Video sharing has been a ‘trending topic’ this week… but the discussion has been more about rights management and less about what’s right (writes Peter Coleman).

John Ely and Nick Tabakoff, however, tackle the issue in a piece in today’s Australian media section on the balance between exposure and obscurity. It cites Grammy-winner  Wally de Backer (Gotye) who scored 375 million (free) views of a YouTube video, some of which may actually have led to the 1.3 million (paid) iTunes downloads.

And repeats a frequently-quoted comment made to him, “I’m you’re biggest fan, I got all your music on (insert name of pirate download site).”

In a 2011 interview, de Backer admits to asking, “Have you ever thought you should pay something for it?” and wishing the culture of copyright theft might change.

Last year I was lucky enough to join Kasey Chambers, her husband Shane Nicholson, and family (including father Bill Chambers) on an unforgettable week-long bus trip through the Australian outback from Adelaide to Alice Springs. I’m not going to presume to be Chambers’ biggest fan, but we do own legal CDs of practically everything she has recorded.

One of the delights of the much maligned and misunderstood genre of country music – in which Australia is a world leader – is the access artists give of themselves. At a live gig, Bill Chambers, who shot foxes on the Nullabor for a living in the years while his daughter turned from toddler to pre-teens – will always be seen in the intervals, chatting to friends, fans and other audience members.

We developed a friendship – and got to know his daughter and amazing family better – when a pregnant Kasey took time out at the Avoca Beach pub to get used to singing with her relatively new husband. One outcome of those Lost Dogs sessions – still talked about in the industry – was the award-winning Rattlin’ Bones album.

I have unique video from many of those evenings, when Australian music legends would turn up as surprise guests. As I have on my phone of the two’s haunting harmonies beside a campfire in Wilpena Pound (in the Flinders Ranges National Park) last year, and with family (and a talented bus driver) at the foot of Uluru.

You won’t find any of it on YouTube, nor anywhere else. You don’t (I hope) steal from your friends.

So why is it acceptable to steal from people (and companies) you don’t know? Digital shoplifting is a largely lost cause, yet sites such as YouTube – though they will tell you they take steps to prevent copyright infringement – continue to provide a platform in which users ‘share’ what they do not own… and make a business from doing so.