Should Music-sharing Programs be outlawed in the United States? Research Question: Should music-sharing programs be outlawed in the United States? The reason I chose to research the topic dealing with illegal music-sharing and the websites that facilitates this was because I think that we are ALL guilty of this at one time or another in our lives. How far do we need to go in order to police files sharing online, specifically music files? I hope to be able formulate an answer to these questions in my research.
I personally wanted to look into this query because as a Caucasian I find myself hearing more and more free music on the internet every day. I started to wonder if as artists we are starting to slowly let our guard down and relinquish our music to the people that want to hear it without legal repercussions. Music file sharing seems like it has become the norm amongst any avid internet user, I will also take a look at what programs are preferred and what others are doing to fight the people sharing the music. Boolean Operators: The Boolean Operators that I used originally was AND as well as + in between the two words “music” and “sharing”.
After using the above Boolean operators I had enough search results populate that I was able to print out the resources and use them towards my research. If there were not as many results as there were, I would have put the entire search in quotation marks. Annotated Bibliography: “Illegal File Sharing Threatens the Future of the Music Industry. ” What Is the Future of the Music Industry? De. Roman Espies. Detroit: Greengages Press, 2009. At Issue. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Gale. Web. 12 May 2011. This source was essential in my paper by providing me with insight into what the actual spirit and letter of the away contains.
Through reading this article I was able to briefly explain what the penalty is and what level crime piracy holds. It was also effective is explaining that there are different laws for piracy for piracy of music and piracy of images/recorded images. Overall an informative article. Humphreys, Stephen. “Spottily: A new bounty of free music. ” The Christian Science Monitor. 20 August 2009. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Gale. Web. 12 May 2011. This source was somewhat informative but after reading it through I realized that it would have been more insightful if they also talked about other software innovations
Music File Sharing and Should It Be Legal By bedroom my paper by sighting the fact that companies are using technology to fight technology. Overall the article was moderate at best. Hunt, Ken. “File-sharing Copyrighted Media Helps to Advance Technology. ” Globe and Mail. 27 Novo. 2007. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Gale. Web. 12 May 2011. In this source Hunt really does a fantastic Job in taking the devils advocate position on the whole topic. There is argument that piracy can do good in society in the sense that the art gets out to more of the people and therefore cultures them.
He also goes onto explain that companies like Google and Microsoft have used software pirates to gain their position on the global map. This source I would say was the one that I agreed with the most and found the most merit in. Tansy, Barnett. “New tactic fights file sharing. ” San Francisco Chronicle. 20 DCE. 2008. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Gale. Web. 12 May 2011. I appreciate this source for a couple reasons. First off, Tansy explains how the ARIA will be searching our new and intuitive ways to crack down on piracy. Though keeping with their standard courtroom approach they will also be working with
Internet providers to find users who are pirating and file sharing. Secondly, it explained how the ARIA knows that it can’t stop everyone from file sharing but it encourages people to use alternatives to piracy, I. E. Tunes or any other music distributors. It goes to show that they are legitimately try to give money back to the music industry, artists and labels. As an artist I can appreciate that. Outsell, Ivory. “If piracy is wrong, why does it feel so right? ” Globe ; Mail. 16 May 2009. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Gale. Web. 12 May 2011.
This source though he shortest out of all my sources sited, was really informative. It takes more of humane stance on piracy rather that quoting copyright policy and penalty. Outsell point blank answers the article title question with, “There’s no chance you get caught, and it doesn’t hurt anyone directly… ” Which I found to be humorous and true. It’s with insight like this that I found myself starting to sway to the verdict of piracy is doing no true bodily harm and really should not have federal punishment penalty attached to it. Center, Alexandra. File-sharing Copyrighted Music Hurts Music Sales. ” Journal of Law and Economics. Volvo. SLID. (2006): up. 63-66, 68-71, 87-88. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Gale. Web. 12 May 2011. I found a lot of great opening content for my paper in this source. This source contained a lot of statistical information, which was informative but Just a bit too dense for the opener of my paper. He explains exactly how much of the global sales are being effected by the music piracy industry. He also like other articles explains that there are two alternatives for getting music: legal and illegal.
I also really appreciated that he talked about suing people who download files ay halt them it will still not affect the number of files readily available on the internet for download. Photos: portrays an image that without even question you know what is happening here. It’s original and was created by someone who is obviously anti-piracy. Doctors, Cord. “Musicians record album in rebuttal to File Sharing is Killing Music article. ” 5 May 2010. Web. 12 May 2010 This of course is one of the most recognizable logos in the world of piracy as this was the original Anapest logo.
The very first program on the internet to spark the music piracy world was Anapest. Salsa, Fred. Anapest Goes Mobile” 1 September 2009. Web. 12 May 2011. In this photo we see a college campus in North Carolina that is informing the students of the severe penalties that go along with pirating music. The campus is ultimately hoping to deter students from file sharing, which doesn’t seem to be working. College students are amongst the highest demographic when it comes to music file sharing. University of North Carolina @ Chapel Hill. ITS campaigns against illegal file sharing. Web. 12 May 2011.
