President Bush: MP3 Pirate?

According to the NY Times, Bush has an iPod.

So, is he listening to legally purchased music, or is he saving a few bucks by engaging in illegal file sharing? Well some of his tunes are legal:

Bush...does not take the time to download the music himself; that task falls to his personal aide, Blake Gottesman, who buys individual songs and albums...from the iTunes music store.

But, wait; those legally purchased songs aren't the only music on Bush's iPod:

The president also has an eclectic mix of songs downloaded into his iPod from Mark McKinnon, a biking buddy and his chief media strategist during the 2004 campaign

Surely Bush isn't listening to pirated music! After all, just the other day, his administration asked the Supreme Court to ban the file sharing service Grokster. Bush promised to "restore honor and dignity" to the White House, and surely there's no honor in thievery. Still, it's hard to see what "songs downloaded into his iPod from Mark McKinnon" can mean, except that Bush is listening to illegally copied music, presumably songs from McKinnon's CDs.

I suppose McKinnon could have borrowed Bush's CDs and ripped selected songs for him. And if you believe that, you'll also believe that Bush wants to save social security. 
¶ -the Chef 4/11/2005 10:59:00 PM |