Music Piracy is Wrong

Music Piracy is Wrong

I find it frustrating that downloading content illegally has become common place. I think that people really need to question the morality of downloading media or programs illegally. I have talked to many of my friends about this, downloading music specifically. I understand that they may think that there is nothing wrong with it, and they may have a moral structure that tells them it is fine. I just encourage them to think through the arguments to make sure that it does not conflict with their own believes. I think often we can hold onto opinions for convince that when we think them threw we realize we were wrong. I have heard many of the arguments for why it is acceptable to download music illegally. I will try to address the most common ones I have heard.

“It is ok because you are not really steeling anything physical it is just ones and zeros.” It is true that music is just a string of information. But information has value. When people use to buy music on cd’s you were not just paying for the price to make the physical cd you were paying for the music or information on the cd. If information had no value then you would pay the same price of a blank cd as one with content on it. Also if find it confusing when people I talk to find it acceptable to download illegal music while they themselves are learning to be an industry that is based on creating content. For example I always think that if you are a programmer who has worked very hard on an app that people want you should be compensated for that. If we live in a world where no one paid for online content there would be less incentive for people to make things that people want. I believe that downloading content without paying for it is steeling. You are stealing from the compensation the people who made the content deserve for working on it.

“It is ok because the artist is already rich.” This may make you not feel as bad to steal from them.  Some people may think it is ok to steel from the rich. I don’t think this is the case. I think this argument also forgets that the music industry employs more people than just the artist. There are other people who don’t make millions of dollars a year who are losing out on compensation when people download music illegally.

“It is ok because the artist doesn’t even make hardly any money off it.” I don’t know if I can speak for all artists but I would rather have a tenth of a cent then no cents at all. I know people are frustrated that the money is going to a lot of people besides the artist, but I would argue that there is a good a reason a large portion of the money is going to other people. ITunes gets to take a cut because they are providing a very valuable service to the artist. If it was not valuable to the owner of the music they wouldn’t use iTunes.

“It’s ok to because a lot of artist want their music to be listened to”. It is true that many artist are happy to have people get there music for free, but some do not. It is up to the owner to decide what they want to do with it. If they put it online for everyone that is great, but if they expect money for it I think people should respect that.  

“It is ok because I buy music from bands I really like. I only illegally download bands that I don’t like that much.” If you are going through the trouble of downloading someone’s music the music has value to you and you should be paying for it. If you want someone’s song on your iPod that song has some value to you.  

I am concerned that a lack of respect of people’s right to own digital content will cause a decrease in the quality of that content. I know many are frustrated with the copyright laws in this country. I agree that they need to be updated. I just think people should question their actions more when it comes to downloading digital content without paying for it.