Business Research Project Paper

According to the Recording Industry of America (RIAA) the record industry loses $4.3 billion dollars, worldwide, due to music piracy (RIAA, 2003). The American Federation of Artists claims that on-line music piracy has caused some record store sales to drop by 20% and that 20.6 billion illegal downloads occur every month (AFM, 2004). Many experts believe that music piracy is currently the number one threat to the music industry. RIAA sources claim 278 million people, worldwide, use peer to peer networks such as KaZaA and Grokster to trade music files. RIAA and AFM are fiercely fighting music piracy and enlisting government support to put and end to this crime. Congressional committees are currently addressing

According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), 30 billion songs were illegally downloaded between 2004 and 2009. Even with sites like iTunes and Rhapsody offering legal downloads, peer-to-peer file sharing still exists. Illegally downloading music has had a significant impact on the music industry resulting in a loss of profits and jobs, and changing how music is delivered to the masses. (Adkins, n.d.) Showing that even having the ethically correct option P2P sharing of illegal media is still thriving. The RIAA reports that music sales in the United States have dropped

The questions of law before the court were about LimeWire’s role. Did their users infringe copyrights? Had it induced users to infringe?

In the article “Internet Piracy Harms Artists”, Phil Gardson explains how internet piracy such as online music sharing and other forms of copyrighting music hurts hardworking singers and songwriters. He also asserts that it is imperative that Congress should in act a law against these types of crimes to help protect artists.

Research and summarize the lost sales and/or profits caused by a particular situation of illegal copying or piracy of software, music, or video. You should provide the dollar amount of lost sales and/or profits over a given time period to a specific industry, country, firm, or individual. You must use an article or other published source for credibility, not just a forum or message board. Note that some controversy exists in this area; for up to 5 extra credit points you may write a paragraph that summarizes why piracy does not result in significant lost sales (again from a credible

The music industry has undergone radical changes since the end of the 1990’s, largely a function of the internet and its effects on sales and copyright. Besides placing artists and their music on the world stage, the internet also permitted the downloading of music from free-file- exchange networks. A parallel and equally worrisome, phenomenon is record pirating, a practice made easier by the proliferation of CD burners and access to high speed internet. Unauthorized downloading and pirating circumvent intellectual property laws and result in reduced sales. “In Atlantic Canada, average annual household expenditures on CDs and audio cassettes dropped by 27 percent between 1996 and 2001, from $96.00 to $70.00.”

This report shows that digital piracy can reduce the growth of digital content. However it’s also encouraged many positives

In The Future of Ideas, Lawrence Lessig puts forth a similar proposal to the one I advocate for, in regards to downloading music files instead of sampling. Lessig states, “Congress should empower file sharing by recognizing a similar system of compulsory licenses. These fees should not be set by an industry intent on killing this new mode of distribution. They should be set, as they have always been set by a policy maker keen on striking a balance.” (Lessig 255). For Lessig the altering of copyright is a matter of principle, one which he corners as uniquely American and even constitutional. “[I]t is about the fundamental values that define this society and whether we will allow those values to change. Are we, in a digital age, to be a free society?” (Lessig 11). Another section reveals an even deeper, almost heartfelt pleading, in which he defines the true reasons for the war between those for and against changes to copyright law.

Economically, $12.5 billion in losses each year is due to piracy in the music industry, $2.7 billion in workers’ earnings are lost each year due to online piracy and almost 71,000 jobs are lost in the United States every year due to online piracy as well. It may seem that these numbers are horrifying, but one statistic proves otherwise. In the statistics for the highest and lowest piracy rates in 2010, the United States comes up the very top of the lowest piracy percentage, only accounting for 20% of media downloaded from the Internet. Most consumers in the U.S. obtain their media legally because they support their artists. They realize that artists are also people working and making their craft just like everyone else. Consumers may download the songs illegally, but if they really loved the album, they would buy the real deal.

One of the more radical pro-piracy viewpoints tries to debunk the activity’s monetary impact, stating that piracy poses growth in the economy. However, unnerving amounts of evidence that conflict this argument coincide with the music industry. Since the rise of digital piracy, the music industry consistently acquiesces some of the more menacing losses of revenue. The most alarming figure reports that in 2005, the estimates of revenue loss hit at least $25.6 billion in “sound recordings, motion pictures, business software and entertainment software video games.” (Seindenberg) Despite these demoralizing drawbacks, the industry maintains a platform to alleviate piracy towards music, calling for legal support such as noted by Seindenberg in his description of their efforts:

• Increased concerns about piracy and digital rights management issues make the offering of entertainment content through new media legally complicated and costly.

The research firm found that 34 percent of all peer-to-peer file-sharing users said they dole out more money for music than before they started swapping tunes online, although 15 percent of file swappers admitted to purchasing less music.

Recording industries to this day are continuously launching lawsuits file sharing software companies, one of their most notable lawsuits being against Napster, a pioneer of file sharing software. Though Napster did settle with the industry and started a subscription fee for all users, internet “pirates” are still managing to find new ways that allow file sharing can continue all over the Internet. Industries attempted to target people emotionally by creating ad campaigns describing file sharing as the equivalent to theft; however, these were only met with mixed success. This was perhaps due to the fact that file sharing also exposed the fact that the artists who create the music see very little profit. With the majority of profits going to the marketing and distribution practices of major record labels, society was left wondering where the real “theft” was

We all know that downloading pirated music and films is illegal, but what exactly is it? The term piracy refers to the copying and selling of music, films and other media illegally; in other words you are copying and selling copyrighted media without the permission of the original owner (NiDirect, n.d.). With the massive growth of the internet and its ability to store and capture vast amounts of data, we have become much more reliable on information systems in all aspects of life, but it does not come without the risk of information technology being used unethically. With the number of IT breakthroughs in recent years “the importance of ethics and human values has been underemphasised” often resulting in various consequences. Not surprisingly one of the many public concerns about the ethical use of IT is that “millions of people have downloaded music and movies at no charge and in apparent violation of copyright laws at tremendous expense to the owners of those copyrights” (Reynolds, Ethics in Information Technology, 2015). This essay covers the ethical issues of downloading pirated music and films and the impact it has on music corporations and recording and film companies.

Ever since the start of illegal music downloading there has been an ongoing debate. As with any controversy, there are those whose positions stand at one end of the spectrum or the other and also those who are moderate or nonchalant. Many believe that downloading a song without paying for it is not only illegal, but also immoral. None-the less, people continue to download songs, rationalizing that the record companies are getting what they deserve after years of overpriced CD's or that the artists won't really miss the money. Some people are not sure what to make of the situation, sympathizing in some respects with either side. There are several proposed solutions to this problem, but it has become obvious that there is not easy or clear