Utilitarianism: The Ethics Of Downloading Music

An article by Anna Jo Bratton, Associated Press, describes well the dangers of my topic: piracy. In the article, Bratton reported a recent legal matter that impacted Sarah Barg, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln sophomore, and her colleges. The RIAA, an anti-piracy and plagiarism society had suspected that many students at the university had been illegally downloading media content. Burg received an email concerning the matter, but she was ignorant and considered it a fluke or scam. The email suggested that she had supposedly downloaded a whopping 381 songs. The letter continued to say that a lawsuit was possible, but they offered here an opportunity to avoid that circumstance. They requested of her $3,000, or $7.87 per song. Sarah, still

Act Utilitarianism and Rule Utilitarianism are the two different forms of utilitarianism that Shaw and Barry distinguish. Utilitarianism refers to the greatest happiness principle for the most amounts of people. Act utilitarianism “states that we must ask ourselves what the consequences of a particular act in a particular situation will be for all those affected. If its consequences bring more net good than those of any alternative course of action, then this action is the right one and the one we should perform” (Shaw and Barry, pg.60). I look at this

Another Philosophy that can be used in evaluating the ethics of is Deontology which is judging an action based on societal norms in place already. Copyright laws have been around well before technology and they have protected intellectual property as well as the rights of musicians. With the music piracy risk evolving as technology has the copyright laws have as well still stating that the reproduction or sharing of music files is unlawful. “Section 106 of the 1976 Copyright Act gives the owner of copyright in original musical works, the exclusive right to do and to authorize others to: To reproduce the work in copies or phonorecords; To distribute copies or phonorecords of the work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending; To perform the work publicly.” (Digmedia) So since there has always been an established idea that what someone else produces is their property and can only be obtained with a contract and under certain stipulations of usage therefore Deontology would agree this is ethically

I also believe that if you are a true fan of a certain music artist, then you should want to pay the money for their music and help support them in their music career. Downloading songs for free is disrespectful to music artists and takes away the meaning of hard work they put into all of their musical work. I would tell any friend of mine who supported illegal downloading that it’s illegal and if they really wanted to support that music artist, then they would buy the music and prove their support and passion for music by paying for it.

Ethical issues today have come so far as to debate the rights of artists, specifically, musicians. From a simple download to a few regrets on behalf entire first world countries, this affects many because nearly everyone has downloaded illegally once or twice… or a few thousand times. “Letter to Emily” is a written response to illegal downloading of music and how Emily should feel guilty over something that can ultimately change the life of another.

There's always an audience out there for any type of music; however, when it comes to paying for the music that people love, the majority would rather find it on the internet for free rather than have to spend actual money on Itunes or buy a CD. With the high prices of buying music, more and more people would rather turn to piracy or streaming rather than purchasing digital downloads or physical CDs. Before I even start to talk, yes, it is illegal to pirate music, and, yes, no one should do it. I'm only making the argument that people pirate music because of how expensive music is. If people don't have money to throw around, they're not going to spend it on music when they could get it for free. For a high school student without a job, that's a lot of money to spend on music; I'd much rather listen to the radio or stream some songs on Youtube rather than

The evidence claims, "Illegal downloading is, of course, a real problem. People who work hard to produce creative works are entitled to enjoy legal protection to reap the benefits of their labors. And if others want to enjoy those creative works, it's reasonable to make them pay for the privilege." Even though this might be true, it can't be classified as theft. The article explains, "But framing illegal downloading as a form of stealing doesn't, and probably never will, work. We would do better to consider a range of legal concepts that fit the problem more appropriately: concepts like unauthorized use, trespass, conversion and misappropriation." Even though people who illegally download media should be punished, companies couldn't use words like "theft" to accuse someone because media isn't tangible and can't be

Throughout the whole article, the author’s position is clear when he states that ‘stealing is wrong’ even though the author does not specifically state his ground. The language that he uses such as “this indicates that the majority of people in the study acknowledged that to download music for free, in effect, stealing it, was wrong” shows the inclination of biasedness toward stealing is wrong. The author attempts to induce the readers to belief his opinion by providing supporting sources that illustrates stealing is

According the U.S copyright office, is that if you download copyrighted material without permission, you are breaking the law. "Copyright law protects the value of creative work. When you make unauthorized copies of someone’s creative work, you are taking something of value from the owner without his or her permission." ( RIAA) Technology has made it possible and easier to download music for free, but it is legal to do so. When downloading music from sites it is okay to do so, if the site has the official permission of the owners to copyright their music; whether if the sites charges. For example the app Pandora is legal. Pandora is a radio app that streams music. While the user is listening to Pandora, they are offered the ability to buy songs or albums. There

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).

No sooner had single light turned on green than rainbow poped up, and the unknown sound waved around it. That rings familar: it is downloading a music file that becomes our life. We know not only it is very useful and entertains us but sometimes can be illegal if done without paying for copyright. Honestly speaking, although informed of the two sides of a coin, we are inclined to the bright side of benefit; so are students at Pennsylvania State University in the United States. They also know downloading illegally is against the uni rule and the state law, but play on it due to an easy online access and the fact that many of them already enjoy a media file for taking, thus think it of not being immoral. Although it rings true as what brings

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.

2. To begin, I will be defining both act and rule utilitarianism. In act utilitarianism, you determine the morality of an act by measuring the pleasures and pains for a specific situation Angeles 326). Act utilitarians take into consideration only those affected in the specific situation. However, rule utilitarianism determines the morality of an act “according to the good or bad consequences that ensue from following a general moral rule of conduct…” (Angeles 326). Good examples of those general moral rules are phrases like, never steal or never tell a lie. In any situation, people can use either act or rule utilitarianism to determine the correct course of action.

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

There are a number of different opinions on whether people think downloading music is legal or illegal. An Internet site, CBBC Newsround, asked for opinions on the subject. Lee, a fifteen-year-old from Newcastle, clearly shows that he sees nothing wrong with downloading music when he wrote, "I think that it doesn't matter if you download music from the net because the singles cost too much in the shops. If the prices where lowered to around $8-10 then CDs may not be downloaded as much. But nothing will stop people from downloading music files illegally; I think people downloading music are not wrong to download music at all"(CBBC).