Music Piracy

6 Pages 1382 Words

Ever since we were little, we have been taught that stealing is wrong. When we were caught in the act, we were punished. But what happens when we are presented with something we want and there is no one around to see us take it? Many of us would take it because they feel they aren’t going to be caught and with this freedom of mind, we take it guilt free. Music piracy has been steadily growing and the idea of not getting caught has provoked more and more people to try it. The government has recently been making a conscious effort to try and downplay this new fad of illegal file sharing. Music piracy is not only stealing music, but it is stealing copyrighted art and money from the artist. People think that no one will noticed they were taking the music, but the fact is many people are being affected. Music piracy is harming to everyone as a society because not only is it unethical, but it takes money from the artists and labels.
Music piracy is a new era in which people can download a song or file over the internet by a music sharing system. Many services online, like Napster or Limewire, provide people with a link to all their favorite songs. What most music people download is copyrighted material by the artist. “Copyright is a property right given to producers of creative expression. Copyright does not protect ideas or facts, but it protects works of literature, music, drama, art, sound recordings, photography, movies, software and other original works of authorship.”(Gauntlett 196).This means that the artists have a special right over the use of their creation and if people want to use it, there is usually a payment of some sort. People using the internet to get their music for free are stealing from the artist. Napster, in 2001, was taken to court by artists that were frustrated with the service the program was providing. Napster went under as a business and lost a lot of its money, but that did not stop other file sharing p...