Essay On Media Piracy

Consumers and record producers also suffer the effects of music piracy. Consumers will feel an increase in concert ticket sales and legitimate album sales to compensate the artists for lost revenue due to internet music theft. Record producers will have less revenue to work with which is needed to scout and produce new talent. So, ultimately the consumer is hurt again because less money is available to "buy" new talent, so the music pool does not grow and music becomes stagnant.

For many years illegal file sharing and music swapping has been going on. Two very popular cases are the MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster case and the A&M Records, Inc. v. Napster case. Both cases differ in many ways however they also have similarities. A lot of music and other sorts of entertainment are being distributed for free all over the internet. What some people do not think of are the consequences that will be faced if they get caught. Not only is the distributor at risk for getting caught but those of us that download the software illegally can be charged.

Although the action of retrieving music illegally can be easily accessed as group three states, “majority of the music that is consumed illegally by the individuals...would not have been purchased if illegal websites were not available to them” it provides a weak point because either way people see it music is available to them with purchase and if that is the only option than that process will occur. The society that illegally downloaded music created can be seen in one huge source known as, “Napster” in an article, by Stephen Seigel he states, “ Napster allows its users to "share" songs with other users, completely bypassing the traditional forms of music distribution” (“Nipping at Napster”). Napster allows people to share all types of

When people buy music, they get legal rights to that purchase, known as Intellectual Property (IP). But some people do not like to buy music. Whether they know it or not, they use piracy as their way to get music. They use softwares, look music up on the internet, or find somebody selling it. Piracy can be destructive to people or organizations like the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). People

had touched on how people are making a hobby of illegally downloading music. I found an article by Amy Adkins titled How Does Illegally Downloading Music Impact the Music Industry. She touches on a few subjects of how illegally downloading music directly affects the music industry. She opens up the article stating that 30 billion songs were illegally downloaded between 2004 and 2009 which is a staggering statistic. Napster came out in 1999 and was a free file sharing website where people were getting music illegally. The music industry has loss $12.5 billion due to the availability of free music. Some people have been taken to court for being found downloading illegally. In her article Adkins reveals that due to the illegal downloading of music

The Internet already makes it easy for the computer savvy individuals to copy music illicitly. Widespread file sharing has led content providers and distributors of content to view their customers as growing threats to their survival. Anything we can watch, read, or listen to over our computers can be copied. If Americans are willing to steal intellectual property, and if increased access speeds will enable us to do so almost effortlessly, then a large part of our entertainment-based economy is in peril. Napster showed that people who wouldn’t even consider shoplifting would readily download pirated music. Just as people have less incentive to work if high tax rates appropriate the fruits of their labors, so media companies would have less

Philip Pullman -- UK author of His Dark Materials and Golden Compass fame -- is upset. In a column for the Index On Censorship he bemoans the invention of the Internet as a vessel that makes the lives of thieves easier, saying that piracy is theft "as surely as reaching into someone’s pocket and taking their wallet is theft".

Thomas F. Lee, President, American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada (2015) stated, “No one is eager to see copyright infringement lawsuits against individuals. But copyright infringement hurts many thousands of other individuals. Most musicians who depend on CD sales and legal downloading are not wealthy mega-celebrities. They are artists struggling to succeed without a ‘day job’. They are ordinary session musicians who depend on union-negotiated payments that fall drastically when sales fall”. The Livelihood of smaller and lesser known artist are being affected because the illegal download of their music, the illegal download of their music means that there not getting any royalty causing them to suffer financially .This surge in the illegal download off music means that many smaller and less recognizable musicians will now suffer because of the difficult to make money in the industry because of the illegal download off music. “In October, members of 5.7 million U.S. households downloaded at least one unauthorized song using P to P services, according to NPD, which tracks PC usage from 11,000 households” (www.pcworld.about.com,2015) Many artist are having their songs downloaded causing them to lose money, and without the incentive there is no reason for them to keep recording. Artist lose lot of money to illegal downloads and with them not making any money many small band will stop putting out albums. The illegal downloading of music it taking away the incentive for many artists this lowers the amount of new talent coming out and is seriously affecting the music industry. With no incentive and the livelihood and wealth off the music

The question then became “Just because we can get the music we want without paying for it, should we?” (Tyson, 2000, p.1). This issue of illegal downloads, which is also referred to as piracy, has been a hot topic ever since the introduction of Napster. According to Recording Industry Association of America “In the decade since peer-to-peer (p2p) file-sharing site Napster emerged in 1999, music sales in the U.S. have dropped 47 percent, from $14.6 billion to $7.7 billion” (RIAA, 2014).

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.

As the success of services like Hulu and Netflix suggests, consumers are only too happy to pay for content that 's made available in a convenient form, and at a reasonable price. If the content industries want a genuinely effective way to reduce global piracy, they should spend less time and money lobbying for new regulations, and focus on providing innovative services that make piracy unattractive. [5]

A new type of theft has had a spike in the recent years, in which the internet has become extremely prominent at this time. This new theft is called “online piracy” This theft occurs when an online user uses a P2P(Peer to peer) website for file sharing, and shares files such as songs or software. This is considered theft due the fact that the files aren’t free, they have a price to them. Music Piracy is an abomination to artistry, and the creation of Art. It must be abolished.

The use of the internet to download and share music files is a very controversial issue. This topic is especially of interest to me because I download music quite frequently. To get a better look at how frequently students do this, and whether or not they feel it is ethical, I decided to conduct a survey. I conducted a ten question survey of twenty freshmen students. Distributed in Hanson Hall, and all freshmen dorm, the survey was very straightforward and asked questions dealing with how often students used file-sharing programs and whether or not they felt it was ethical to do so. Other questions dealt with alternative options to downloading music and the legal action that ensues doing so.

While few people may argue that downloading music from the internet should not be illegal, many others realize that it is clearly an act of theft to steal the work of others. The amount of the music being illegally downloaded has risen tremendously over the years causing music industries worldwide to cripple and disappear. As many may say that downloading music illegally is not harmful in any way, they are imperceptive to the fact that it is causing a large amount of decreasing revenue. As Marielena Reyes states “The immediate effects from online piracy can be the sales drop from CD labels and signings with artists, which could then lead to the large sums of money music industries claim to have lost. Downloading music does not have any negative effects to music industry finances, artists credibility, and earrings.” Reyes claims music industries will gain money off of online piracy due to the fact that sales of CD labels and signings with artist will drop but later on this will only cause the music industries to lose billions since that is what they depend on. “Potential know loses to all American Industry could amount to as much as $63 billion, with the current losses occurring at a rate of $2 billion a month. The high-tech industry has an average loss per incident reported of $19 million… continues to increase,” said Neil J. Gallagher, proving the fact that music corporations are losing money “due to piracy of software, music and interactive digital software on the internet.” The less money they are receiving from sales, result in having little to no money for their own incorporation, no money for employees, and no money to sign contracts with artists, leading them to the collapse of the company. By being able to download music online with no coast, the general public worldwide will be able to afford music, as Jessica Martinez said “Individuals have the right to make decisions when it comes to doing the correct action but if one person deals with tough situations such as not having enough money to buy music, free downloaders helps individuals deal with hardships by allowing them to indulge in the act of downloading free music.” Although many people might not be able to pay the price of the CDs or other

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