MP3 legality blues... part 1

Grrr...

I hate this!

I have a very sensitive conscience, almost to a fault. And I've been feeling ... convicted? ... about downloading mp3's from limewire, only for the purpose of learning songs for this stuff at the restaurant. I didn't really wanna pay $1.69 a track from itunes for legal downloads, especially when it wasn't really for just entertainment purposes, but learning the songs... So, the past few days, I've sorta been having this inner battle with my bulldog of a conscience about the whole thing... to the point where I wake up every morning feeling AWFUL.

Does anyone else struggle with this sorta thing? I mean, it bugs me, because most people I know don't have any problem with downloading mp3's off the net.

Anyway, I'm sort of at a point at the moment where ... well, I don't feel like I have to delete all the mp3's I've downloaded. See, I wouldn't feel right about downloading for free music for my own enjoyment... if it's really good music, I want to see that the artist's get what is due them. Especially since I have aspirations of being a recording artist one day...

Anyways, a friend of mine told me about this website called allofmp3.com, which is a russian website that offers 'legal' downloads for as cheap as 2c a track. I just downloaded some rare Queen concert in Japan for about $2US. Pretty good, huh? Apparently, there's some loophole in the Russian laws that make digital media sharing legal or something... but I'm not sure if it's legal to download from another country. So yeah, but I'm going ahead and doing it anyway... for now.

Thing is, did you know it's illegal (apparently) to video tape programs off TV? Crazy, huh?? It's even illegal to re-use photographs downloaded from the internet!! Copyright laws are so stupid! But because I have a very sensitive conscience, I feel like I have to abide by them, in order to be in right standing with God. In a nutshell - I feel like I'm cutting myself off from God by posessing illegally downloaded mp3's. I feel like it's putting a block in my relationship with him. Is this silly? Is it just me...? but then the Bible does say if you do something against your conscience, then for you, it is sin. So? I'm screwed!