The Christian & File Sharing

We Aren’t “Revolutionary” if We Are Just Like The World

This is the second time I’ve posted online about my irk with Christians and “file sharing.” Last September or so the Lord really convicted me on this issue, and Biblically I could find no justification for file sharing and downloading mp3s to my hard drive, and copying CDs I didn’t buy but ‘really liked’. So I cleared my laptop clean, and took all (ALL) my burned CDs and put them on a plate and into the microwave and ruined them all, and then chucked them in the trash. It felt good to repent of an area of sin I otherwise tried to justify to myself for a long time

So I posted the question on a theological forum basically in my school’s alumni site, to the effect of “is file sharing and CD burning a sin?” Thinking I would have both sides of the issue, I found there are more Christians that are convinced there’s nothing wrong with it than I think is a good testimony for the Body of Christ. The Bible is pretty clear about stealing being sin, but yet there’s “nothing wrong with it because everyone else does it”? Does millions of wrongs make a right? So if I’m sticking my neck out to have my head chopped off by talking about this, then so be it.

A friend posted on that same thread I started that at her school they did a survey, and like 80% of her unsaved schoolmates all admitted it was wrong, but didn’t care and do it anyway. In the Church–sadly–I’ve listened to many try to pretend it is not wrong and justify it with all these weird excuses like “worship should be free” or that this is not really stealing. Well have you asked that musician whose music you’re getting for free if he has paid off all his expenses from producing that CD? Recording has costs, you know.

I have even heard, and I kid you not, that “worship leaders are just prostituting themselves anyway by charging for their music.” Not even going to touch that one!

So what is the deal? Why does the world know better than us on yet another issue? They readily admit it’s stealing, but the consequence of prosecution doesn’t phase them. In the church we play semantic games: “Steve, it’ s not stealing, it’s file sharing.” Right, that has about as much credibility as “I’m not committing adultery, I’m just having an affair.”

Ok and if it is sharing and not stealing, then let the musician or the person who produces the software be the one to share it, not someone else who took a video camera into a cinema and illegally recorded a movie and put it on the internet! Why are Christians so stingy in this area? We pray and talk about revival, but then write our newsletters on programs we stole off the internet because “they’re too expensive to buy.” I had someone here get offended at me recently for not being willing to copy a Thousand Foot Krutch CD for them. I grew up supporting these guys all I could and sometimes being one of the only dozen people in the audience when they were first starting out in the mid to late 90s. I cringe at the idea of them losing money because Christians won’t get a job or learn to be better disciplined with how they spend their money. Go pay for it! Nobody would dare walk into a supermarket, and take food without paying for it and justifying it to themselves by saying “it costs too much, and besides food should be free anyway, it’s a necessity to life.“

I’ve heard “well the whole reason I copy CDs is because they’re expensive to buy“. So are cars, but you wouldn’t steal one!  Lots of things in life are expensive. I currently live in the Netherlands, believe me I know about expensive!

I know–I know I’m touching a raw nerve in probably most people (statistically speaking anyway) reading this. But seriously test out any of your “objections” you may have to me saying this before any of you write me nasty comments. As Christians, should we be blending into the world, or living above the things of this world? I will never preach at someone they are in sin if they copy things, or steal from the internet programs, music, or movies that otherwise in real life you have to pay for–but when asked, this is how I believe the Lord sees it.

Does the end always justify the means? Any musicians out there who like it when a fan comes up to you and wants you to autograph their burned copy of your CD? It’s one thing to say worship should be free, but until it is, there is no justification from taking it from them who are paying their bills just like you and I, and need that money to come in.  I  remember someone here in Holland wanted to copy a CD of mine, that was the latest worship album by someone, and oddly enough it had anti-piracy software on this particular disc so it wouldn’t work on a CD burning program. They were mad that the CD came that way, and I thought about it–what right do we have to be mad that someone wants to make sure their stuff isn’t copied pirated? If you are a musician out there, you have every right to spread your work however you want–but that’s the musician/software programmer/movie maker’s perogative–not the believer’s who wants to have it without paying!

In fact, I’m surprised that Christians of all people even justify this–I’ve listened to many many many arguments justifying it. I’m personally trying to live above board on the world in many capacities as best I know–I’m well aware I have plenty of more things still to perfect myself on (just in case someone felt they wanted to point out all my blind spots they can think of)—knowing that we are to be examples of righteousness to this lost and dying world, not lying down and participating in the same sins and pretending it’s ok because we feel there’ s nothing wrong with it. Imagine, being pulled over for speeding, and the officer gives you a ticket, and you try telling him “sorry officer, I don’t believe there’s anything wrong with speeding.” Good luck, you’ll still be given a ticket anyway regardless of what you think.

Anyway, I already know what to anticipate in response to this–being told what areas of my life I’m a hypocrite in, or being reminded that probably I have something I didn’t pay for. If anyone wants to know, all the files on my music folder are from my own CDs that I bought, and took me probably a month to sit down and download all to my iTunes folder. And I don’t share them in the file sharing programs so others can have them. I don’t even know what is acceptable or appropriate to obtain through those methods so please don’t ask me what I think about this or that or what is OK or what situation you should be able to use those file sharing programs in–however, it should be obvious to believers that it is sin to just take and get anything without paying for it–just because it’s available easily doesn’t mean it’s acceptable to take it. Pornography is easily available online, that doesn’t make it right either. So please, don’t ask me particulars. Pray about it and see if God tells you stealing is still a sin to live clean of (I’ll tell you the answer you should receive to that one!).

Again, anybody will be hard pressed to duplicate the whole file sharing mentality and use it in a store or real life situation. Walk into a computer store and just go ahead and take a computer game and leave the store. You’d never be able to just go get what you want to have like you can at the click of a mouse on your computer. Try walking into a music store, taking a CD because “you only want certain songs, not the whole CD” and leaving without paying for it. Here’s an idea—if you only want one or two songs, and not the whole CD–there’s legal programs available where you pay 80 cents to a dollar for each song you download.

If pressed for it, I will provide links detailing the legalities and statistics on this matter in Canada and the USA. I don’t know much about Europe, but just because something isn’t illegal doesn’t mean it’s moral for the believer to do it. Abortion is legal, and there is a multitude of women out there who have had one, but it doesn’t make that lawful, now does it?

It’s best I end here while people are gnashing their teeth at me! Please pray about it and don’t just get angry at me if you don’t agree.