I download my music from a certain rainforest based internet store.

For some time now, I order, then download my album and then later receive an email telling me that my payment has failed and that my order has been cancelled. The thing is, by the time I get the email I am already listening to the newly downloaded album (in today’s case, Electric Ladyland)

Each time this happens, I go and check my payment details. Card is correct, credit is available, no reason why payment should fail. No problems at all when using the same payment details to buy books etc.

Have I actually done anything wrong? They claim to have cancelled the order, I am doing everything in good faith and not trying to avoid paying. Am I expected to delete the album?

Ta.

no, you haven’t done anything wrong

The very same store sent me 3 copies of a DVD once. I got in touch and asked how I should return the extra 2. They said keep them.

Ethics Question – Am I a bad person?

yes

They might at some point ask you to pay for all the albums though….

you haven’t done anything wrong

wrong as in illegal or immoral?

morally, the OP is enjoying goods they haven’t paid for and appears to have made no effort to contact Amazon to understand why the issue is occuring.

I’m not a lawyer but I can imagine that knowing the payment has failed and still failing to ‘return’ the goods might be a ‘bad thing’ too?

The very same store sent me 3 copies of a DVD once. I got in touch and asked how I should return the extra 2. They said keep them.

Hope you popped the extra copies onto Amazon marketplace. 😉

In light of their £7bn sales and paying no UK corp tax …I wouldnt be too upset about getting a few “free” album off of them.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/apr/04/amazon-british-operation-corporation-tax

Its theft, but you can decide it thats bad for your ethics.

My ethics and your ethics are probably two different things.

They might at some point ask you to pay for all the albums though….

When I lost my phone a while ago a lot of the music wasn’t back up. Amazon kindly allowed me to ‘re-download’ my last 6months worth of music. So not anly have they not asked me to pay but they have given some of it to me twice!

it’s not theft. it’s not illegal.
Ethically wrong, maybe. But I wouldn’t lose any sleep over it

Ethically, I’d suggest there’s a difference between doing it accidentally and intentionally.

Currently it’s really just a case of “yay, free album!” and I personally wouldn’t be losing a lot of sleep over that. However, if you were to then go and buy another two hundred albums safe in the knowledge that you’ll never be charged, you’re on considerably shakier moral ground.

I can’t recall exactly, but I think they were used for xmas presents, secret santa type stuff.

You have to make the effort to tell them they have a problem… It’s like being under charged or given too much change in a shop. Do you tell them? I do.

It’s the whoary old “sliding scale of morality” argument innit.