Howard Stern: rebel?

The LA Times had an article today called Sirius Shock: Pirates Hit Howard Stern Show.

I’ve never been a huge listener of the Howard Stern show, and now that he’s moved to subscription-based Satellite radio, the chances of me ever listening to the show have dropped to virtually nil.

But for many people who are used to hearing Stern for free, it seems that downloading his shows for free, a mere few hours later, is a good enough solution. This puts Stern in a delicate position.

As a champion of “freedom” for years, Howard Stern has never had to fight the file sharing monster of the digital age. The problem is, as he’s discovering, a really tricky one. One the one hand, he faces fans who defend their piracy with flimsy artifice like this, quoted from the article above:

“Mr. Freedom of Speech himself. Mr. $500,000,000 has ordered me to shut down my PERSONAL Web site that some people stumbled upon,” wrote the operator of http://www.hearhoward.org , according to the Rocky Mountain News. The site made Stern’s show available for free but with a disclaimer that only Sirius subscribers should use it.

But on the other hand, Stern has to tread carefully to avoid antagonizing a good portion of his (self-proclaimed rebellious) audience by taking a hard line towards the piracy.

Frankly, I think there’s a fine line to be walked with file sharing in general. By and large, it’s stealing. If you’re making a personal recording from, say, normal radio or TV, then it’s really more or less OK. But if you’re downloading high-quality songs or paid-subscription radio programs for free, it’s stealing.

I’m not sure what the solution is. Maybe Sirius should offer the Stern shows for download at a reasonable price (or free for those who already subscribe). It’ll be interesting to see how Howard Stern handles the situation. I see him as a fairly astute member of the media.