Should People Be Prosecuted

669 Words2 Pages

Should People be Prosecuted for Online Piracy? A big topic that has come about is should people be prosecuted for illegally pirating online files. This includes; music, movies, programs, games and pictures. The large portion of online piracy is music. Some will argue stealing a song is as bad as stealing a car. (kain) Others will concur that song artist and record companies are losing big time bucks. Downloading music should be prosecuted as it is still stealing. Whether the person has it in their physical possession or files on their electronics it is still stealing and artist are losing money that is rightfully theirs. Big time record companies and artist are losing billions of dollars due to people illegally downloading music files. The …show more content…

However, people start to flip out when they get huge fines or even jail time. Furthermore the amount is so excessive you would have be a millionaire! Not everyone has a spare six hundred seventy five thousand dollars laying around. Unfortunately Joel Tenenbaum is out of options. A Massachusetts district court judge ruled the $675,00 fine levied against him is an appropriate amount and refuses to call for a new trial. For each song he would have to pay, twenty one thousand, seven hundred and seventy four dollars. Not to many people have that much spare money sitting around. If someone was that rich they could pay for the songs themselves. Many will argue that this is an excessive amount. For a more effective deterrent would charging the offender 100 dollars. It makes alot more sence then charging someone thousands of dollars. In reality no one can afford that. 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

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