Some interesting points about the morality of certain aspects of song production software have been raised during this class.  Namely, what kind of message is sent when we have all of these little clips to do whatever we want with that came from a real person, and may have even had cultural significance?  It’s not an issue that I pretend to fully understand the implications of, mostly because I’m not sure that anyone does.  There’s a lot of complexity here, and quite a few layers of potential problems that have to be unpacked.  Generally, I think that as long as whoever contributed the sound was compensated and fully aware of what it was going to be used for, there isn’t an actual problem, though it can still be a little strange.  But when you consider the implications of the culture-specific sounds that are available and the ones that are often tied to something important or religious in nature, things get a lot more complex.  Again, I don’t know that I’m really in a position to speak about how those things could be harmful, or beneficial, or just plain weird.  None of them affect me directly, so I’m just an interested bystander.  But to someone from one of those cultures, how might it feel to have this part of yourself reduced down into a neatly packaged audio stereotype?  Was there any action taken to avoid offense during recording?  Whether there was or not, does intent really matter when it comes to someone’s culture being treated as a joke or an easily broken down trope?  I don’t know the answers for sure, but it does make me a little uncomfortable to consider these questions, even though I think it’s important to do so.