don't really understand why it's so obvious to you that downloading should be legal.



Technically, you're not. You're an infringer of someone's federal statutory rights and liable to them for civil damages.

I say get a subscription to Yahoo Music Unlimited ($5/mo) if you're concerned about this issue. You wallet doesn't take a huge hit and your kid can download as much as he wants (or as much as you allow).

I'd just say you got them off the internet and leave it at that. The Internet's such a vast thing that any more specific information shouldn't really be needed.

Or resign yourself to the fact that he'll wind up downloading music eventually anyway. Other kids are always turning kids onto new things.

Just be glad he's only downloading music and not having sex in front of the rest of the class.

what about downloading pron? what you gonna say when your kid catches you doing that?

rape

recording tapes or cds onto cassette is technically illegal, as is jaywalking in many places.

Depends on what you're doing with the cassette. Selling it is definitely illegal. Otherwise, it could be protected under fair use.

And I'm not sure what your point is with the jaywalking. How is that related? Does the fact that I sometimes drive faster than the speed limit mean that it's okay to murder?

Connor's far too smart of a kid for that.

I think I'll go with subscribing to a music service for him. That'd make him happy.

Ever think about a career in politics? Are ya decent looking?

20 years ago you'da wanted to humpadump my az, as I was quite fine.

Now I'm more like Josh Homme shat outta Nick Nolte.

I like this option.

Interesting morality play raised by this thread for sure.

gotta agree with this option as well.

introduce him to the pay sites and you can continue to rape the internet for free music.

good dad, bad dad.

You know nickisnotdead better than I would have thought, P-Shaw. I say that, knowing that NIND was adamant in that he could only be gay if he was GNA (gay, no ass... which could mean oral only, or that he'd have to be a top; for purposes of posting this reply, let's go with the record).

So, anyway, yeah -- Mike, do you & your second wife swing? Did your first wife leave you over you wanting to swing?

i.e "decrepit handsome"

Get seperate computers or at least have seperate lon ins so he can't mess with your music and see what kinda porn you're checkin' out.

But, I agree with the sentiment that you can't very well believe its ok for you but not for him. Either its ok or its not.

If you don't want him to follow your example, which he is much more likely to do than follow your instructions, stop downloading music yourself or he is sure to follow suit.