What Would Jesus Download?

When I think of pirates, I like to think of Johnny Depp, looking gorgeous as Captain Jack Sparrow (although he did kinda look like he was in need of a bath).

But according to a Barna Group study in 2004, more Christians are getting into piracy. Although this is the music sharing/downloading variety of pirate, rather than the types who sail the seven seas, could conceivably be dressed by Jay Jays (well, maybe if they were wannabe-emo pirates), have a very different definition of “booty” to Destiny’s Child and say, “Arrrrr...” a lot.

In the study, 86 per cent of teens interviewed believed that music piracy—including copying CDs for friends or downloading non-promotional music—is morally acceptable.
Only eight per cent said they think it’s morally wrong.

For the Christian teens in the survey, only 10 per cent of them found it to be morally wrong to pirate music. Active church members were also just as likely to pirate things as non-attenders.
Apparently, it’s not just mainstream music that’s being pirated but a lot of Christian music, too.

With the way we exist now, much is shared and the idea of personal property is more fluid. Things like books, movies, CDs, clothing—pretty much anything is shared with friends in a variety of communistic lending libraries. DVDs now start with that anti-piracy message about things you wouldn’t steal, such as a handbag or a car (and The I.T. Crowd mocked them recently— “You wouldn’t steal a baby. You wouldn’t shoot a policeman and then steal his helmet!”).

It’s so easy to do things like file sharing online (and not just with friends). Sites and programs like YouTube, BitTorrent and Limewire are used by millions and often hated by TV execs, music companies and artists (some have successfully sued file sharing software manufacturers).

I guess file sharing doesn’t seem like piracy—isn’t sharing and caring what God wants us to do anyway? And wouldn’t sharing Christian music be kind of an outreach? Some people actually argue that because it’s Christian content, it should be available to share with everyone, rather than being on a user-pays basis. But that means the artists miss out on being paid for it. And then there’s the issue of how you match sharing God’s Word through music or other media with the eighth commandment about not stealing . . .

There are legal—albeit, at cost—ways to go about getting music and other media online. Buy it with iTunes or other legal distributers. Or buy the album. Plus, there are some sites where artists have agreed to have their material available for free download.

Part of the rationalisation for pirating music is that the albums cost too much, music companies are ripping us off and there’s no point getting the whole thing if you only want a couple of songs, and other reasons along those lines. But it’s other people’s intellectual property and is copyrighted in most cases—even though it’s so nice to get something for free.

They didn’t have broadband in the disciples’ time (let alone back when Moses was receiving the 10 Commandments) but they probably wouldn’t have been fans of people taking media from “faceless” corporations. The message is simple: “Do not steal”—even seemingly not-so-bad-I’m-sure-God-would-want-me-to-see-this stealing, like downloading an illegal copy of The Passion Of The Christ.

When He was on earth, Jesus summed up the commandments with the instruction of loving God and loving your neighbour as yourself. We wouldn’t want our neighbour taking things of ours without permission or compensation. In God’s eyes, greed and stealing aren’t good things, even if you’re getting Christian (or other) music for free.