“A thief is a thief; whether he or she steals a diamond or a feather;” this old saying is still true today. Did you ever stop to think when you download a music file from a peer to peer website it’s stealing?
Many teens around the world could be fine up to over $250,000 for downloading one little song; sound crazy right? But have you ever thought about the hard work a musician’s put into their music just to be stolen? One sources quoted, “Do you think about the days, weeks, months maybe even years that we have put into writing, practicing, recording, mixing, and distrusting that song”(13). Therefore, people should be prosecuted for online piracy because its illegal, money is being stolen, and people are working for to reason. First, “Last time I checked when something is wrong, it’s wrong. Period!”(13). Quoted from a musician themselves. Downloading music from a peer to peer website is illegal. Don’t believe me? “FBI waring; criminal copy right infringement is investigated by federal law enforcement agencies and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of 250,000”(12). You believe me now? Yeah thought so. How would you like it if someone stole the money you save up over the years? Don’t feel to good right?
…show more content…
When you steal something, you have it and the rightful owner doesn’t. When you copy an illegal file, both of you have it” (11). In fact, I understand yes the both of you have it, however when if I copy and paste someone else words to my paper is called plagiarism. According to Alma Mandessohn “I know that musicians download files, but it really isn’t the same as breaking into someone’s house and taking stuff” (11). That’s just silly; that’s like saying “yeah, I plagiarize his whole paper that’s against the law, but it isn’t like I didn’t change the wording around a
Everyone can say that music has become a major part of almost everything in our lives, but many argue about whether or not music is a luxury or whether we need it to survive. Music has been around for as long as anyone can remember, yes it has evolved, but there’s always been music it seems. From tribes performing their rituals with music, all the way to someone listening to it just for fun. But, many say that a human needs music to survive, that without it life would not go on. And like mentioned before, it has been around for many years and it seems like one cannot picture a world without it. In my opinion, I believe, that one does not need music to live, it is just something people like to do while studying, practicing a sport, or just for fun.
Singers and songwriters need to make a living somehow. They know that downloading music is a way to get their voice heard, but they also know that it is significantly hurting the business. "When your product is being regularly stolen, there comes a time when you have to take appropriate action," said RIAA president Cary Sherman (RIAA 1). There are a lot of people involved in the music scheme when it comes to who needs to get paid by the revenue. From the sale of one CD, singers get one small fraction of the cost, another fraction goes to song writers, musicians also get some of the profit along with retailers, engineers, technicians, warehouse working, and ever...
In Charles W. Moore’s essay, “Is Music Piracy Stealing?” Moore uses great statistics of the people who are concerned and not concerned about music piracy. He gives many examples of the facts he has researched and gives an ethical appeal to his audience. “This week the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) launched an ad campaign using the slogan ‘copying is stealing,’ attempting to convey the message that digital copying is as serious and criminal as stealing a CD from a record shop or a DVD from a video shop” (Moore 242). However, throughout Moore’s entire essay he has a weak introduction and conclusion paragraph, repetitive examples, examples that do not apply to his topic and he uses many logical
Throughout time, people have resorted to stealing in order to obtain items instead of buying them. It became a problem so consequences were made. Even dating back to the Ten Commandments there were laws against stealing. Recently, theft has become a problem over the internet. Musicians and music companies have lost millions in revenue. Websites such as Napster, The Pirate Bay, and Pandora have made it extremely easy for people, specifically teens, to illegally download and or listen to music for free. Pirating music has become a problem especially because “91 percent of all new music was downloaded illegally over the Internet instead of purchased,” says Logan Lynn from Huffington Post (Lynn). Many, such as the RIAA claim that music piracy is “an ongoing and evolving challenge,” (Who) while others suggest that it is “keeping the music industry alive,” (Issacson).
