Would you steal someone’s car? Would you rob someone’s house? Would you take something without paying for it? Well believe it or not you are partaking in all of these practices when you make the decision to download music illegally.
The illegal downloading of licensed music off the internet is an issue that the music industry has been battling with for the past few years. To make this more of an issue there are certain laws in some countries that allow the downloading. The U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act states that it is considered legal for you to purchase a music CD and rip it to MP3 players for your own use. Uploading these files without the purchase would be considered violation of the law.
Why you may ask is this such a big deal? If you have access to all the music you want with the simple click of the mouse the assumption is that you will not be purchasing the artists record causing the music industry to lose profits. According to
http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Internet/2004/music_downloading.asp
Sales have declined 20 percent globally since 1999 when this became an issue.
This has came to the point where infraction with the law can be sentenced with time in prison and fines $250,000. This seems a bit harsh considering that it is so common among today’s youth.
Where will the all end? Is this an issue that will worsen the more technology develops? And who says that today’s artists don’t make enough already? Being a former “criminal” I understand how easy it is to just download your music instead of having to fork out $20 of your hard earned money.
The real question is if just one click of the mouse is worth one slam of door on your prison cell.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
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