To Burn or not to Burn: That is the Question

Everyone wonders whether or not it is ethical or Christian to share music by burning copies of cd’s which they do not own or by illegally downloading music from the Internet. Even if one disagrees with the laws, we as Christians are commanded by the Bible to submit to the laws of the land which God has established. This is plainly spelled out in the first two verses of Romans 13 which say, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment”.  If the law of man is set in place through the authority of God then, for us to go against such a law is clearly unchristian and it is not only an offense to the state but to God as well. So then, it is established that human laws bind the Christian. We should also consider whether or not the Bible says anything else concerning this. The seventh commandment admonishes men not to steal. So we should also consider if such acts are really stealing.

Suppose that you have been working very hard for five years to build an invention which is all your own and you are about to get a patent on it and begin to gain an income from all of your very hard work. Someone comes along and copies your pattern without your knowing it and passes the pattern around so that every one can have their own version of your invention without paying for it. That would not only upset you, but it would be against you and your own good and benefit. That is to say, that it would hurt you financially and it would mean that you had wasted your time which you gave to the project, expecting to gain profit from it. So that future income which you expected was taken from you. It is in a sense as if they stole from your future. They took what was yours from you before you even got to enjoy it.  Music is very much like an invention because every time it is played it is slightly different.  Even if sheet music is used, there can be many interpretations of the same piece of music, which are quite different from one another. So each recording that a musician makes is his or her own invention. No one else can play it quite like they do. Their style and abilities are unique to them, just as any invention is the physical outflow of the inventor’s unique thoughts and mind. This can be seen in the various bands that have their own distinctive sound and in various singers who have a style like no one else does. For example, no one sounds quite like Frank Sinatra or like Elvis or The Beatles. While they can be imitated, they can never be replaced for they are each special and have a sound which it particular to them and to no one else. It is not just the way that they play that is individual to them, but they have practiced and worked very hard to develop their own musical style and skill with what ever instrument they play or even with their voices. So, they are working with the hopes of gaining a profit. How is this different than a person who goes to work in a department store and expects his or her wages? In fact, the cases are not quite the same because anyone can do the job at the store, anyone can be trained and there is not really much individuality needed. On the other hand, the musician is quite the individual and cannot really be replaced by anyone else, because no one else can play quite like they do. The music is much more dependent upon personality and individuality than most other kinds of work. So then, it seems that it would be worse to deprive a musician of his wage than it would be to deprive a common worker of his wages. He, after all, has probably done more work to become a musician than the person has done to get their job at the mall. That being the case, it truly is stealing to take that which a musician has produced without paying for it knowing that they have worked and prepared with the hope that they will earn wages in return for their work.

There is the argument that it is ok because they do not really need all of that money, but that very same logic could be used to justify robbing a bank since banks do not really seem to need all of that money and no individual would be hurt by the robbery. None the less, it is wrong. The appeal of stealing music lies in that it is easy to do and there are not often consequences to pay and it usually goes unnoticed. But just because one does not get caught, does not necessarily mean that they are not doing wrong. As cliché as it might sound, God is watching. Not only that, but when a Christian borrows cds from his heathen friends and burns them he is making a confession to that friend. That is, he is saying “I serve God and obey him in so far as it does not inconvenience me or keep me from having what I want”. At that point the heathen wonders why you would even bother to be a Christian if you are not at least going to make the attempt to act like one.

So then there are three strikes against the practice of sharing music. First of all, it is against the law of the land and so consequently against God’s law because according to St. Paul, stealing because the musician is working with an expectation of being paid for it just as the person who works in a store works for wages. The musician in some way seems to have even more of a right to demand payment because his work is a product of his own preparation and personality where as the department store worker cannot necessarily claim that.  In Dr. Luther’s explanation of the seventh commandment he writes, “ . . .we should not take our neighbor’s money or possessions, or get them in any dishonest way, but help him to improve and protect his possessions and income.” It is good to note that he never mentions how rich the neighbor is, but only that we ought to be honest toward him and protect his interests. Finally, the third strike against sharing music is that the person who does so makes a confession to all of those around which will hinder them from coming into the Church because they do not see you honoring God in your life. The evidence seems conclusive. We as Christians should make every effort to see to it that all of the music which we own was obtained through legal means both out of a concern for pleasing God and out of a desire to set a godly example to those around us.


Note: This article was published in Higher Things magazine in the summer of 2007.