Is Music Piracy Stealing? For centuries, the term piracy calls forth an image of a plundering character that can be found in one of today’s most popular movies, Pirates of the Caribbean. But over recent decades, the term piracy has evolved into one who infringes copyrighted material. Instead of that dirty one-eyed pirate with a wooden peg leg and cutlass sword, the pirate now can be anyone, any size, any age. Charles Moore wrote the essay, “Is Music Piracy Stealing? “, and tried to answer his own question.
Moore darted off by explaining that current day pirates simply do not care about copyright laws. He goes into detail about the philosophy, ethics, and morality of the threat of the free exchange of information over the Internet. Moor’s argument is that piracy is a victimless crime and that laws must change along with technology. But does he convince us all that music piracy is in fact stealing? No, he doesn’t, because even if the information comes from statistics, the question of music piracy will always be an opinionated answer. Moore is a contributing editor for Appellants. M. Appellants is a website dedicated to Macintosh products, one of them being the pod. The pod is the most popular and successful portable digital music device in the world. The pod made music piracy “portable”, and easily accessible to anyone. The subject of this essay becomes appealing because it is something many have committed and witnessed media piracy. The statistics in Moor’s essay are questionable. He starts his essay with statistics which are of different age groups and consist only of people that expressed a concern about copyrights.
He also informs us hat people with lower education levels are much more likely to express very little concern for copyrights. What do these statistics have to do with the main concern of this essay? It does not lead to any kind of conclusion. People who pirate music should be viewed as a whole. It does not matter what age you are or what type of education you possess. If you pirate music, you pirate music, end of story. Moore implicates himself in the middle of the essay. A lot of Moor’s writing is about what he knows, or what he thinks he knows. I see most of his writing to be heavily opinionated.
He says that the copyright holder is in the same position, whether or not the music has been pirated. That is a opinion, some people may think that one person pirating a song can lead to that same person paying for a concert ticket. When that person goes to the concert, the artists and record producers will gain more profit. Other people may Just want to pirate one single song. It all varies by person. Whatever happened to “try it before you buy it? ” I know a lot retails stores still let you try the product before dropping your hard earned cash. Why not music?
Another flaw found in Moor’s writing is he tends to jump around. He goes on about music piracy not being a part of his life. He then continues to say that he has experimented with it in the Anapest era. He Just confessed to stealing music himself. If you own one piece of pirated music, you are a felon. He has a play on words and makes himself look like a criminal. That is not a By assays not invented. To support his theory he explains genetic engineering. Again, Moore goes off topic and starts to ramble on about something that has nothing to do with the topic.
Somehow he brings it back on track by explaining himself. He states that, “music is an arrangement of words and notes, and is something that Just falls together”. What he does not put into consideration is the great minds that write music. The artists put in their blood, sweat, and tears to create music. Moore gives the impression that anyone can write catchy music and it all comes together effortlessly. Instead of answering his own question, he tells us that piracy will never come to an end. Copyrighting has come to an end, and piracy has taken over.
His summary shows that no matter what these artists and record producers do, they will never get compensated for their musical talents. Throughout the essay, Moore seems to use words and phrases such as “01′ gut”, “whoops”, and “dead meat”. After researching these terms in credited internet references, the terms could only be located on a site for urban dictionaries. This type of wording takes away from his professionalism and credibility. From reading his essay, he shows that he is an introverted person.
This observation comes from how e seems to enjoy doing his research and he never seems to communicate with other people. The information he presents comes from associations and other Journalists. He does not focus any attention towards the people who are being accused of this crime. Some people may see him as a knowledgeable writer; others may see him as an old man with nothing better to do. Within the first two paragraphs he tells us that the ARIA says music piracy is stealing. That alone would stop readers from reading any further.
Right after that statement, he Jumps into statistics, which is another lace where most readers would stop reading Just because it is a bold transition. It appears as if his opinion on the subject is already decided. The main goal of this essay never appeared clear to me. Moor’s beliefs on this topic are biased. I say biased because he is not an author or record producer who produces music. He is objective to music piracy because he has done it himself. Hence, he does not state whether it is right or wrong. Moore appeals to the morals and ethics of people, rather than making a definitive decision about his thoughts on pirating media.
