Is It Legal?

Judging by my stats, you’re looking at this post in Google Reader. I’m a big fan of the web app, too. I use it to keep track of about 200 feeds, from daily news to webcomics to friends’ rarely-updated blogs. 

One of my favorite feeds is to a site that posts mp3 downloads of bizarre audio cassettes. The site’s owner finds foreign tapes released on now-defunct labels and shares them. I don’t know where the owner finds the tapes, but listening to them on headphones in the park has become a weekly tradition for me. 

Now, here’s where I get to the point. Reader has a recommendation feature. Google analyzes your feed data and makes suggestions about other feeds you might enjoy. I check out these recommendations about once a month, I rarely find anything I like. But for the last six months I’ve noticed a trend in the recommendations. Presumably spurred by the frequent download links in my bizarre tape blog feed, Google is suggesting I subscribe to sites that offer leaked copies of unreleased indie records. Downloading from those sites is illegal, but Google seems to think I’d enjoy it.

Google and Apple are the two biggest tech companies in my life. I’m torn between Google’s recommendation engine leaving the store unlocked and the message Apple taped to the screen of my first iPod 6 years ago – “Don’t Steal Music.”