How do I feel about photocopies????

I was interested to read about the woman in America this week who has been fined huge amounts of money for making her music collection (like thousands of others) free to the world on the Internet.

It is true to say that recording companies and popular artists do make megabucks from recording, but is that an excuse for blatant theft?.

I know many people photocopy my music, my publisher says " do they steal from shops as well?".

My generous nature and my desire to make music available to all would say "help yourself", were it not for the fact that I know the costs, enormous production and effort that goes into a project that is designed to inspire, entertain and educate.

Composers end up with a small percentage of the selling costs, and contrary to popular belief nobody makes a lot of money out of publishing music. There are usually people behind its production with a lot of love and belief.

A peri said to me recently. "If we didn't photocopy music all the time, we wouldn't survive".

There's something wrong somewhere.