Thesis: Music piracy has been a long hard fight ever since the first development of an online music/media player. In years past we have seen an obvious decline in the relevance of record companies and the actual purchase of physical releases. This is in no doubt directly correlated to music file sharing. The question posed in this research paper is, “Should Music-sharing Programs be Outlawed in the United States? ” In the next few pages I hope to prove and examine some of the pros and cons of this argument. I originally planned on taking an objective standpoint on the questions but I as began my research I found myself beginning to stray.
First we need to examine what laws are actually being broken when sharing files over the Internet. You’ve no doubted seen the FBI warning at the beginning of a DVD or VS. tape, well, the same law is applicable, with the same measure, to music. You typically will not find these messages on music that you’ve obtained through piracy, but the exact same penalty of the law applies. “The courts have consistently ruled that POP and other unauthorized uploading and downloading inherently amount to copyright infringement and therefore constitute a crime (“Illegal File Sharing Threatens the Future of the Music Industry’).
This essentially explains that if you are duplicating copies of copyrighted music, you’re guilty of theft. You are in violation of the law and will be held legally liable for upwards of thousands of dollars in fines and possible imprisonment. Through breaking the aforementioned law we see that is has a direct impact of the music industry and music sales. The continuing plummet of Compact Disc sales is directly linked to the birth of “peer-to-peer” (POP) networks like Limier or Shareable. These illegal POP sites are rampant on the Internet these days, and the fact of the matter is that are practically UN-commutable.
If you were to focus on taking one down another 40 will appear within 24 hours. This is the primary issue that you? Though the music industry has tapered off with their file sharing lawsuits in the past 5 years the growth and popularity of POP networks continue to expand (“Center”). We also start to see the effect that the piracy has on the record store industry. I believe that at one point we all were aware of what a power house Tower Records was, today they are almost archaic, a pre-historic outlet to what is now an online market. The distribution avenues have been shifting. Music stores have been shrinking as a source of sales and are being replaced by supermarkets, discount stores, department stores, and online retail (“Getter”). Which I think raises a great point. This is not to say that the decline of the music industry was all done illegally though, with the massive popularity of Tunes and Amazon, stores have been put out of business through legal MPH chains as well. In researching this topic I did run across one source that suggested that a Stockholm company had previously designed a music app that could possibly extinguish music piracy. IN reading I found out that it a, “… Knowledgeable gizmo that is a virtual Jukebox that allows users to listen to almost any song in the world without paying a dime. Legally, too (“Humphreys”). The app is called “Spottily’. Apparently this is only available in Europe at this point but talks are happening with some US labels for a stateside release. There are things like Pandora and Radio that I have heard of people using but I still don’t see this as an optimal tool against fighting piracy. It will cut back the numbers but only by a fraction. Also, Apple will most likely refuse to sell an application that would promote any genuine contest to Tunes.
The same thing happened with the application “Greenshank”. They offered a monthly rate to stream any song you wanted but Apple soon discontinued the application. So how else can they battle file sharing? The Recording Industry Association of America (ARIA) says that they’ll be reducing their courtroom fights but instead start to deal with Internet providers. “Those companies who have found themselves in the middle of the music-sharing wars because they have been forced by subpoena to disclose the names of customers whose computers were used to swap songs online (“Tansy’).
There is a lot of red tape when it comes to terms of service by and internet provider and to try to enforce an internet band on someone who has been accused of file sharing seems far to harsh in my opinion. So I see this as even a logistical nightmare when it comes to cracking down on piracy. Fines and imprisonment seem to only cost taxpayers more money in a society where our economy is crippled and we are at war. If music sharing is so wrong then why do we find ourselves burning Cad’s from friends of emailing songs to one another? I honestly believe that everyone I know at one time has shared a file illegally.
Will there ever be a time in America where we will adhere to the protocol of file sharing? “Copyright has always been a study in contradictions. Western culture has long been at odds as to whether works of art along solely to their creators or also to a nation or to humanity (“Outsell”). People expect music to be readily available in the most expedient way possible. So Americans have adopted a “Free Culture (“Outsell”)” movement, where if we find things to be too expensive or not handy enough, then we find our way to circumvent the problem and attain the media with any means necessary. There have been more good thing. If it was up to the major record labels there wouldn’t be MPH players; there wouldn’t be online It seems as though in the past and in the history of any new technological innovation that the hegemony has deemed it to be pirate’ technology (“Hunt”). What does the future hold for music file sharing? It’s hard to say be if there continues to be no real threat of getting caught then people will continue to share without regard. Just as they would driving MPH over the speed limit or making illegal U-turns, sure there is a risk but it is a risk they we all choose to take and with a satisfying reward.