In all, people should be prosecuted for downloading music illegally. Stealing is stealing and there is no other way to put it. Whether it's in a file or in your physical possession there is no difference between the two. People are losing their jobs and money due to the ignorance of people downloading illegal music files. The people know they are stealing and it should be stopped for smaller fees or shorter jail time. People need to be prosecuted for their
Theodore Roosevelt once said, “ No people is wholly civilized where a distinction is drawn between stealing.” This quote can relate to the problem that has been going on against the piracy that has been occurring for many years. It has been occurring more now since it has been becoming easier to get access to certain files online. Personally, I think that people should be prosecuted for piracy because it is illegal, morally not right, and it causes many problems for composers.
We have to remind legislators that intellectual property rights are a socially-conferred privilege rather than an inalienable right, that copying is not always evil (and in some cases is actually socially beneficial) and that there is a huge difference between wholesale piracy'the mass-production and sale of illegal copies of protected worksand the filesharing that most internet users go in for.
Many people take an advantage of Freedom of speech in their music. Rappers and rocker often does this in their albums and playlist. They use violent words that’s not protected by The First Amendment. Many of them uses violent phrases that can offend most listeners. Offensive music should be banned.
Online piracy is a huge problem, one which costs the U.S. economy between $200 and $250 billion per year, and is responsible for the loss of 750,000 American jobs. These numbers seem huge: $250 billion per year loss would be almost $800 for every man, woman, and child in America. And 750,000 jobs – that’s twice the number of those employed in the entire motion picture industry in 2010 (Freakonomics). In 2010, the Government Accountability Office released a report noting that these figures “can be substantiated or traced back to an underlying data source or methodology,” which in English means these figures are legitimate and that piracy really does hurt our economy.
Moreover, hackers came up with new ways to remove the digital copyrights so the same as before one downloads music and distributes them around. The industry gets its revenue from selling this content, whether it’s online or in stores, this funds new projects and allows for better products in the future. The public should be aware of this, downloading the content for free, and not buying it will decrease revenue for the companies, stopping them from undertaking future projects. “Production companies should lower the price on their products, I can’t buy music for at least 20$ per album and DVDs for 30$, I only make 200$ per month,” said George Issa, a music fan who spends most of his nights downloading music from the internet, “when there is an album or movie that I really like, I try to buy it legally, I don’t think I am doing anything wrong, they are wrong making money off our backs,” he added.
Imagine someone born in the early 1900’s entering a modern-day classroom. They would likely be confused as to what televisions, computers, cell phones, and other electronic devices are. It is also likely that they would be overwhelmed by the instant access to information that the internet provides. Digital media has become a large part of people’s everyday lives especially with the rise of digital media in classrooms. Digital media is growing so rapidly that people who are not adapting to this shift in culture are falling behind and becoming victims of the “digital divide”, this is leaving people misinformed. Digital media has a large effect on the way that people communicate, this is especially evident in the way that students interact with
The music industry started in the mid 18th century with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Through the decades there has been a great increase in this industry; however, the revenues for this industry have declined by half in the last 10 years. This has been caused by music piracy, which “is the copying and distributing of copies of a piece of music for which the composer, recording artist, or copyright-holding record company did not give consent” . After 1980’s, when the Internet was released to public, people started to develop programs and websites in which they could share music, videos, and information with...
With the popularity of the Internet, sales for CDs, DVDs, Movies, and many other products have increased. Along with the increase of sales has brought forth an ever increasing problem of illegal media being downloaded. Programs such as Bittorent, Kazaa, and other direct-connect networking programs have allowed the transferring of such illegal media. Downloading song files from the Internet over a free peer to peer network is the moral equivalent of shoplifting music CDs from the local mall.
Whenever you download any copyrighted materials illegally it is considered piracy since the said materials music, movies, game, etc... were not obtained by a purchase. Therefore since the material is protected under the U. S. copyright law those caught and accused can be punished to the fullest extent of the law. Those who are being convicted of a first offense could be fined up to $250,000 and five years in prison.
Illegal downloading can also be known as piracy. Piracy is defined as stealing a piece of music in which the composer or recording artist did not give consent for. It is the stealing of music from people such as songwriters, musicians, record label employees, and everyone else who put hard work into it. There are some people who see no problem with downloading music from the Internet but it presents three main problems. The first problem is that the music will mostly likely not have g...