Music piracy has had an increasingly negative effect on the music industry for years, and I think that as an artist, it would feel discriminatory for all the hard work and energy that is put into an album, that it would act as stealing from the artists’ income. When musical content can just be made readily available to consumers online, why would anyone choose to spend money, over the click of a button to attain the music for free of charge? I think as an intelligent solution to the piracy of music has been the release of musical ringtones for consumers to purchase, which then gives more money to the artists, however there has proven to be a problem with the use of memory cards in cell phones as well, for music can now be taken straight off of anyone’s online music library and inserted directly into one’s cell phone to be made as a ring tone.
I do think it is fair to have there be an issue about online music because, although I too participate in music downloading, I believe that it is unfair to the artist who has made their music to share with the world through album sales. I believe that many consumers are unaware that music is copyrighted, or that unauthorized copying is illegal. As most people in my experience suffer no ethical discrepancies about photocopying pages from reference books borrowed from the library, or song sheets for their church choir, or copyrighted materials to distribute to their school or college classes, all of which are just as illegal under copyright legislation as downloading pirate MP3s. Literally millions of people who would never dream of shoplifting a book, or a CD, seem to have no ethical worries about photocopying books and magazine articles, or most frequently, downloading music. I think one reason is that it is perceived as a victimless crime. I know that people in the music industry will strongly disagree, but if someone copies a song, the copyright-holder may or may not receive the money for the sale of the album if he or she had not realized if the item had in fact been purchased. Some people tell me, that music piracy is just plain wrong, period. I think that in this instance they may be confusing the distinction between “it’s against the law,” and “it’s wrong,” since the moral basis for determining that it is wrong is the legitimacy or otherwise of copyright legislation.
I personally use a program entitled Limewire, simply for every reason stated above, its fast and its free. Honestly, the only reason I would ever consider removing the program would be for fear of viruses and pornographic search results, which often appear in my search results window. Although I understand and know that piracy is wrong, there is nothing physically stopping this medium from being easily accessible to all consumers. I, too watch movies online, which I’m sure adds to the frustration of the corporations behind making each movie and each CD album a success. I contribute to the ringtone purchasing companies, as well as going to see movies, which I am interested in supporting. However, as a student, money is always an objective and why would anyone run from a free opportunity?
