Laptop Sins

The Christian & File Sharing

This is a subject that really gets my irk up.  It surprises me how many Christians have no problem with this. Nearly four and a half years ago, the Lord 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

At the time, I went and posted the question on a theological forum basically in my Bible 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 80% of her unbelieving 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 music should be free” or that this is not really stealing. Well, have those of you who hold this view ever 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 on the mission field get offended at me recently for not being willing to copy a music CD I owned for them. I grew up supporting this particular band on a local level,  and I remember 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 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. When I was ministering in Holland, I remember that someone  wanted to copy the latest worship CD by a well-known artist, and oddly enough it had anti-piracy software on this CD so it wouldn’t work on a CD burning program. They were furious 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? 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 feel.

If anyone wants to know, all the files on my music folder are from my own CDs that I bought or bought on iTunes, and took me probably a month to sit down and download all to my music folder. I also don’t share them in the file sharing programs so others can have them. 

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.

Just because something isn’t illegal (even though file sharing is in most countries) 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 morally right, now does it?

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

About the Author

Steve has been a missionary to Europe for over 2 years, and currently lives in Canada while preparing to move to Peru in early 2009. He is a contributing author on the Fire On Your Head Blog, which can be viewed at www.fireonyourhead.org and also co-hosts a bi-weekly podcast with another missionary, Fire On Your Head- The Podcast, at www.fireonyourhead.com Both sites dwell richly in Pentecostal/Charismatic themes within Christianity.

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