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Piracy of the Media Essay example

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Piracy of the Media

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.

After
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Before long, their music covered the radio airwaves and their top songs claimed highly-coveted spots on the MTV show TRL. This particular show, run by audience votes, proves that Good Charlotte had claimed a strong support, and had the internet to thank.

Continuing on the ethicality of file-sharing, I found an interesting trend based on gender. Females, consisting of half the survey, while still downloading music as often as males, were the only ones to admit that they felt it was immoral to share music online. Similarly, females were the only ones that showed any sign that they felt these programs were hurting the music industry. These feelings did not come out of their responses on the survey, but in the brief discussion that I had with them after they finished the survey. None of the males that took the survey said that the felt guilty or immoral for downloading music. They all felt that the industry was rich enough as it is and that they were not hurting it by downloading several songs a week.

Only one student who took the survey said that they do not download or share files of any sort on the internet. Their response, as to why they do not, had nothing to do with whether or not they felt it was ethical or not, it was simply because they did not have the adequate hardware to do so. I asked the student if he would download music in the future if he ever did get an updated computer and he responded that he would.
Moving on from the issue of
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