International Talk Like a Pirate Day

Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum... It may be International Talk Like a Pirate Day, but piracy is serious music business. And a long standing tradition. Little Wolfie Mozart used his ear and his amazing memory to copy music from a performance that was never to be copied. Bootleg recordings of performances abound -- opera, classical concerts, rock... And then there's the sharing of recordings via the internet -- of which the RIAA takes a very dim view via their lawsuits. However widespread the phenomenon of piracy, the composers and artists are entitled to the fruits of their musical labors. And there's the rub for intellectual property.