Music Piracy Takes Food From the Mouths of Workers’ Babes

* I am a music composer, arranger, conductor and performer. Most of my work involves orchestral music for films, which is often released on soundtrack albums.

“Pocket-Size MP3 Players Pack Powerful Punch for Music to Go [E-Review, Feb. 24] states, “The [MP3] technology is terrifying the record industry, because the files can be downloaded for free, meaning no sales for the big music companies.”

It also discusses downloading three pieces from the Internet, including the Metallica recording with the San Francisco Symphony, which, as it happens, I worked on.

I have a wife and three small children, I am no “big music company” and the illegal distribution of music on the Internet takes food from my children’s mouths.

I can understand your disdain for rich corporations crying foul, but it is clear that you do not understand the human aspect of the musicians involved who are not stars, who work for a living and who deserve to be paid for the product they create.

Say what you will about the “big music companies,” but remember that the music that you enjoy is the intellectual property of a real person and that the free MP3 file, including the performance it contains, is the toil of someone like me trying to make a living.

PETE ANTHONY

Tarzana