Downloading Music Should Be Made Legal

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Downloading All Music Should Be Made Legal

In 1999, an 18-year-old college dropout named Shawn Fanning revolutionized the music industry with the program he invented called Napster. Napster was an internet program that made it possible for users to share music files for free. His product gained instant interest across America which brought an opposite response from the Music industry. In 2001, as expected, Napster was sued for copyright infringement by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and shut down at the peak of its success. The media industry wanted the technology halted because it was terrified of how it would affect the economy. Nonetheless, new programs are rising to take Napster's place and history is repeating itself as the music industry is killing its chances for a potential profit.

With so many active participants downloading music, there is always going to be another site to find free music, so attempting to rid the internet of all downloading is nothing more than a hopeless situation. No matter how many download programs have lawsuits filed against them and are forced to shut down; another site will take its place. “This is the age of technology”, the RIAA stated, “It's not realistic to wipe it out entirely but instead to bring it to a level of manageable control so a legitimate marketplace can really flourish.” There will always be a way to get around barriers that may get in the way and therefore the war against piracy will never be over unless a common ground is established. So instead of trying to rid the idea of downloading music all together, more emphasis should be put on the regulation of sharing of files or at least the supervision of the files. This movement to progressive downloadi...

... middle of paper ...

...they all fall into the same category. In the search for legality, there is no viable option but to accept the ability and determine personally whether the service will be utilized or not, easy as that.

Why should legality or illegality hinge on such a delicate situation? Advances in technology shouldn’t be determined on the restricting views of what seems to be right or wrong. (Howard Edinburgh, Vintage Cask) “We no longer view ourselves as eccentric for standing behind what we don’t understand, but as visionaries for standing up for the better cause.” Pulling back the restrictions of music downloading is the only way to fully realize the long term potential. If the pressure was removed from unauthorized downloading services, then who knows what media breakthroughs could come as a result. For these reasons, all music downloading should be termed legal and accepted.

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