Illegally downloading music has little to do with “sharing.” Mass distributing someone else’s work over the Internet for free is unfair to the person who created that work.

The principle of compensating someone for services provided ought to be a fundamental value. Those who take comfort in assuming that downloading music only affects greedy executives and pampered recording artists might like to think about the songwriters.

The majority of them are not rich, many struggle financially and part of their income is from record sale royalties. Bart Herbison, executive director for the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI), told me that the current average annual income for songwriters is $4,700. Herbison said this figure is based on the total amount of money paid, divided by the number of recipients.

During the 2004 Super Bowl, Pepsi-Cola ran an ad pushing its two-month contest, randomly offering free, legal downloads with a purchase of their soda. The ad introduced 14-year-old, Annie Leith, identifying herself as one of the young downloaders prosecuted by the Record Industry Association of America (RIAA). She deviously smiled at the camera and announced to the audience of 90 million people that she’d continue downloading music for free.

“There’s not a thing anyone can do about it,” she gloated. The ad showed other RIAA convicted kids with words like, “accused,” “busted,” and “charged” superimposed over their images. Pop-punkers, Green Day, provided background music with a cover of The Clash’s, “I Fought the Law (and the Law Won).”

Did the ad promote legal downloading? Yes. Was it hip, pithy and clever? Sure. But was it healthy for the culture? I don’t think so. Pepsi taught kids that it’s cool to feel indifferent about the tangible value of services. When a child gets accustomed to not feeling grateful for something, a cavalier attitude of entitlement is sure to follow. That doesn’t stop with adulthood.

I enjoy free stuff as much as anyone. For example, there are terrific websites that post free day old columns with permission from the authors once they’ve run in the newspapers. After making their deserved money, those columnists clearly want to offer their insights as a gift to the whole world. It’s generous and praiseworthy.

However, we must always be mindful of the principle that they actually do deserve compensation, feeling humbled by the fact that they’re not asking us for it. If we don’t, we’ll continue downward toward a culture that devalues the fruits of service and reveres snotty kids in TV ads.