Illegal downloading of music and movies
has become a huge issue in today’s society. Instead of buying an artist’s CD at
the store or on iTunes, people are saving money by using torrent sites such as
Limewire and Frostwire. However, it is illegal if you do not pay for a song or
movie that has a copyright. The copyright law protects a product with a
copyright, so it cannot be copied, reproduced, or resold without the artist’s
permission.
Illegal downloading significantly hurts
mass media industries. The amount of consumers who download music or movies but
do not purchase them take away from an artist or producers monetary success. Downloading
music also takes a hit on the economy. By purchasing a CD or DVD or song on
iTunes, consumers put money into the economy. When people illegally download,
they take away from the prospective money that could be going into the economy.
Our nation and the international community are having economic problems.
Addressing the downloading issue may help to stimulate the economy and pick it
up out of our recession. The American government proposed the SOPA bill, which
would expand the ability to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual
property.
The downside to addressing illegal
downloading is that it hurts the individual consumer. People are always looking
for the easiest, cheapest way to get what they want. There is a problem with
creating laws against downloading, like SOPA, because the public is against laws
that would hinder their individual financial standing even if it would help
protect artists. I am still on the fence on whether such laws should be enacted
because I, like many others, enjoy saving money, but feel that artists and
producers should receive the credit and financial support that they deserve.
On the contrary, it is estimated that piracy does electronic media a lot of good. In one instance, the popular videogame Minecraft was made popular solely through social media sites like Reddit and Facebook spreading links to torrent downloads. Much of the time, piracy helps to promote a product much more than it helps to destroy its sales.
ReplyDeleteSOPA and similar bills are an attempt at killing an ant colony with an atom bomb.
This is very interesting to me because I know a lot of friends who illegally download music. Personally, I feel the individual artist makes more than enough money that this should be considered a problem. We have many other more serious problems in our country than million dollar artists losing a chunk of cash.
ReplyDeleteI think that illegally downloading should be acceptable as it is over in Asia. These artists still get money and free exposure to other people due to free downloads. There has to be a upside to the consumer who foots the bill for all the celebrities success.
ReplyDelete