Sorry, mate. I see no more justification for your "technicalities" as there are for mine. You deleted the song because you'd already bought it from itunes? Yet it's not okay when I do the same. So my first listen isn't from the version I bought, the end result is the same. As I said, I download and listen; if I like it, I buy it; if I don't, I delete it. I've either bought the album or I've deleted it.
It's all bullshit. Everyone has their own level of justification. You say it's only one song, so that's somehow better than 10 songs. Right. You say it's radio quality, so it's okay. Well, unless someone downloads wav files, it ain't CD quality. You can say 128 is loads better than radio quality, yet I may say differently (especially if that radio clip was recorded from a radio stream on a computer). And as was noted a few posts up, there was no indication at all in that thread that it was going to be a radio clip. In fact, the file that was emailed was CD quality--as most of the people expected. You say it's okay that you asked for the file because you ultimately bought it before the email arrived. Yet isn't the fault in asking for it in the first place? If not, is it really such a sin to listen to the file, then buy it, then delete it? Others in this thread say it might be okay because 1). the single wouldn't be available in this country, or 2). we didn't know a free stream would be available. Do those reasons really make it okay? Everyone apparently has different reasoning. You buy your reasoning, I buy mine, they buy theirs. Bark at the ones who keep the files and never buy a track.
Everyone needs to ask themselves a few questions before they get all high and mighty. Do you have any of the U2 beach clips? Do you own the Salome Outtakes? Do you have any of the "leaked" clips or videos---of any quality whatsoever? Is every single b-side, extra track, or side project track that you own originally from a disc or vinyl that you owned first and then ripped yourself? Do you have any music videos of any band on your computer? Have you recorded any tv show (even the news) onto vhs or dvd or hard drive without asking permission of the producers? Have you recorded any movies onto vhs/dvd/hard drive, even if you recorded it from TV? Do you own any bootleg concert CDs or dvds (the concert was commercially available in form of tickets, you just chose not to go; listening to/watching the bootleg is enjoying the artist's material without rewarding the artist)? Have you watched clips of any tv shows, movies, concerts, music videos on YouTube that were not uploaded by the artist or representing company (there's absolutely no difference between owning a file and watching it a dozen times versus watching it a dozen times and not owning it, if you don't spread the file)? Do you have any photocopies of books, textbooks or otherwise, that were not provided to you by an educator and that you did not ask the publisher or author for permission to copy?
If you can answer "no" to every single one of those questions (and I'm sure that some can), then enter this discussion. If you can't, then give me a fucking break. For every single question, an argument can be made that you're ripping off the artist---without grasping for straws. Don't give me that crap.
I'm not trying to make anyone out to be bad. I'm just tired of essentially being labeled 'bad' for doing something that has the same end result as what many here do themselves. You can't seriously slam my own reasoning for doing what I did with the Fleet Foxes disc and then expect me to buy into your own lame reasoning about the GOYB track. There's seriously no fucking difference. If I were to download the album and then never buy it, or if I were to seed the files elsewhere, then that's an issue. But as it is, lay the fuck off.