Downloading Copyrighted Music from the Internet: Stealing or Fair Use?
...sic Initiative (SDMI) in order to provide more legal guidelines for playing, downloading and swapping music. They have started creating anti-piracy commercials featuring prominent celebrities that appear on major networks. Lastly, RIAA and others have engaged in numerous lawsuits in order to shut down music piracy websites, digital distributors and individuals who download music. They have also sued companies in order to obtain confidential information on customers downloading massive amounts of music. Many people are anti-piracy and consider music piracy unlawful. “Stealing is still illegal, unethical, and all too frequent in today’s digital age. That is why RIAA continues to fight music piracy” (RIAA). Many do not understand the significant negative impact of piracy on the music industry. Though it would appear that record companies are still making their money and that artists are still getting rich, these impressions are mere fallacies. Online music piracy has caused some record stores sales to drop by 20% every year. Each sale by a pirate represents a lost legitimate sale, thereby depriving not only the record company of profits, but also the artist, producer, songwriter, publisher, retailer, and the list goes on. According to the RIAA, the consumer is the ultimate victim because pirated product is generally poorly manufactured and does not include the superior sound and quality and art work included in legitimate product. Breaking into the music business is no picnic. Piracy makes it tougher to survive and even tougher to break through. As recording artist “Tool” said, “Basically, it’s about music-- if you didn’t create it, why should u exploit it? True fans don’t rip off their artists” (Segers). However, there are others who believe that music piracy is acceptable. The pirate’s credo is still the same, why pay for it when it‘s free? Music is a form of art, and why should anyone be charged to enjoy art? Most people cannot afford to spend $15.99 to experiment. That is why listening booths, which labels fought against, too, are such a success. The song downloads in question should not be considered illegal. The sharing of music is not theft. If it were, then so would be compilation cassette tapes shared between friends, taping stuff off the radio for personal use, or even borrowing another's music collection and taking it home to do with as you and the other please, and that way lies mad bloody carnival death. If a friend brings music to another person's party and plays it for the dozen or so people at the party, it could be construed as a public performance of the material, and the music industry could try to make that illegal too. Music is supposed to be about expression not about record sales. Some fans think it is wrong to rip off their artists, but they pirate music despite that. Realistically, why do most people download music? To hear new music, or records that have been deleted and are no longer available for purchase. Not to avoid paying $5 at the local used CD store, or taping it off the radio, but to hear music they cannot find anywhere else. One other major point: in the hysteria of the moment, everyone is forgetting the main way an artist becomes successful - exposure. Without exposure, no one comes to shows, no one buys CDs, no one enables artists to earn a living doing what they love (Costello). Artists and their recording companies spend hours each week doing press, writing articles, making sure their website tour information is up to date because all of that gives them exposure to an audience that might not come otherwise. So when someone comes to their show, it is because he/she had downloaded a song and became interested. As a citizen of the United States I think it is outrageous how someone making millions of dollars a year more than I, can pursue this issue with such audacity. In fact I think they are being quite ignorant; they plan to give out thousands of subpoenas, yet there are millions of people downloading music. The only people who are caught are the users who do not know how to protect themselves. Think about how long piracy in movies and gaming categories has been amply pursued by authorities, yet they never seem to be able to put an end to these “illegal acts”. Users who use file sharing programs basically enter a community where no one person is committing crime. Like J-walking, who really walks half a block to use a street light anymore? The music industry has become a band of oligopolies and increasingly greedy. A...