Excerpts

This is from an email that was purported to be a transcript of a speech by Courtney Love. If it's not, it's still enlightening.

What is piracy? Piracy is the act of stealing an artist's work without any intention of paying for it. I'm not talking about Napster-type software.

The system's set up so almost nobody gets paid.

That's great. I own my name, and should be able to do what I want with my name.

Story after story gets told about artists -- some of them in their 60s and 70s, some of them authors of huge successful songs that we all enjoy, use and sing -- living in total poverty, never having been paid anything. Not even having access to a union or to basic health care. Artists who have generated billions of dollars for an industry die broke and un-cared for.

And they're not actors or participators. They're the rightful owners, originators and performers of original compositions. This is piracy.