Music Piracy
Introduction The social problem that I’ve chosen to describe is the problem of music piracy. Music piracy is the illegal downloading of music on the internet and has become a major problem with the recording industry and the throughout the music business. Online websites such as Napster, Kazza, and Morpheus have said to cost the music industry $10 billion dollars in revenue because of the illegal downloading. The problem has become so bad that musicians have all decided to take a stand by making television, newspaper, and radio ads to make the world aware that music piracy is considered stealing. ... The question is why do people continue to download music if it is considered stealing. ... Others want to justify their actions by saying that they are sick of music companies overcharging them for albums that just aren’t worth the money. ... I feel that both of these theorist and their theories help to show why music piracy is a problem and how they became a problem. Social problem The problem surrounding music piracy is that it is an illegal way for people to get music. There are two ways in which music piracy can be achieved, one way is through downloading music from the internet and the other is using CD burners to burn music onto your own disc. Virtually anyone who owns a computer is offered the chance to download free music by using multiple formats for exchange of music with other online users. ... The process of using CD burners allows users to download music onto their own disc and make as many copies as they want, then sell them to others for a cheaper price then they would be in retail stores. The place where music downloading has been found to be the biggest problem is on college campuses among college students. ... 77% of college students said that someone in their place of residence has downloaded music before. ... This upsets the companies because if they don’t make money they can’t put out quality music for the fans to listen to and music artist don’t get paid.