I feel privileged that my initial post, merely looking for a cheap iPod, has
sparked such a fertile discussion. It must have been a very slow weekend for
the actual birds - though our yard here was quite active.

All the obvious and serious comments have already been made, by serious
people, and it is fairly clear to most of us that one should exercise self
restraint in the use of recorded calls, and that in some places they should
indeed be prohibited, so I will only add the following

- It never occurred to me that pishing, which I was taught by two very
conservative and highly responsible people, was really just as sinful as
playing recordings. However it seldom works for me, which is why I want an
iPod.

- I would love to meet members of the no - magnification - devices sect.
The great ornithological pioneers were of course in this group by necessity
- they used shotguns instead.

- I do recall a post on Tweeters years ago about a Finnish birding group
who only recorded what they saw when they were stark naked. They did allow
themselves binoculars though.

- As to whether your life would be richer or poorer if you had looked for a
Sora and not found it, you would have to ask Socrates, or Kant, or some
other seriously wise man, and you might still not get a clear answer.

On the copyright front, I have worked in the past with very highly paid
corporate lawyers who permitted single copies of copyrighted material for
individual use - the office copiers were plastered with such instructions. I
believe the problems start when you make multiple copies for profit. However
these lawyers were so well paid that I am sure it must be much more
complicated than that - like banking, etc...

Thanks to you all, but especially to those who are offering
cheap used iPods !

--
Richard Isherwood
Port Townsend WA
Rjisherwood at gmail.com
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